egular army, while the exceptions were
but volunteers for a limited period, and, in the muster-roll of
permanent strength, they are, therefore, not included.]

[Illustration: THE SCHOOLMISTRESS.]

IX.

THE SCHOOLMISTRESS

"And yet I love thee not--thy brow
Is but the sculptor's mould:
It wants a shade, it wants a glow--
It is less fair than cold."

L. E. L.

But the family of the pioneer consisted of girls as well as boys; and
though the former were never so carefully educated as the latter, they
were seldom allowed to go wholly untaught.

The more modern system, which separates the sexes while infants, and
never suffers them to come together again until they are "marriageable,"
was not then introduced; and we think it would have been no great
misfortune to the country had it remained in Spain, whence it would seem
to have been imported. Children of both sexes were intended to grow up
together--to be educated in company--at least until they have reached
the points where their paths naturally diverge, for thus only can they
be most useful to each other, in the duties, trials, and struggles, of
after life. The artificial refinement which teaches a little girl that a
boy is something to be dreaded--a sort of beast of prey--before she
recognises any difference, save in dress, can never benefit her at best;
for by-and-by she will discover the falsehood: the very instincts of her
nature would unveil it, did she learn it in no other way: and as action
and reaction are equal, the rebound may cause her to entertain opinions
altogether too favorable to those whom she has so foolishly been taught
to fear.

Nor is the effect of such a system likely to be any better upon the
other sex: for it is association with females (as early as possible,
too, all the better), which softens, humanizes, graces, and adorns the
masculine character. The boy who has been denied such association--the
incidents to whose education have made him shy, as so many are, even of
little girls--is apt to grow up morose and selfish, ill-tempered, and
worse mannered. When the impulses of his developing nature finally force
him into female society, he goes unprepared, and comes away without
profit: his ease degenerates into familiarity, his conversation is, at
best, but washy sentimentalism, and the association, until the
accumulated rust of youth is worn away, is of very doubtful benefit to
both parties. Indeed,