"Prepare to write."
"I mean by this," he continued, "that you place your slates before you, with your pencils at the place where you are to begin, so that all may commence precisely at the same instant."
The teacher who tries such an experiment as this, will find, at such a juncture, an expression of fixed and pleased attention upon every countenance in school. All will be intent; all will be interested. Boys love order and system, and acting in concert; and they will obey, with great alacrity, such commands as these, if they are good-humoredly, though decidedly expressed.
The teacher observed in one part of the room, a hand raised, indicating that the boy wished to speak to him. He gave him liberty by pronouncing his name.
"I have no pencil;" said the boy.
A dozen hands, all around him, were immediately seen fumbling in pockets and desks, and, in a few minutes, several pencils were reached out for his acceptance.
The boy looked at the pencils, and then at the teacher; he did not exactly know, whether he was to take one or not.
"All those boys," said the teacher, pleasantly, "who have taken out pencils, may rise."
"Have these boys done right, or wrong?"
"Right;" "Wrong;" "Right;" answered their companions, variously.