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 

 "Samson Agonistes," and of his sonnets; Gray's 

 "Elegy," Byron's "Ode to the Ocean," Campbell's 

 "What 's Hallowed Ground?" Goldsmith's "Deserted 

 Village," Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," Irving 's "Voy- 

 age to Europe," and parts of Webster's "Reply to 

 Hayne." 



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 "Spelling"; 

 at the head of the second column was the word "Cor- 

 rected." 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. ' ' WTien 

 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 



