------.
* * * * *
"But, with all these excellences, there is one fault, which I considered
a great one, and which does not comport with the general character of
the school for kindness and good feeling. It is the little effort made
by the scholars to become acquainted with the new ones who enter.
Whoever goes there must push herself forward, or she will never feel at
home. The young ladies seem to forget that the new-comer must feel
rather unpleasantly in the midst of a hundred persons to whom she is
wholly a stranger, and with no one to speak to. Two or three will stand
together, and instead of deciding upon some plan by which the individual
may be made to feel at ease, something like the following conversation
takes place:
"_Miss X._ How do you like the looks of Miss A., who entered school
to-day?
"_Miss Y._ I don't think she is very pretty, but she looks as if she
might be a good scholar.
"_Miss X._ She does not strike me very pleasantly. Did you ever see
such a face? And her complexion is so dark, I should think she had
always lived in the open air; and what a queer voice she has!
"_Miss Y._ I wonder if she has a taste for Arithmetic?
"_Miss X._ She does not look as if she had much taste for any thing. See
how strangely she arranges her hair!
"_Miss S._ Whether she has much taste or not, some one of us ought to go
and get acquainted with her. See how unpleasantly she feels!
"_Miss X.
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