When you were a very little boy did you have a “Noah’s Ark” for a plaything? And do you remember the story of “Noah and his Ark?”

This story tells, you remember, about a severe storm, when it rained forty days and forty nights and all the land was flooded.

But Noah had built an ark and invited two animals of every kind, and a few persons, to live in his ark during the flood.

When the storms were over, the ark rested on a mountain, and this was Mount Ararat.

Mount Ararat is in the country of Armenia, and in this country lives a very interesting people.

Armenia is a mountainous country and Mount Ararat is the highest of all the mountains. It is so high that it has a snow cap all the year round, even during the hottest part of the summer.

The Armenian children are often very pretty, with black hair, black eyes, and round, red cheeks. Theydecoration97decoration are bright and anxious to learn, and they often ride a long way on donkey-back to get to the church schools.
three children on donkey

The schools are not free like the school you go to, and often the parents have to pay the school with grain and cheese because they have no money.

There is a free school near every church, and the priest is the teacher. Here the little boys and girls learn the Armenian alphabet, and also study reading, writing, geography, and grammar.

decoration98decoration

The mirigs (mothers) of the little Armenians have to wake them very early, for they have to go to school at seven.

They sit cross-legged on the floor, and study their lessons aloud. All the children carry a lunch from home, and they eat tog............