ecommend to the
directress a little sister of Precossi. I had never seen an asylum. How
much amused I was! There were two hundred of them, boy-babies and
girl-babies, and so small that the children in our lower primary schools
are men in comparison.

We arrived just as they were entering the refectory in two files, where
there were two very long tables, with a great many round holes, and in
each hole a black bowl filled with rice and beans, and a tin spoon
beside it. On entering, some grew confused and remained on the floor
until the mistresses ran and picked them up. Many halted in front of a
bowl, thinking it was their proper place, and had already swallowed a
spoonful, when a mistress arrived and said, "Go on!" and then they
advanced three or four paces and got down another spoonful, and then
advanced again, until they reached their own places, after having
fraudulently disposed of half a portion. At last, by dint of pushing and
crying, "Make haste! make haste!" they were all got into order, and the
prayer was begun. But all those on the inner line, who had to turn their
backs on the bowls for the prayer, twisted their heads round so that
they could keep an eye on them, lest some one might meddle; and then
they said their prayer thus, with hands clasped and their eyes on the
ceiling, but with their hearts on their food. Then they set to eating.
Ah, what a charming sight it was! One ate with two spoons, another with
his hands; many picked up the beans one by one, and thrust them into
their pockets; others wrapped them tightly in their little aprons, and
pounded them to reduce them to a paste. There were even some who did not
eat, because they were watching the flies flying, and others coughed and
sprinkled a shower of rice all around them. It resembled a poultry-yard.
But it was charming. The two rows of babies formed a pretty sight, with
their hair all tied on the tops of their heads with red, green, and blue
ribbons. One teacher asked a row of eight children, "Where does rice
grow?" The whole eight opened their mouths wide, filled as they were
with the pottage, and replied in concert, in a sing-song, "It grows in
the water." Then the teacher gave the order, "Hands up!" and it was
pretty to see all those little arms fly up, which a few months ago were
all in swaddling-clothes, and all those little hands flourishing, which
looked like so many white and pink butterflies.

Then they all went to recreation; but first th