ide the
door till the prayer was over, and then entered unperceived during the
subsequent confusion. Some little ones on the opposite form, however,
liking the look of her, and so wishing to have her for a companion,
made room for her beside them. The desks were double, so that the two
rows at each desk faced each other.

"Bible-class come up," were the first words of the master, ringing
through the room, and resounding awfully in Annie's ears.

A moment of chaos followed, during which all the boys and girls,
considered capable of reading the Bible, were arranging themselves in
one great crescent across the room in front of the master's desk. Each
read a verse--neither more nor less--often leaving the half of a
sentence to be taken up as a new subject in a new key; thus perverting
what was intended as an assistance to find the truth into a means of
hiding it--a process constantly repeated, and with far more serious
results, when the words of truth fall, not into the hands of the
incapable, but under the protection of the ambitious.

The chapter that came in its turn was one to be pondered over by the
earnest student of human nature, not one to be blundered over by boys
who had still less reverence for humanity than they had for Scripture.
It was a good thing that they were not the sacred fountains of the New
Testament that were thus dabbled in--not, however, that the latter were
considered at all more precious or worthy; as Saturday and the Shorter
Catechism would show.

Not knowing the will of the master, Annie had not dared to stand up
with the class, although she could read very fairly. A few moments
after it was dismissed she felt herself overshadowed by an awful
presence, and, looking up, saw, as she had expected, the face of the
master bending down over her. He proceeded to question her, but for
some time she was too frightened to give a rational account of her
acquirements, the best of which were certainly not of a kind to be
appreciated by the master, even if she had understood them herself
sufficiently to set them out before him. For, besides her aunt, who had
taught her to read, and nothing more, her only instructors had been
Nature, with her whole staff, including the sun, moon, and wind; the
grass, the corn, Brownie the cow, and her own faithful subject, Dowie.
Still, it was a great mortification to her to be put into the
spelling-book, which excluded her from the Bible-class. She was also
condemned to