Rise, Sally, rise, Sally,
Wipe away your tears, Sally;
Turn to the east
And turn to the west,
And turn to the one that you love best!"

Higher and higher the voices of the three hundred orphans shrilled in
unison as the owners thereof danced frantically around a small solitary
figure in the middle of the ring of girls assembled in the yard on
----nd Street. Her coarse blue denim apron was thrown over her head; her
face was bowed into her hands that rested on her knees. It was a picture
of woe.

The last few words "you love best" rose to a shriek of exhortation. In
the expectant silence that followed, "Sally" rose, pirouetted in a
fashion worthy of a ballet dancer, then, with head down, fists clenched,
arms tight at her sides, she made a sudden dash to break through the
encircling wall of girls. She succeeded in making a breach by knocking
the legs of three of the tallest out from under them; but two or more
dozen arms, octopus-like, caught and held her. For a few minutes chaos
reigned: legs, arms, hands, fingers, aprons, heads, stockings, hair,
shoes of three hundred orphans were seemingly inextricably entangled. A
bell clanged. The three hundred disentangled themselves with marvellous
rapidity and, settling aprons, smoothing hair, pulling up stockings and
down petticoats, they formed in a long double line. While waiting for
the bell to ring the second warning, they stamped their feet, blew upon
their cold fingers, and freely exercised their tongues.

"Yer dassn't try that again!" said the mate in line with the
obstreperous "Sally" who had so scorned the invitation of the hundreds
of girls to "turn to the one that she loved best".

"I dass ter!" was the defiant reply accompanied by the protrusion of a
long thin tongue.

"Yer dassn't either!"

"I dass t'either!"

"Git out!" The first speaker nudged the other's ribs with her sharp
elbow.

"Slap yer face for two cents!" shrieked the insulted "Sally", the Little
Patti of the Vaudeville, and proceeded to carry out her threat.
Whereupon Freckles, as she was known in the Asylum, set up a howl that
was heard all along the line and turned upon her antagonist tooth and
nail. At that moment the bell clanged a second time. A hush fell upon
the multitude, broken only by a suppressed shriek that came from the
vicinity of Freckles. A snicker ran down the line. The penalty for
breaking silence after the second bell was "no supper", and not one of
the th