sight; and now this exercise is conducted in the same way as in our
best schools at home. There is very little communication now between
them in the school room. In 1852, there were only five failures on
this point for four months, and those by new scholars. Dr. Perkins
wrote, that year, "The exact system in this school, and the order,
studiousness, good conduct, and rapid improvement of the pupils, in
both this and the other Seminary, are probably unsurpassed in any
schools in America."

In reply to a request for the picture of a day in the Seminary, Miss
Fiske writes, in 1862,--

"You ask for a day of my life in Persia. Come, then, to my home in
1854. You shall be waked by the noise of a hand-bell at early dawn:
twenty minutes after, our girls are ready for their half hour of
silent devotion. The bell for this usually finds them waiting for
it, and the perfect quiet in the house is almost unbroken. At the
close of it, another bell summons us to the school room for family
devotion, where, besides reading the Scriptures and prayer, they
unite in singing one of our sweet hymns.[1] In a few minutes after
this, another bell calls us to breakfast, and, that finished, all
attend to their morning work. Tables are cleared, rooms put in
order, and preparations made for supper--the principal meal in
Persia; then for an hour they study silently in their rooms. At a
quarter before nine o'clock I enter the school room, while Miss Rice
cares for things without. We open school with prayer, in which we
carry to the Master more of our little cares and trials than in the
early morning. My first lesson is in Daniel, with the older pupils,
while two other classes go out to recite in another room. Yonan
stays with me, for I want him to help and be helped in these Bible