On the rostrum, seated in three
compact rows of auditorium chairs were about twenty children, mostly girls,
ranging in age from about seven to thirteen. At the first signal given to them
by their instructor who looked all-pervasive because of her imposing manners
and strident voice, the children looked at one another in bewilderment. Some of
them opened their mouth, but were still afraid to articulate the sound, not
sure if the others were ready to share the effort. Some of them tried to be
clever and just put on an ingratiating smile. With exhortation from the coach
to start and be audible they mouthed the words without the necessary feeling.
The coach now thought it best not waste time on further exhortation, blew a
note on her pipe and the children raised their hymn—books above their heads and
started singing in unison. They sang with the unsentimental innocence natural
to their age. I had never heard the hymn, but it had a soothing quality and a
healing effect; I wished it not to end soon.
Listening, I drifted in thoughts and
scanned those young faces absent-mindedly. The child nearest me was in the front
row of the group. Well, not exactly a child; she looked about somewhere between
fourteen and sixteen, with straight black hair cut to shoulder length, which
stuck around her forehead because wet, making her face look unglamorous and
common. But as I continued to listen, I noticed that her voice was distinctly superior
to others. It was sweet--sounding, and because it was the surest, it naturally
led the others.
However, the young lady seemed to be
indifferent to the activity she was engaged in at the time because I saw her
controlling an overpowering yawn once. It was a closed- mouth, lady-like yawn,
but her nostrils gave it away. Her eyes had no expression at all except perhaps
that of being unimpressed because of over-familiarity. Once or twice she seemed
to scan the people in the audience with a casual interest that did not amount
to curiosity, except as if she was counting the heads.
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