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Barely a year ago I attended the Friday afternoon exercises of a / country school. My mission there, as I remember, was to refresh my / mind with such material as might be gathered, for a "valedictory," / which, I regret to say, was to be handed down to posterity under / another signature than my own.
There was present, among a host of visitors, a pale young man of / perhaps thirty years, with a tall head and bulging brow and a highly / intellectual pair of eyes and spectacles. He wore his hair without / roach or "part" and the smile he beamed about him was "a joy forever. " / He was an educator -- from the East, I think I heard it rumoured -- anyway / he was introduced to the school at last, and he bowed, and smiled, and / beamed upon us all, and entertained us after the most delightfully / edifying manner imaginable. And although I may fail to reproduce the / exact substance of his remarks upon that highly important occasion, I / think I can at least present his theme in all its coherency of detail. / Addressing more particularly the primary department of the school, he / said: --