THE HIGH SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS
One day at the beginning of Ella’s second year in the First Room, the
superintendent came to the school and brought with him a stranger, a
quiet gentleman with a pleasant smile.
“Do you suppose that is the one?” was the question signaled from one
to another.
Three days of the term had passed, and the principal had not
appeared. All sorts of rumors were floating about. It was said that
he had leave of absence, that he was sick, and finally, that he
had resigned and that a new principal might step in at any moment.
The assistant was quite equal to the management of the school, and
everything was going on well.
The superintendent introduced the stranger to her; then, turning
toward the pupils, he introduced to them their new principal.
Fortunately it was near the close of the session, for no rules
against “communicating” or even whispering could have long suppressed
the comparing of notes that was all ready to burst forth. There was
no playing on the homeward way that noon; the children were too eager
to tell the great news.
Ella was an ardent little partisan. Whatever the principal was to
others, he had always been kind to her, and she wrote forlornly in
her little diary, “Another king arose which knew not Joseph.”
Of course some different ways of doing things were introduced, and
Ella was certain that the older ways were far better. In arithmetic,
it had been forbidden to preserve any written work. What was wanted
was the ability to do a problem; why preserve it then, if you have
the ability to do it at any time? The new way was to keep your
problems in a blank book, each one fenced off from the others by a
carefully ruled double line, and have them to refer to at any moment.
There were good reasons for both ways.
The plan of map-drawing had been to study a map till you had a
picture of it in your mind, then to draw that picture on paper or
on the blackboard. The new way was to make as nearly an outline of
the country to be drawn as could be made with straight lines, and
then fit the true outline of the country around it. This worked very
well if one happened to remember just how many “measures” long each
line of the outline should be; but if the proper length of any one
line was forgotten, the pupil was all at sea. The numbers had gone
from his mind, and he had no mental picture of the map. Ella’s diary
called it “a queer, conglomerated way of drawing Europe.”
Gradually the new principal made his way. Every lesson had to be
learned as carefully as ever, but there was a margin to the work.
When strange kinds of woods appeared in the list of “productions”
that was the children’s horror, the new principal was quite likely
to bring some specimens of them to school, and perhaps to invite
a group of those children who seemed most interested to spend the
evening at his house to see the rest of his cabinet of woods. With
him a company went not only to the asbestus ledge, but to a coal mine
not far away where they could collect some fossils. He had a valuable
microscope, and this he brought to school to reveal the marvels of
little things.
So passed the spring term. In those days the spring term began the
school year, so that when Ella returned to school in September, she
had only three terms more before going to the high school.
It was soon plain that much of the rest of the year would be given
to preparation for the high school examinations. Every study was
reviewed most thoroughly, from the beginning of the book to the
end. For a while geography was recited twice a day, once to the
new principal and once to the assistant. Every question in the
little pink geographical question book was asked by the teacher and
answered by the pupils. The principal exports of Europe, fifty-three
articles, were recited over and over. A table of the latitude and
longitude of fifty-six places, a thing to give one bad dreams, was
repeated in chorus and in solo. More than once the time sacred to the
reading class was given to going over the United States or some other
country, naming boundaries, rivers, and cities. Maps were drawn
until the children could almost have drawn them with their eyes shut.
The new principal said it was never his way to offer prizes; but if
it had been, he would have offered one long ago for the best map of
Europe. “Draw just as good a map as you can,” he said to the First
Class, “and we will see about the prizes afterwards.”
The other studies were reviewed in much the same way as the
geography. There was more teaching than the teachers could do,
and some of the pupils were pressed into the service. Ella hardly
recited at all, she was so busy hearing others. Among these were two
girls who were sent to her in the office every day. “See if you can
possibly make them understand how to analyze a sentence,” said the
assistant almost hopelessly.
There were written examinations without end. Surely the children
ought to have been well used to them, for they lived and breathed
examinations every few days, especially in grammar and arithmetic.
Among these examinations were full sets of the questions used for
entrance to the high school for the last twelve years, and every one
of these was given to the class in hand. The children of the sixties
must have been tough little things, for not one of them had nervous
prostration.
As the weeks passed on, the work became more and more intense. Every
question in the geographical question book had been answered, as has
been said. Every topic in history was recited and every map of a
battle reviewed. “Miscellaneous Problems” from numerous arithmetics
were now showered upon the children’s heads like avalanches. Weird
and incredible tales these problems were, tales of men who bought
goods on the most impossible terms and sold them in fractional lots
of most uncomfortable size; tales of a group of men who bought a
grindstone in partnership and left to the members of the First Class
the task of finding out how many inches each should grind off to get
his money’s worth. Did any one ever work on that problem without a
mental vow never, never to buy a share in a partnership grindstone,
especially well in toward the center?
The rules of the grammar were thoroughly reviewed and then came a
great expanse of opportunity for parsing and analyzing. On pages
and pages of the Sixth Reader difficult words were underlined for
parsing. The most complicated sentences were carefully dissected,
and incidentally a habit of looking closely into the exact meaning
of words and the precise shade of thought which they expressed was
formed. The study of grammar was much more than a repetition of
rules. It had a wide and generous margin. It took the place in the
grammar school that is filled by logic in the college.
In spelling, the knowledge of one book was all that was required.
Indeed, there was once quite a little insurrection when, in one of
the test examinations, the word “pusillanimous” appeared, a word
which was not in the spelling book. About music there was grave
questioning. Many of the pupils were taking lessons at home, and some
were doing quite advanced work. Was it fair to compare this with the
work of children whose only instruction came from an hour a week in
school? “There will always be a difference in home advantages,” said
the wise superintendent, “but these examinations should be limited
to what they have had full opportunity to learn in school.” It was
decided that the examination in music should be given, but should not
be counted in ranking the pupils.
This matter of rank was of vast importance in the eyes of the
children, and was watched with interest by some thousands of the
older folk of the city. The high school examinations were not given
in the grammar schools, but in the high school—which gave to them an
added dignity. The papers were corrected with the utmost care and
were then ranked according to their percentage. The city was proud of
her schools, and to stand Number One in these examinations was looked
upon as being the highest honor that it could bestow upon a pupil
entering the high school.
This was Ella’s ambition. “I want it! I want it! I want it!” she
said to herself. “It seems as if I must have it.” But would she get
it? Ever since the first half-term she had been at the head of her
class. She had become used to this, and had fallen into the habit of
writing carelessly in her diary, “Reports to-day. I was Number One as
usual,” and then had forgotten it all and had crocheted a mitten or
played ball without thinking any more about it. This, however, was
quite different. Her work was to be compared with that of the pupils
of the First Class in all the grammar schools of the city. It is no
wonder that she was anxious.
The last day of school arrived. Ella went through the exercises
almost in a dream. She began to realize that she was going into a
strange new school, and she was half afraid. After the day was over
and the guests had gone, the whole class wrote their names on the
board with “Graduating Class of 1869. Good-bye.”
On the following morning a long procession of boys and girls wound
its way up the hill to the high school. They were distributed among
the different rooms. Each room was in charge of a teacher, and Ella
was delighted to find the assistant standing by the door in her room,
ready to welcome her. The place of honor was given to arithmetic;
first written, then mental arithmetic. It was “mental” indeed, for
not one figure was allowed to be written. The pupils did the examples
in their minds as best they could, then set down the answer; and they
had had so much practice in keeping the example as well as the work
in mind that it seemed to them hardly more than play when a good
clear printed copy of the questions lay before them.
What the nerves of the children of 1869 were made of is a mystery,
but sure it is that after graduating from the grammar school on
Tuesday, going through part of the high school examinations on
Wednesday, Ella, and probably many others, went to a party Wednesday
evening, and on Thursday finished the examinations—geography,
grammar, spelling, history, and music. Thursday afternoon there was
a visitor for Ella to take shopping. The visitor went home at night,
and now there was time to think. Ella began to be a little alarmed.
She thought over one of her answers after another, and wondered
whether she had by mistake slipped in a wrong word or figure. “I must
be head of the city,” she said to herself. “I want it! I want it! Oh,
I want it! I do so wish the principal would come and tell me.”
The doorbell rang; the principal had come.
“Oh, I’m so glad!” Ella cried. “Do please tell me where I stand!”
“You know it takes some time to look over all those papers,” said the
principal kindly, “but I will see that you know the results just as
soon as possible. I came about the map. Have you forgotten about the
map for which a prize was to be given?”
She had not forgotten, but prizes for maps seemed a very small
matter to her now, and it really required a little effort to thank
the principal as warmly as she thought he would expect. After he had
gone, she opened the package rather indifferently. It contained a
handsome copy of Æsop’s Fables. With its corners put into slits in
the flyleaf was a card with her name and the date. She laid the book
down, and wandered restlessly about the room. “Did you notice how
queerly he looked at me?” she said to her mother. “He knows that some
one else is ahead of me, and that is why he wouldn’t come in. He was
very good to bring the book, but I don’t care one bit for it or for
anything in it.” She took up the book indifferently and began to turn
the leaves over; and behold, with the corners put into slits in a
second flyleaf was another card, and on it was written, “Ella, 94 per
cent average. Highest in the city.”
One day Ella heard the bell of the grammar school ringing faintly
across the old cemetery, and she went down the path between the
graves of the Revolutionary heroes to visit the school. The principal
and the assistant gave her a warm welcome and a seat on the platform
just as if she was a committee man. The pupils looked at her
enviously, just as she used to look at the high school girls when
they came back to visit. The big waste-basket stood near her. On top
of the scraps of paper was a half-sheet, and on it was written a
line or two in the “Tories’ Alphabet.” She wondered which of these
children were “best friends” and had been admitted to the secret. New
maps were on the board, not hers nor those of any of her class. A
girl whom she had not especially liked was sitting in her old seat. A
class from the Second Room had been promoted, and how young they
did look! They were just babies!
[Illustration: ON IT WAS WRITTEN, “ELLA, 94 PER CENT AVERAGE. HIGHEST
IN THE CITY”]
“Aren’t those children from the Second Room a great deal younger than
we were when we came in?” she asked.
The assistant smiled. She had heard that question before.
“Just the same average age,” she replied; “but you know that you have
grown up. You are not a little girl any longer; you are a young lady
of the high school.”
There was a lump in Ella’s throat. Something had gone out of her
life. She was not “in it” any more—and “it” was her vanished
childhood.
THE END
APPENDIX
THE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS OF 1869
MENTAL ARITHMETIC
1. ⅛ of a number exceeds 1/9 of it by 20. What is the number?
2. A can do a piece of work in 1⅕ hours: A and B can do the same
work in 48 minutes; in what time can B do it alone?
3. ½ + ⅓ + ⅕ + ⅙ of a certain number, increased by 3½ + 10-5/7 =
50-5/7. What is the number?
4. When gold sells at 59 per cent advance, how much can be bought
for $100 in bank bills?
5. What must be the amount of my sales for one year that I may
clear $800, at 16 per cent profit?
6. An attorney collects a bill and receives for his services $1.26,
which is ⅛ per cent of the amount of the bill. What was the value
of the bill?
7. If cloth is a yard and a quarter wide, and shrinks 6 per cent in
length and 6 per cent in width, what part of a square yard will one
yard of the cloth contain after shrinkage?
8. Bought paper at $1.75 per ream and sold it at 1 cent a sheet.
How much per cent did I gain?
9. If gunpowder is composed of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur in the
proportion of 7.6, 1.4, and 1, how much of each article will it
take to make 2500 lbs. of gunpowder?
10. A and B had the same income. A saved ⅛ of his, but B spent $30
a year more than A; and at the end of 8 years, found himself $40 in
debt. How much did each spend yearly?
WRITTEN ARITHMETIC
1. What is the value of 5/7 of {8½}/{9⅔} of (3-2/9)/11 ÷
(2-3/7)/(5½)?
2. If 1 gal. 1 qt. 2 gi. of water passes through a filter in one
hour, how much will pass through in 4 h. 20 m. 24 sec.?
3. Sold goods for 2½ per cent commission and invested my commission
in sugar, which I sold at an advance of 15 per cent, and gained
$240. How much was my commission, and what was the value of the
goods sold?
4. If I invest $3500 for 1 year, 2 months, and receive on my
investment a dividend of $490, what rate do I receive per year?
5. A cubic inch of earth weighing 220 grains, consists of 41
billions of infusoria. What is the weight of one insect?
6. If a man can earn $2-3/16 per day, how many days’ wages will he
have to give for a suit of clothes, if the coat costs $25½, the
pantaloons $8-9/11, and the vest $5¼?
7. If a man buys bank stock at 35 per cent above par, what per cent
does he receive on his investment if the bank pays 8 per cent on
the par value of the stock?
8. What will be the length of a straight walk between the opposite
corners of a rectangle whose length is 40 rods, and width 36 rods?
9. A, B, and C joined their capital in the proportion of ½, ⅓, ¼.
At the end of 9 months they divided their profits, amounting to
$2860. How much did each receive?
10. How much money should you receive from a bank for a note of
$820 for 90 days, discounted at 8 per cent?
GRAMMAR
1. Write the plural of _baby_, _belief_, _journey_, _potato_,
_prospectus, sheep_, _wife_; and the feminine nouns corresponding
to _actor_, _bridegroom_, _heir_.
2. Compare _able_, _beautiful_, _chief_, _free_, _like_.
3. Write the possessive case, singular and plural, of _deer_,
_goose_, _it_, _lady_, _man_.
4. State the mood, tense, and voice of the following verbs: I am
struck. He is reading. Dost thou sleep? He will have been thinking.
Do not run.
5. Write a sentence containing a transitive verb with an object,
and change the sentence to one expressing the same thought with the
proper forms of the same words, with the verb in the passive voice.
6. Comprise in a single sentence an adjective element of the third
class, a complex objective element of the first class, and a
complex adverbial element of the second class.
7. Analyze the following sentence: “‘All’s well that ends well,’ is
a familiar proverb.”
Parse the words in _italics_ in the following sentences:—
8. That is _true_. It is seen _that that “that”_ stands _first_ in
the sentence.
9. It is difficult _to decide what to do_ under circumstances _so_
unusual as _these_.
10. Correct the following sentences: It has been talked over
between you, John and I. The cause of these quarrels are unknown. I
ain’t got none. You daresn’t do it. What had I ought to do?
GEOGRAPHY
1. Name the rivers in America, beginning on the Northeast, that
flow into the Atlantic.
2. Draw a map of Maryland, with its rivers and principal towns.
3. What does Central America comprise?
4. What are the principal exports of South America?
5. What are the principal towns in England?
6. What are the principal towns in Scotland?
7. What are the principal towns in France?
8. What are the principal seaports in Spain?
9. What are the principal towns in Austria?
10. Describe the route and the waters a steamer would pass through
in going from New York to Manilla.
HISTORY
1. Give an account of the discoveries of the Cabots.
2. Give an account of the settlement of Salem.
3. Give an account of the causes of the French and Indian War.
4. Give an account of the First Continental Congress.
5. Give an account of the Evacuation of Boston.
6. Describe the Battle of Camden.
7. Give the names of the most important events of 1781.
8. State the causes of the Civil War.
9. Describe Sherman’s March.
10. Describe Lee’s Surrender.
MUSIC
1. Describe a diatonic scale, stating how many notes it contains;
how many tones and semi-tones; the order of these tones and
semi-tones, and give the scientific reason why No. 8 agrees with
No. 1.
2. Give the signatures of the keys of Mi, Fa, Si, and La flat.
3. Write out eight notes, beginning with Mi flat, and flat the
notes where necessary.
4. What is a chromatic scale?