66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



Within one or two days* drive of our town there 

 were ten academies, perhaps, of a grade equal to 

 the small colleges of to-day : and, while they did 

 not teach as many things as the colleges do now, I 

 am certain that they gave better training and were 

 more insistent upon good work. 



Very few boys went to college, so that all the 

 higher education most of us had was secured in 

 these academies. I base my judgment of them on 

 the class of men they sent forth. By the time I 

 was fitted to enter an academy the State had organ- 

 ized normal departments in them ; and by pledging 

 myself to devote a reasonable portion of my time 

 after graduation to teaching, I obtained free tui- 

 tion. I certainly kept my agreement, for I taught 

 seven winters in public and common schools and 

 over thirty-three years in college and University in 

 the course of my after life. 



It was the custom in large and ambitious fami- 

 lies to keep one or more children at some acad- 

 emy, at least during the winter, provisioning them 

 weekly from the farm. As rooms and fuel were 

 cheap and the students did their own cooking, this 

 was a satisfactory and inexpensive way of educat- 

 ing children far beyond the common school. But 

 even the common schools were more advanced and 



