CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION 13 



general and vice versa if I may be allowed the expression. I 

 will give a history of "operations and things" here. The 

 school numbers about 70 boys, no girls except Emily and the 

 helps and they don't attend school. Old Ezra Fairchild, the 

 good jolly old gentleman, is Head Principal. Beside him are 

 Mr. Elias Fairchild, Mr. Bates, Mr. Babbit, Mr. Raone 

 (French Teacher), and MR. Johnson as Instructors. Mr. 

 Johnson, as I wrote in my last, has a salary of $20.00 per 

 month in addition to the comforts of a good home, etc., etc. — ■ 

 Teachers and students all lodge and eat under the same 

 roof. — A Day 's Procedure : At 7 o 'clock Mr. Corwin or some- 

 body else goes through the halls ringing a huge bell that drums 

 sleep to California, and at 8 o'clock the bell rings for Chapel 

 when the whole family collects in the Chapel and spends 15 

 or 20 minutes in religious exercises, and generally Father 

 Ezra lectures the unruly ones. . . , This morning some fel- 

 lows, gentlemen if we can judge from coat and boots, having 

 got up late did not present themselves in Chapel, whereupon 

 Mr. Fairchild told them to go back to bed and stay all day. 

 (Three of them refused to do so and started off home to New 

 York city, but before night came back and went to bed.) 

 Soon after Chapel, breakfast rings. ... I have 20 students 

 under my care, in an upper school room. "Writing, Spelling, 

 Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, are all the studies I teach 

 at present. Just imagine Sam Johnson. . . . One fine young 

 man lends him a watch, since the poor dog can't afford to 

 own one, and he might keep the class a fortnight without one. 

 That 's enough. Don 't think any more about ' ' Sam Johnson, ' ' 

 or "Doctor." There is no such man here. Mr. Johnson is 

 the feller. . . . 



Mr. Johnson was most happily situated at Flushing, 

 and would have been entirely contented had he not 

 had a definite ambition for the future, to the fulfilment 

 of which he longed to devote himself. Teaching occu- 

 pied nearly all his time ; hours for study were far too 



