FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  
y telling them how much she needed their help, as examples of the great good to be derived from her gymnastics. And the result was that they had not only the amusement of the exercises to help them pass the vacation, but also the benefit resulting from it, and the hope that through them it would become a part of the school-life. When Miss Ashton returned, she was not a little surprised at the gain she so quickly recognized, nor was she slow in availing herself of its aid. She had always felt that nothing was more necessary for a good working head than a perfect physical balance, and for that reason she allowed and encouraged a greater amount of amusement, which was relaxation from study, than was common in what is called a finishing school. It was almost the only boast in which she indulged, that, during the twenty years of her care of the academy as principal, she had never had a case of fatal sickness, or, indeed, of any severe enough to excite alarm. During the fall she obliged the girls, as long as the weather would allow, to spend hours every day in the open air, giving them their choice of exercise,--walking, riding, boating, botanizing, geologizing, any and every thing that would bring to them rest and change. In winter there was dancing in the large hall, there were compulsory gymnastics, there were skating on the pond, coasting on the hills back of the academy, or, not so seldom as it might have been supposed would be the case among girls, snowballing in the most approved boy-fashion. Indeed, once upon a time it was reported that, having come out, as she generally made a point of doing whenever any amusement was going on, to witness the sport, a girl more audacious than any of the others ventured to throw a snow-ball in the direction of her august person, and it was received with such a merry laugh, that another followed, and another, and another, until she was as ermine-covered as if she were dressed for a court reception; and not a girl among the laughing crowd but loved her better and respected her more. "My best recitations," she was often heard to say, "come after the best frolics. Give me pupils with steady nerves, bright eyes, and sweet, clear voices, and I will show you a school where they study well, and the deportment is of the best. "I am never so anxious about my girls as when the weather shuts them in-doors, and the cold makes them want to hug the radiators." It was on account of th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
school
 

amusement

 

academy

 

weather

 

gymnastics

 
ventured
 
audacious
 

witness

 
needed
 

august


received

 

direction

 
person
 

snowballing

 
supposed
 

approved

 
seldom
 
fashion
 

Indeed

 

generally


reported

 

ermine

 

deportment

 

voices

 

anxious

 

radiators

 

account

 

bright

 

laughing

 

respected


reception

 
coasting
 

covered

 

dressed

 

telling

 
pupils
 

steady

 
nerves
 

frolics

 
recitations

compulsory
 

physical

 
perfect
 
balance
 

reason

 

allowed

 
resulting
 

benefit

 
working
 

encouraged