It was the first day of school after a vacation. The children were
playing in the yards. The teachers sat at their desks waiting for the
bell to strike to call the children to the different rooms. The hands
of the different clocks pointed to a quarter before nine.
The bell was a sort of gong, fastened to the outside of the building,
and the master of the school could ring it by touching a knob in the
wall near his desk. It was now time to call the children into school.
The master pulled the bell and waited. Still the merry shouts could be
heard in the school-yards. Very strange! The children were so engaged
in play that they could not hear the bell, he thought. Then he pulled
it more vigorously. Still the shouts and laughter continued.
The master raised his window, clapped his hands, and pointed to the
bell.
[Illustration: {THE MASTER LOOKS OUT OF THE WINDOW.}]
The children rushed into line like little soldiers, and waited for the
second signal. The teacher pulled and pulled, but there was no sound.
Then he sent a boy to tell each line to file in, and he sent another
boy for a carpenter to find out if the bell-cord was broken.
[Illustration: {A BOY CLEARS THE EMPTY NEST AWAY FROM THE BELL.}]
What do you think the carpenter found? A little sparrow had built its
nest inside the bell, and prevented the hammer striking against the
bell. The teacher told the children what the trouble was, and asked if
the nest should be taken out. There was a loud chorus of "No, sir."
Every day the four hundred children would gather in the yard and look
up at the nest. When the little birds were able to fly to the trees in
the yard, and no longer needed a nest, one of the boys climbed on a
ladder and cleared away the straw and hay so that the sound of the
bell might call the children from play.