Mr. Jeminy examined the Fifth
Reader. "Bound the United States," he said.
"On the west by the Pacific Ocean," began a red-cheeked plowboy, to
whom the ocean was no more than hearsay.
"Where is San Francisco?"
"San Francisco is in California."
"Where is Seattle?"
But no one knew. Then Mr. Jeminy thought to himself, "I am not much
wiser than that. For I think that Seattle is a little black period on
a map. But to them, it is a name, like China, or Jerusalem; it is
here, or there, in the stories they tell each other. And I believe
their Seattle is full of interesting people."
"Well, then," he said, "let me hear you bound Vermont."
That was something everybody knew.
He took the First and Second Reader through their sums. "Two apples
and two apples make . . ."
"Four apples."
"And three apples from eight apples leave . . ."
"Five apples."
When spelling time came, the children, going down to the foot, rolled
over each other in the grass, with loud shouts. At last only two were
left to dispute the letters in asparagus, elephant, constancy, and
philosophical.
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