but his sisters did not, it being
only for boys. The pupils numbered four or five hundred--a good many
boys to be together in one building. But though belonging to one
school, and under the control of one head master, they did not often
meet together in one assembly. They were divided into eight or ten
branches, of about fifty scholars each, and each branch had its own
separate room and teacher. There were however, only four classes in
the whole school; and a this time Oscar was a member of the first, or
highest class. There was a large hall in the upper story of the
building, in which the entire school assembled on exhibition days, and
when they met for the practice of singing or declamation.

There were lively and merry times in the vicinity of the school-house,
I can assure you, for half an hour before the opening of school, and
for about the same length of time after the exercises closed. Four
hundred boys cannot well be brought together, without making some stir.
Every morning and afternoon, as the pupils went to and from school, the
streets in the neighborhood would for a few minutes seem to swarm with
boys, of every imaginable size, shape, manners, dress, and appearance.
Usually, they went back and forth in little knots; and with their books
and slates under their arms, their bright, happy faces, their joyous
laugh, and their animated movements, they presented a most pleasing
sight,--"a sight for sore eyes," as a Scotchman might say. If anybody
disputes this, he must be a sour and crabbed fellow.

Oscar, although not the most prompt and punctual of scholars, used
occasionally to go to school in season to have a little fun with his
mates, before the exercises commenced. One day, entering the
school-room a little before the time, he put on an old coat which his
teacher wore in-doors, stuck a quill behind his ear, and made a pair of
spectacles from some pasteboard, which he perched upon his nose.
Arranged, in this fantastical manner, he seated himself with great
dignity in the teacher's chair, and began to "play school-master," to
the amusement of several other boys. It so happened that the teacher
arrived earlier than usual that day, and he was not a little amused, as
he suddenly entered the room, and witnessed the farce that was going
on. Oscar jumped from his seat, but the master made him take it again,
and remain in it just as he caught him, with his great-coat, pasteboard
spectacles and quill, until