Sometimes it would be some little trinket which had a bit of history connected with it that brought our heads together and opened our eyes in wonder as we looked and listened. The first object I remember she produced from the bag was a little idol from China. She had a sister there who had sent it to her. We had never seen an idol before, and as we passed it around the class for close inspection and listened to her tale of how the heathen worshiped it, it seemed to our boyish minds as fascinating as a fairy tale, and just as wonderful. Sometimes it would be a little flower for each of us that was produced from the black bag. She lived in those days when many of the city homes had a front-yard garden. She had such a garden, and when any of us were ill she brought us a cluster of beautiful flowers. Sometimes the black bag yielded a big apple apiece, and we boys never tasted such apples before, and devoured them as only an always hungry boy can do when he is at his best.
We were always at our best when the black bag produced. Generally the lesson from the black bag had nothing to do with the regular Bible lesson, but was a supplementary lesson. Oftentimes there was no lesson to the object at all, but just a little gift which took its place with the reward cards of that day.
One Saturday morning I met my teacher going to the market. She always stopped me when we met and had a few words with me, and often down in her basket she found a stick of candy among the contents which she always gave me, and which I always received with thanks. Her thoughts were with her boys so constantly that she always had a bit of candy among things in her basket, thinking that perhaps she might meet some of her boys playing in the street as she passed by.
This particular morning she said: "Clarence, tomorrow I will have something new and wonderful in the black bag; tell all the boys to be sure to be present." Then she gave me a stick of candy which had a magic effect on my heels, for they seemed to have wings, as I spent the entire afternoon running around to the homes of the scholars and giving them the great news about the "Black Bag."
Next day we were all in our places and ready for the lesson and also anxiously waiting for the opening of the black bag. When it was opened she gave us a small bag of chestnuts and a picture-card. I have never forgotten the black bag, as you see I am recalling now its history in detail half a century after it opened to us its first simple lesson.
That dear teacher long ago put on her white garments and went to heaven. Her boys, six in number, never forgot their teacher and the black bag. I recall now that two of those boys became ministers of the gospel. Two of them went into the practise of law. One went West, and the other passed on. I am all that is left of the old class. The other boys are with her in heaven, and I often think that perhaps they talk over yet the story of the black bag.
I have such a black bag now, and whenever I use it in teaching I tell them the story of my dear teacher and her black bag. I use it now as a covering for my objects. If the children see the objects before you use them the surprise element is lacking. If they are brought out of a bag as you use them, the children will be curious about what comes next, and will wait and watch as you speak.
The black bag can be easily made as it is a regular bag. Make it about the size of a child's school-bag, and as books of learning come forth from such a bag tell them that they can learn something from your black bag. You may load it with a variety of objects, if you so desire, and let each object teach a lesson. Some of the objects used in the chapters of this book can be made first to appear from the black bag.
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