UTOPIA. . 2J 



My school began the middle of November. It 

 was not difficult to manage. I enjoyed teaching. 

 For me there was a pleasure in teaching the three or 

 four little children how to read by the word method. 

 And the daily drills in grammar, arithmetic, and 

 geography were so pleasant to me, that the pupils 

 soon caught my spirit and made rapid progress. All 

 external facilities were of the most meagre character, 

 as they must be in a new country. The house was 

 made of logs, the door in one end, two small windows 

 in the other end and in each of the sides. A large 

 box-stove stood in the centre. Around the sides 

 against the walls, were fastened wide boards, slightly 

 inclined, for the pupils' desks. They sat at these 

 desks on benches, with their backs toward the centre 

 of the room. Of maps, charts, globes we had none 

 whatever, but there was a good black-board. Such 

 a building with no apparatus seems very primitive 

 compared with the elegant structures, and abundance 

 of material for illustration now provided for the 

 public schools in many of our cities and villages. 

 But I doubt if any more eager pupils assemble in 

 those costly buildings, than came day after day, often 

 through wind and snow, to that rude house in the 

 back-woods. They came from the newly cleared 

 fields wherein they had wrought all summer, and 

 from whence they had just gathered the abundant 

 harvest. They came from houses small and rude, 



