BOYHOOD IN CENTRAL NEW YORK-1832-1850 9 



genius. He seemed to divine the character and enter into 

 the purpose of every boy. Work under him was a plea 

 sure. His methods were very simple. Great attention 

 was given to reading aloud from a book made up of se 

 lections from the best authors, and to recitals from these. 

 Thus I stored up not only some of the best things in 

 the older English writers, but inspiring poems of Bryant, 

 Whittier, Longfellow, and other moderns. My only re 

 gret is that more of this was not given us. I recall, among 

 treasures thus gained, which have been precious to me 

 ever since, in many a weary or sleepless hour on land 

 and sea, extracts from Shakspere, parts of Milton s 

 &quot;Samson Agonistes,&quot; and of his sonnets; Gray s 

 &quot;Elegy,&quot; Byron s &quot;Ode to the Ocean,&quot; Campbell s 

 &quot;What s Hallowed Ground?&quot; Goldsmith s &quot;Deserted 

 Village, Longfellow s Psalm of Life, Irving s Voy 

 age to Europe,&quot; and parts of Webster s &quot;Eeply to 

 Hayne.&quot; 



At this school the wretched bugbear of English spell 

 ing was dealt with by a method which, so long as our pres 

 ent monstrous orthography continues, seems to me the 

 best possible. During the last half-hour of every day, 

 each scholar was required to have before him a copy 

 book, of which each page was divided into two columns. 

 At the head of the first column was the word &quot;Spelling&quot;; 

 at the head of the second column was the word &quot;Cor 

 rected.&quot; The teacher then gave out to the school about 

 twenty of the more important words in the reading-les 

 son of the day, and, as he thus dictated each word, each 

 scholar wrote it in the column headed Spelling. When 

 all the words were thus written, the first scholar was asked 

 to spell from his book the first word; if misspelled, it 

 was passed to the next, and so on until it was spelled cor 

 rectly; whereupon all who had made a mistake in writ 

 ing it made the proper correction on the opposite column. 

 The result of this was that the greater part of us learned 

 orthography practically. For the practical use of spell 

 ing comes in writing. 



The only mistake in Mr. Allen s teaching was too much 



