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Show Ifl 3L V * A DAY ffITH THE GIRLS SCHOOL OF MANY FRIBXDS LIKTSING, SHAHtrtTJIG. € • 1 2 1 * . Ding! Dong! goes the rising bell at six-thirty, which means that Golden Fragrance is awake and at her job of bell-ringing. Some of the girls are earlier still and are busy in their rooms or are out in the yard studying their lessons,-boo often, alas for the quiet of the neighborhood, they study aloud in the good old Chinese way, altho in these days lessons are not supposed to be memorized. Here comes Autumn Fragrance with her heavy quilts over her shoulder, going to the line to spread them out, for those in her room air their bedding today. Other girls are bringing hot water from the kitchen for washing faces and hands: the two cooks have been up four hours getting the morning millet on and have water already heated. Six of the girls are out in the yard with big brooms, (made of a tall stiff weed that grows wild in our school yard) sweeping the ground around the dormitories and school building, while others are inside the school rooms mopping floors and dusting. Precious Orchid has a broom almost as large as herself while Bright Virtue runs around with a cloth dusting off the seats around the big trees. If we look into the bedrooms we still dee various "big sisters" combing the hair of room-mates who in turn will do the same for others. This task is a time-consuming one for the hair must be combed out very carefully and a string held in place behind while the hair is braided, and then a bit of yarn is wound around most carefully a dozen times or so, until there is about an inch and a half of bright color at the top and bottom of the braid. Finally the first breakfast bell rings calling the group whose turn it is to get the food onto the table. There are six long tables in the dining room for the fifty or so girls, and a square one in the center for the four teachers. A pair of chopsticks is put at each place then a bowl of millet gruel and later a plate of steaming millet bread and a pail of extra gruel, along with saucers of salted vegetable--they get their salt by eating this salted vegetable along with the other food they eat. At the second bell the girls come trooping in scattering to their particular tables. Then they sing the blessing before sitting down. There are a few older girls at each table to look after the younger ones and they all stay at table until the teacher allows them to leave, usually about half an hour. The Chinese as a rule do not talk much at table but our girls are getting the habit and sometimes they can be heard at the foreign house next door, so cheerful is their converation! After the meal is over another group clears away the dishes, which doesn't take as long as in America. The bedrooms are put in order next and there is time for more study or play before the bell rings for prayers at half-past eight. From then on until 12:30 the girls are in school except for ten minutes in the middle of the morning. Their lessons are much the same as in America but of course everything is in Chinese, since ours is only a six-grade school and we have no English, so that the numbers in arithmetic and the maps and the staff for music would be all that would look familiar to an American boy or girl who might happen into the class room. The last period of the morning is handwork and that they like the best of all. Those who earn money by crocheting are busy with that work, while the others embroider, or do tatting, or make fancy things of paper, etc. Just UDW the older girls are making ends for their long round bed pillows, covering paste-board with white cloth, writing a character on it, and then filling in the character with beads or embroidery. They are very skillful with their hands and enjoy nothing better than to be allowed to work with such things. |