On my way back I passed a little building from which sounded an astonishing noise, a confused babble of shrill voices, blending now and then with a deep stentorian shout.

It was the communal school--not during playtime, or in a state of revolt, but evidently engaged as usual upon its studies.

The school-house was small, but the volume of clamour that issued from it would have done credit to two or three hundred children in unrestrained uproariousness.

Curiosity held me listening for ten minutes; the tumult underwent no change of character, nor suffered the least abatement; the mature voice occasionally heard above it struck a cheery note, by no means one of impatience or stern command.

Had I been physically capable of any effort, I should have tried to view that educational scene.