of the new master more than justified. A new era
had commenced. The sound of the cane was no longer heard, and yet the
lessons were far better done than had been the case before. Then the
whole work had fallen on the boys; the principal part of the day's
lessens had been the repeating of tasks learned by heart, and the master
simply heard them and punished the boys who were not perfect.

There was comparatively little of this mechanical work now; it was the
sense and not the wording which had to be mastered. Thus geography was
studied from an atlas and not by the mere parrot-like learning of the
names of towns and rivers. In grammar the boys had to show that they
understood a rule by citing examples other than those given in their
books. History was rather a lecture from the master than a repetition of
dry facts and dates by the boys. Latin and mathematics were made clear
in a similar way.

"It was almost too good to last," the boys said after the first
day's experience of this new method of teaching; but it did last.
A considerable portion of the work out of school was devoted to the
keeping up the facts they had learned, for Mr. Porson was constantly
going back and seeing that their memories retained the facts they had
acquired, and what they called examinations were a part of the daily
routine.

In some points upon which Mr. Hathorn had laid the greatest stress Mr.
Porson was indifferent--dates, which had been the bane of many a boy's
life and an unceasing source of punishment, he regarded but little,
insisting only that the general period should be known, and his
questions generally took the form of, "In the beginning or at the end of
such and such a century, what was the state of things in England or in
Rome?" A few dates of special events, the landmarks of history, were
required to be learned accurately, all others were passed over as
unimportant.

It was not that the boys worked fewer hours than before, but that they
worked more intelligently, and therefore more pleasantly to themselves.
The boys--and there were some--who imagined that under this new method
of teaching they could be idle, very soon found out their mistake,
and discovered that in his way Mr. Porson was just as strict as his
predecessor. He never lost his temper; but his cold displeasure was
harder to bear than Mr. Hathorn's wrath; nor were punishments wanting.
Although the cane was idle, those who would not work were kept in the
schoolroom du