28 STRAY-AWAYS 



that here, in undreamed-of waters, education has let 

 down her net for a draught. What is therein enclosed 

 we shall see. 



At a distance of some thirty yards the sound .of 

 many voices makes itself heard — a chorus of childish 

 brogues, declaiming something or other with a 

 fervour and unanimity worthy of a Crystal Palace 

 oratorio ; and when a pause is made to listen, it seems 

 as if words of a sacred sort recur in the clamour. 

 The children are standing inside in small rings, 

 bellowing into each other's faces with the utmost 

 heartiness ; but the sudden tendency of many eyes 

 to the open door is followed by such a perceptible 

 diminuendo that there appears in the doorway the 

 teacher herself, to see what is the matter — a young 

 person with a cast-iron black fringe, a useful-looking 

 wand of office, and an eye fraught with the multiplica- 

 tion-table. Amplest apologies for the disturbance 

 are gi'aciously accepted, even to the extending of an 

 invitation to come in and see the school; and accept- 

 ing this the stranger steps straightway into a long 

 room filled from end to end with children. Hair of 

 every shade is the general impression on looking doAvn 

 the room ; heads sleek or shaggy, flaxen or black, with 

 a flaming red here and there ; and from beneath each 

 a steadfast upward gaze is fastened on the visitor. The 

 spell of Central Asian solitude is broken up, the fairy- 

 tale road is the familiar highway for a hundred pairs 

 of bare feet; all is reduced to simplicity, except the 

 question of where the children come from. 



The teacher, having explained that religious instruc- 

 tion is just over, offers the visitor a window-sill — 

 there being no chair in the school — and proceeds to 

 marshal her choicest pupils for examination. A book, 

 is produced entitled Sixth Reading-hook for the Use 

 of Schools, and turning it over, the eye is caught by 



