A CHINESE SCHOOL.
His father, having promised to do so, went on to say to Leonard: "Parents are very particular as to their choice of a schoolmaster, who must be considered good, as well as able to teach; and to qualify himself the master must, of course, know the doctrines of the ancient sages. After all has been settled for a boy to go to school, the parents always invite the schoolmaster to a dinner, given expressly for him. Then a fortune-teller is asked to decide upon a 'lucky' day for the boy to make his first appearance at school, when he takes the tutor a present. No boy ever goes to school first on the anniversary of the day on which Confucius died or was buried. On entering school, he turns to the shrine of Confucius—an altar erected to his honour in every school—and worships him, after which he salutes his teacher very respectfully, hears what he has to do, and goes to his desk."
"And are there many holidays at Chinese schools?"
"At the new year and in the autumn there are always holidays, but children also go home to keep all religious festivals, to celebrate the birthdays of parents and grandparents, to worship their tablets, and at the tombs of ancestors. Very often schoolmasters are men who have toiled very hard at their books, and yet have not succeeded in taking a very high degree, but sometimes having done so, they choose teaching for their profession. Children are very much punished in China when they break school-rules. Perhaps the punishment they fear most is to be beaten with a broom, because they think that this may make them unlucky for the rest of their lives."
"And they can never have an alphabet to learn," Sybil said, "when they first go to school, as there is not one."
A VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER.
"No; instead of letters and words, they have to learn, and master, characters. In some schools children learn names first; in others they have reading lessons, where all the sentences consist of three characters. As soon as possible they are set to learn the classic on 'Filial Piety.'"
"Now, father, will you please describe a Chinese house to us?"