360 
RURAL HOURS. 
St. Croix and the Colorado. It is even rare to meet one wlio has 
decidedly reached the years of middle life ; while nothing is more 
common than to see very young persons in this post of authority. 
In most situations, a young countenance is a pleasant sight ; but 
perhaps there is scarcely another position in which it appears to 
so little advantage, as sole ruler in the school-house. Young 
people make excellent assistants, very good subordinates in a large 
establishment, but it is to be regretted that our common schools 
should so often be under their government, subject only to a su- 
pervision, which is frequently quite nominal. They may know as 
much of books as their elders, but it is impossible they should 
know^ as much of themselves and of the children ; where other 
points are equal, they cannot have the same experience, the same 
practical wisdom. Hitherto, among us, teaching in the public 
schools has not been looked upon as a vocation for life ; it has 
been almost always taken up as a job for a year or two, or even 
for a single season ; the aim and ambition of those who resort to 
it, too often lie beyond the school-house walls. The young man 
of eighteen or twenty means to go into business, or to buy a farm, 
or to acquire a profession ; he means anything, in short, but to 
remain a diligent, faithful, persevering schoolmaster for any length 
of time. The young girl of seventeen or eighteen intends, per- 
haps, to learn a trade next year, or to go into a factory, or to pi'o- 
cure an outfit for her wedding ; never, indeed, does the possibility 
of teaching after she shall have reached the years of caps and 
gray hairs occur to her even in a nightmare. And yet nothing 
can be more certain than that those young people have undertaken 
duties the most important man or woman can discharge ; and if 
they persevere in the occupation, with a conscientious regai'd to 
