They recited together:

"There was a sound of revelry by night
And Belgium's capital . . . . "

I forget the rest of it. Well, anyhow, they were supposed to make
gestures all together. Teacher had rehearsed the gestures, and they
all did it simultaneously, just as if they had been wound up with a
spring. But, as I said, the two end girls had all they could do to
keep on the platform, and it takes elbow room for: "'T is but the car
rattling over the stony street," and one girl - well, she said she
stepped off on purpose, but I didn't believe her then and I don't
now. We had our laugh about it, whichever way it was.

We had our laugh . . . . Ah, life was all laughter then. That was
before care came to be the shadow at our heel. That was before
black Sorrow met us in the way, and would not let us pass unless
we gave to her our dearest treasure. That was before we learned
that what we covet most is, when we get it, but a poor thing after
all, that whatsoever chalice Fortune presses to our lips, a tear is
in the bottom of the cup. In those happy days gone by if the rain
fell, 't was only for a little while, and presently the sky was
bright again, and the birds whistled merrily among the wet and
shining leaves. Now "the clouds return after the rain."

It can never be with us again as once it was. For us the bell upon
the Old Red School-house calls in vain. We heed it not, we that
hearkened for it years ago. The living tide of youth flows toward
the school-house, and we are not of it. Never again shall we sit
at those old desks, whittled and carved with rude initials, and snap