noon
before
Principals and teachers were the best obtainable and indeed the State Board of education was fond of using Eastshore school as a model for others to follow . Mrs. Willis had often declared that she would never have sent her son to boarding school had the public school then been as excellent as that which Rosemary and her sisters attended . This morning Rosemary was to enter the seventh grade in the grammar school , Sarah would be in the fourth primary and Shirley , having `` graduated '' from the kindergarten the year before , would attain the dignity of a seat in the first grade . Separating at the broad door , they were swept into the different streams that carried them up different stairways and into different classrooms and it was noon before they saw each other again . Few of the pupils went home to lunch and a large , light airy room on the third floor was set aside for their use as a lunch room . A corner table was reserved for teachers and here a small group usually gathered not only to eat and exchange comment , but to keep an eye on the lunchers and subdue the noise when it rose to a shout . The high school students had their own lunch room , but the grammar and primary grades shared a room together .