Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/407

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

389

the sleeping faculties. To effect this, she not only contrived varieties of occupation, but made all the girls examine and sit in judgment on the work that was done. Considering the business of household work, as not merely useful to girls in their station as an employment to which many of them would be devoted, but as a means of calling into action their activity and discernment, she allotted to them, by pairs, the task of cleaning the schoolrooms; and on Saturday, the two girls who had best performed the duties assigned them, were promoted to the honour of dusting and rubbing the furniture of her parlour. As to the rest, the morning was devoted to needle-work, the afternoon to instruction in reading; but whether at the needle or book, she rendered their tasks easy and cheerful, by the pleasantness of her manners, which were always kind and affectionate.

When Mr Gourlay distributed the rewards prepared for the girls, whose beha-