There
is a playground under some fine tamarind trees, and an adobe wall
encloses, without secluding, the whole. The visitors' room is about
twelve feet by eight feet, very bare, with a deal table and three
chairs in it, but it was vacant, and I crossed to the large, shady,
airy schoolroom, where I found the senior sister engaged in
teaching, while the junior was busy in the cook-house. These ladies
in eight years have never left Lahaina. Other people may think it
necessary to leave its broiling heat and seek health and recreation
on the mountains, but their work has left them no leisure, and their
zeal no desire, for a holiday. A very solid, careful English
education is given here, as well as a thorough training in all
housewifely arts, and in the more important matters of modest dress
and deportment, and propriety in language. There are thirty-seven
boarders, native and half-native, and mixed native and Chinese,
between the ages of four and eighteen. They provide their own
clothes, beds, and bedding, and I think pay forty dollars a year.
The capitation grant from Government for two years was 2325 dollars.
Sister Phoebe was my cicerone, and I owe her one of the pleasantest
days I have spent on the islands.
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