TEACHING SCHOOL— STUDYING BOTANY 29 



it was out of the question as it was not possible for a man who 

 had been farming a month ago to start out to teach school proper- 

 ly. That was my first rebuff. Next, I went to another section 

 where they wanted a teacher and they employed one who took 

 ten dollars a year less salary than I was asking, and so I returned 

 home again somewhat discouraged. I now decided to strike out 

 for the front, which was the township of Brighton, as I had heard 

 they had schools which were vacant in that place. 



I had walked twenty miles that day and was very tired and 

 had made a number of inquiries, but no teachers were needed, but, 

 as I walked along in the early part of the evening, I saw a man 

 taking potatoes out of a pit and he told me that a teacher was 

 needed in that district and directed me where to inquire. The 

 trustees met the same evening and discussed the matter and one 

 of them, who had been at college when he was young, asked me 

 a few questions, which I answered in a diplomatic manner. One 

 of them was on grammar of course and I gave two answers, one 

 according to Kirkham and another from a book I had studied 

 when at school. Thus I got credit for a knowledge of authors, 

 and I doubt yet whether the authors or myself were correct in 

 the rendering of the subject, but I learned from this experience 

 that the trustee was rather more ignorant than I. 



That same evening, the trustee's wife, in discussing school 

 matters with me, asked me if I could teach astronomy. I said: 

 "I have my doubts." "Well," she said, "Miss Spencer, our former 

 teacher, taught it." I found that Miss Spencer had taught it 

 from books and I told her that I could teach it that way all right. 

 I thought, before she told me of teaching it out of books, that the 

 teacher would be expected to take the pupils out and discuss the 

 stars with them. 



I was hired and my salary was the munificent sum of $14.00 

 per month for six months, and board around. The boarding 

 around was that I had a headquarters where I could stay the 

 latter part of each week and I would board a week at a time with 

 the people that sent children to the school. 



I may now make a review of my character as a boy. Up to 

 when I was nineteen, at which age I came to Canada, I was called 



