A clock in the schoolroom struck nine; Miss Miller left
her circle, and standing in the middle of the room, cried -
"Silence! To your seats!"
Discipline prevailed: in five minutes the confused throng was
resolved into order, and comparative silence quelled the Babel
clamour of tongues. The upper teachers now punctually resumed their
posts: but still, all seemed to wait. Ranged on benches down the
sides of the room, the eighty girls sat motionless and erect; a
quaint assemblage they appeared, all with plain locks combed from
their faces, not a curl visible; in brown dresses, made high and
surrounded by a narrow tucker about the throat, with little pockets
of holland (shaped something like a Highlander's purse) tied in front
of their frocks, and destined to serve the purpose of a work-bag:
all, too, wearing woollen stockings and country-made shoes, fastened
with brass buckles. Above twenty of those clad in this costume
were full-grown girls, or rather young women; it suited them ill,
and gave an air of oddity even to the prettiest.
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