"Miss Patience, what would have happened if Eve had eat the apple and Adam hadn't?"
I was completely routed. "I cannot think what would have happened then."
There was a chorus of little voices: "Why, Eve would have been driven out, and he would have the garden for hisself."
I am quite sure when I was small we never asked such questions. Perhaps when it was read, as it used to be, in the Bible language, it did not take such hold on the mind as it does when narrated, but I am so eager to get their interest and attention that I tell them the stories instead of reading them, and with such success that nothing but force could keep them away.
Always have to light the lamp before we finish singing, but no one will give up his hymn, and as I read over each verse very slowly before we sing it, and they repeat it after me, it takes a good while. It is wonderful how quickly they learn the words.
One very small boy, who strayed in for the first time, when I told him he could choose a hymn asked for "Yankee Doodle," greatly to the amusement of those who had been coming two months. It is a pleasure to teach such bright children. At the end I always hand a few chocolates or some candy.
To-day the hands are "toting" the rice into the flats.