Mount Ararat is in the country of Armenia, and in this country lives a very interesting people.
Armenia is a mountainous country and Mount Ararat is the highest of all the mountains. It is so high that it has a snow cap all the year round, even during the hottest part of the summer.
The Armenian children are often very pretty, with black hair, black eyes, and round, red cheeks. They are bright and anxious to learn, and they often ride a long way on donkey-back to get to the church schools.
The schools are not free like the school you go to, and often the parents have to pay the school with grain and cheese because they have no money.
There is a free school near every church, and the priest is the teacher. Here the little boys and girls learn the Armenian alphabet, and also study reading, writing, geography, and grammar.
The mirigs (mothers) of the little Armenians have to wake them very early, for they have to go to school at seven.
They sit cross-legged on the floor, and study their lessons aloud. All the children carry a lunch from home, and they eat together in another little room, still sitting on the floor.
Boys and girls go to the same school until they are ten or twelve years old; then the girls go to a different school. Here they learn dressmaking and embroidery. The materials are supplied by the school, and at the end of the year the articles are sold and the money goes to the school.