348 RURAL EIICIIIGAN 



thrash his oldest pupils, male and female, to set a 

 good copy, to be his own janitor and to mend the 

 quill pens of his students. The wild life of the ad- 

 jacent forest, Indians, insects, birds and reptiles, 

 were likely to call occasionally and trouble the rou- 

 tine of the pioneer school. The summer term was 

 less trying to the teacher, since the labor of the 

 older pupils was required on the farm at home. 

 Compensation was according to the standards of the 

 age and circumstances. It often ran as low as eight 

 dollars a month, but boarding round reduced the 

 cost of living to the minimum. The cash income 

 of the school district was derived from the bene- 

 ficiaries of the school in accordance with a scale of 

 tuition based on a count of heads and the attend- 

 ance record. The rate-bill presented the amount due 

 from each parent until, in 1869, legislation abol- 

 ished it in favor of free schooling, nineteen years 

 after the second State constitution had enjoined 

 provision for free education on the legislature. 



Almost at the outset of the State's existence, the 

 grant of the sixteenth section of every township, 

 provided by the United States in favor of the State 

 itself rather than each local school district as else- 

 where, had established the foundation of the State's 

 present primary school interest fund, later aug- 

 mented by the proceeds from the grant of the so- 

 called swamp lands already adverted to in a previous 

 chapter. The net cash returns from the sale of these 

 lands have been invested, partly at the rate of 7 per 

 cent interest, partly at 5 per cent, which interest re- 



