THE WHOLE CLASS.


"IT is such a rainy day that I don't believe I'll go to school today," said Charles Bedford to his mother.

"Why, my son, you are not afraid of rain, I hope?"

"Oh, no."

"I thought you loved to go to school."

"So I do, when the other boys are there; but you know that Willie and Frank are out of town, Joseph is sick, and it is so very rainy that others cannot come so far."

"Then I should think there would be all the more need of your going, to encourage your teacher."

"Yes, I know it; but it's rather hard on a boy to be the whole class in school."

"Don't you have your lessons learned?"

"Yes; but to tell the truth, it gives the teacher such a chance to ask me close questions when she has me all to herself."

"Well," said Mrs. Bedford to Charley, after he had returned home from school, "were you the whole class today?"

"I was the only scholar." 

"Was it as hard as you thought it would be?"

"Why, no, it wasn't. The teacher said, 'Charley, it is hardly fair for you to answer all the questions, so you may ask me every other one.' So I did, and it was very nice; and. before I knew it, I was talking just as easy as could be. I never had such good recitations as these all by myself."

In after years, Charley looked back on that rainy day in school, when he represented the whole class, as the turning point in his life, for from it he learned to overcome difficulties. 



Sel.