She kept very good order, too, so that most of the time you could hear the scratching of the laborious pens accompanied by the croaking of the frogs in the swamp.
Although my sister and I began our studies at the same time, and progressed together, my parents did not want me to take up new subjects as fast as Fetchke did.

They thought my health too delicate for much study.

So when Fetchke had her Russian lesson I was told to go and play.

I am sorry to say that I was disobedient on these occasions, as on many others.

I did not go and play; I looked on, I listened, when Fetchke rehearsed her lesson at home.