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Much attention has been paid during the year to improving her in the use of language, and at the same time to increasing her stock of knowledge. A useful exercise for this purpose has been to tell her some story, and to requie -sic- her to repeat it in her own language, after she has forgotten the precise words in which it was related to her.

The following story was related to her one day:

JOHN AND THE PLUMS.

1. An old man had a plum tree, and when the plums were ripe, he said to his boy John,

2. I want you to pick the plums off my tree, for I am an old man, and I cannot get up into my tree to pick them.

3. Then John said, yes sir! I will get up into the tree and pick them for you.

4. So the boy got up, and the old man gave him a pail to put the plums in, and he hung it in up in the tree near him.

5. And then he put the plums into the pail, one by one, till the pail was full.

6. When the boy saw that the pail was full, he said to the old man, Let me give you the pail, for it is full.

7. Then the man held up his hand and took the pail of plums and put them in his cart.

8. For, said he, I am to take them to town in my cart to sell them, -- and he gave the pail back to the boy to fill with more plums.

9. At last the boy said, I am tired and hot, will you give me a plum to eat?

10. Yes, said the old man, for you are a good boy, and have worked well; so I will give you ten plums, for you have earned them.

11. The boy was glad to hear him say so, and said, I do not want to eat them all now. I will eat five and take five home to my sister.

12. You may get down now, said the old man, for it will soon be dark, and then you will lose your way borne.

13. So the boy got down and ran home and felt glad that he had been kind to the old man.

14. And when he got home he was glad he had been kind to his sister and kept half his plums for her.

The next day she was requested to recall it to memory, and to write it down in her Journal, and she did so in the following words:

"An old man had a large plum tree, -- he had a little boy John; the man asked John to please to go up on the tree to pick many plums, because he was very old and lame. The man gave John a pail for plums. John put them in till it was very full; he said to the man, it is very full of plums. He took the pail up in his cart to sell them. John was tired and hot; he asked the man if he might take one plum. The man said he might take ten plums, because he was a very good boy to earn them hard. The man told m to hurry home. He ate five plums; he gave his sister five plums; he felt very happy because he helped the old man much, and made his sister happy. John was kind to help the old man; he was very generous to give his sister part of his plums. The old man loved John very much. If John did not hurry home he would have lost the way. John liked to help the old man well."

It will be seen that she made some moral reflections of her own which were not expressed in the original story. It is desirable that every new word or fact which she learns should be communicated by her teachers, or that she should form a correct notion about it; but this, as will the perceived, is impossible, without depriving her of that intercourse with others which is necessary for the development of her social nature. The following extract from the journal of Miss Swift her teacher, is interesting.

Feb. 27. When I went to Laura after recess, she said, I was very much frightened; Why? I thought I felt some one made a great noise, and I trembled, and my heart ached very quick. She asked me if I knew any crazzy persons, then altered it to craxey then to crazy; I asked her who gave her the new word crazy, she said "Lorena told me about crazy persons, and said she was -once- crazy; What is crazy?" I told her that crazy persons could not think what they were doing, and attempted to change the subject; but she immediately returned to it and repeated the question, have you seen crazy people? and would not he satisfied until I answered it. I told her I saw a crazy woman walking about; she said "why did she walk, how could she think to walk" -She detected here the imperfection of her teachers definition.- I told her they were sick, and became crazy; she said "who will take care of me if I am crazy;" I laughed at her and told her she would not he crazy. She replied "I said, IF." (2) "I told her I would take care of her if she would be kind and gentle to me;" she then asked, can I talk with my fingers; did you ever see a dizzy lady; how do you dizzy? Laura said she dreamed last night about her mother, and the baby, and talked with her fingers, as in the day time; I questioned her particularly on what she dreamed, but could not get a satisfactory answer.

She wrote a letter to her father, and her mother of her own accord; that to her mother was as follows: