eleven o'clock
Always she found him with his great earnest eyes upon her . There seemed at last to be a mutual fascination . His eyes seemed never to move from her face ; and when she tried to look away and get interested in other faces , almost unconsciously to herself her eyes would wander back , and she would find herself gazing at the child . At eleven o'clock Mr. Paulding announced that the exercises for the morning would begin , when silence fell on the restless company of undisciplined children . A hymn was read , and then , as the leader struck the tune , out leaped the voices of these four hundred children , each singing with a strange wild abandon , many of them swaying their heads and bodies in time to the measure . As the first lines of the hymn , `` Jesus , gentle Shepherd , lead us , Much we need thy tender care , '' swelled up from the lips of those poor neglected children , the eyes of Edith grew blind with tears . After a prayer was offered up , familiar addresses , full of kindness and encouragement , were made to the children , interspersed with singing and other appropriate exercises .