running to school at breakneck speed and all out of breath.
If it happens that the teacher has not yet come, they gather around the entrance, pounding their heels upon the steps, or sliding on the icy path, or some of them wait in the school-rooms.
If it be cold they spend their time while waiting for the teacher in reading, writing, or romping.
The girls do not mingle with the boys. When the boys have any scheme which they wish to propose to the girls, they never select any particular girl, but always address the whole crowd:—
"Hey, girls, why are n't you sliding?" or, "See, the girls are freezing," or "Now, girls, all of you chase me!"
Only one of the little girls, a ten-year-old domestic peasant[1] of great many-sided talents, perhaps ventures to leave the herd of damsels. And with her the boys comport themselves as with an equal—as with a boy, only showing a delicate shade of politeness, modesty, and self-restraint.
CHAPTER II
THE OPENING OF SCHOOL
Let us suppose that, according to the roster, we begin with mechanical reading in the first or the youngest class; in the second, with graded reading; and in the third, with mathematics.
The teacher goes into the room, and finds the children rolling or scuffling on the floor, and crying at the top of their voices: "You're choking me!" "You stop pulling my hair!" or "Let up; that '11 do!"
"Piotr Mikhaïlovitch," cries a voice from under the heap, as the teacher comes in, "make them stop."
"Good-morning, Piotr Mikhaïlovitch," shout still others, adding their share to the tumult.
- ↑ Dvorovaya dyevka, the daughter of a serf attached to the barsky dvor, or mansion-house.
