CHAPTER III 

 1856-1860 



Teaching School — Religious Experiences — Study of Botany 

 — Attendance at Normal School, Toronto, 1859. 



AS I said, my brother James went to Belleville the second 

 year we were out and became an apprentice as a moulder 

 and now, after six years farming and making very little, I 

 decided to follow his footsteps and leave the farm and become a 

 teacher. Two causes forced this upon me. One was an affront 

 that my brother's wife received from a man who held a small 

 mortgage on my brother's land and the other was my desire to 

 study botany. When I announced to my mother that I was go- 

 ing to teach school and give up farming she laughed at me as, 

 since I was thirteen, I had never been in school and she thought I 

 was deficient in knowledge of books. However, I said that I would 

 make a trial and I would pay off Frederick's mortgage at any rate. 



I knew a little of a good many subjects but grammar was 

 one I had never paid attention to and so I bought Kirkham's 

 Grammar and gave it three days' study and decided that I could 

 pass for a school-teacher without difficulty. After my three days' 

 grammar, I decided I was fit to go before the County Inspector 

 and discuss the matter with him. I walked forty-three miles to 

 where the Inspector lived and, it being winter, he took me out in 

 his cutter and questioned me on various subjects as we went along. 

 He said: "Mr. Macoun, a very short time in school as a pupil 

 with a good teacher should give you information as to how to 

 govern a school that I shall give you, and with a permit you can 

 try your hand at teaching." He advised me to go to the school in 

 the village where he lived and board with the teacher and attend 

 his school. I attended school for the next three weeks and then 

 received my certificate and returned to my home triumphantly. 



Now my troubles began. I thought that I would be engaged 

 in the section where my brother lived but he was informed that 



