condescending to my inexperience and timidity, gave me his views of the new master, somewhat as follows:

"Dan," said he (my name is Daniel Derby), "we are going to have old Master Airy, who lives at the neck of the pond, to teach our school this winter. I've seen him once. He was at father's with a kind of long, three-legged thing, with a brass top to it, and measured off the five-acre lot which was sold to Jacob Pinder last summer. Then father asked him if he could tell him how far off the White Rock was on Firey Hill, and he stood up his measurer and looked, and then measured off a piece with his chain, and then put up his three-legged thing at the end of where he measured, and looked at White Rock, and then opened a book full of figures and took a piece of paper and wrote them down on it, and pretty soon said, ""Tis one mile and three quarters, and a few feet over." I guess he knows enough more than any of the masters I've ever been to; but what a queer-looking fellow he is; and what a horse and wagon he drives about in. They say, too, he is ever so cross; but if you are a good boy, Dan, the cross won't hurt anybody but them he puts it on to."

With such consolation my brother prepared me for my attendance upon the district school, to be kept by Master Airy. It was, however, with no slight degree of trepidation that my wondering eyes scanned the person of that individual as soon as my face was disengaged from my cap, comforter and mittens, and my little body vertically upright above and upon one of the benches I have mentioned. He was a large, fat man,-large in limb, and large before, not one of your globose specimens, set upon long, spiderlike lower limbs, looking small by comparison anywhere else than in body, and seeming to have lost his lungs and neck by the upward ballooning tendencies of his hypogastric region; but an originally genteel formation, which, through its generous assimilating tendencies, had taken upon and into itself the solids and juices of all climates and fields and flocks. His hair, partly gray, his large cue that secured it from contact with his collarless coat, his mixed stockings, and best brown suit, added to the importance which his office in those days inherited. When the hour for school had come, which he decided by a large silver watch, hung below

his long waistcoat, a tap of the ruler upon his table summoned the pupils to the seats they had chosen, with the exception of the very small ones, who, like myself, did not understand the ways of the hour. Us he seated, in a few minutes, on the low benches within what seemed to me a fearful nearness to himself. Then taking a large Testament, and bridging his nose with his spectacles, he proceeded to read the first chapter of Romans, and offer a long extempore prayer, grasping, as he did so, the high rounds of an oldfashioned basket-bottomed chair, and kneeling upon its low

seat.

I soon became accustomed to the new associations that surrounded me. My instructor took an apparent liking to the little fellow who gazed at him so steadily, and brought him an apple nearly every day, as much for the purpose of sitting for a moment upon his knees, and feeling his broad hand stroke the little white head, as to propitiate any terrors which lay hidden in the future. On looking back over the many years since passed, I am strongly impressed with the conviction that Master Airy was an unusual teacher. How learned he was, a youth of my age could know at that time but little; for to small children all teachers are prodigies. Yet he had many ways that some modern improvements seem to have reproduced. He used to call up the little boys, and talk of apples and oranges, of figs and raisins, and lure them to their tasks by promising to the one who best remembered his instructions the real object used in his illustrations, as a reward. He would whittle out boats and oars in moments of leisure, and explain to us their use and the appropriate names borne by their several parts. He would explain the process of making wagon wheels, tell us how to drive nails, how bricks were made, the uses of iron and other metals, what changes fire wrought in them, how many were made, what caused the heat and the cold, the marvels of ice and of snow, and other natural phenomena, much of which was beyond my capacity, but more of which I eagerly drank in. He had various devices for teaching the letters of the alphabet, and making them of importance in our eyes. A long row of wooden letters of large size, both capitals and Roman, hung on little nails over the fireplace. If a half dozen were learning the alphabet,

these letters were generously divided amongst them, one being hung upon each boy by a string passing round his neck, and for the day he was known as G or X, as the case might be. He would call out for the lad that had Y in his collection to come to his drawer for a raisin, or the one who had a small s to point out upon the crane in the fire-place its counterpart. He cut up old newspapers, saving the large letters separately, and scattered them upon the floor, calling upon the young ones to bring him those that made boy, or man, or house, having first shown them the printed word. Wall cards were not then familiar, but samplers were, and by inheritance, purchase, or borrowing, he had a pretty large collection. Those, wrought in plain letters, were our exercises. We learned no small number of moral couplets, mortuary verses, or playful and pithy sayings from these attractive pieces of needlework. He could teach the smaller boys as well as the larger ones the laws of the lever and the principles of the balance by a plank across a fence rail, and illustrate by using us as weights, to our no small amusement, and we often called for a review of this exercise. We soon were at home with Master Airy. He never trifled, while he was always playful. He knew how to spend the over-nervousness of a troubler upon snow-men, long errands, or the axe and wood-pile. He hated an idler with the perfect hatred of David. Such he kept counting beans, until they were willing to reckon more abstract units, or fell asleep. If too large for such work, they were put to read the 1st Book of Chronicles to see how many times they could find the word George in the four opening chapters, or directed to find what was the longest verse in Ezekiel. Upon one or two incorrigible offenders, I recollect he used what seemed to me strange punishments. A girl of twelve or thirteen years, with bright, wicked black eyes, and a defiant kind of bearing, came from a large family of "poor whites" that lived on a cross road just beyond Mr. Town's brewery. She was famous amongst us for her personal negligence, aud I often heard our instructor talk with her about it. But she seemed proof to all kinds of advice or entreaty. I may here say that she bore the almost classical and pastoral name of Mopsy, from her remarkable head of hair and its quaint neglect of tidiness. In plain phrase, Mopsy did not sport

a comb or brush. One morning, coming in a few minutes late, the black-eyed damsel, upon removing the handkerchief which covered her, struck the school so absurdly by the dark halo which tangled about her brow, that there was a universal laugh. The master" heard the cry, its meaning knew," and arose in his greatness. "Sal" (her real name was Sarah Grove), "have you combed your hair this morning?" "No, sir." "Borrow a comb from Miss Skinner's," said he, in an ominous tone; "I will improve your appearance so that you will not be known by your own mother." The reluctant girl went across the entry to the room of Miss S., and soon returned with the ordered utensil. "Sit in my chair." The half-defiant child sat down. With great skill, as it seemed to us all, but with not a movement of one muscle in his face, the inexorable hair-dresser plied his task, but not in silence. The first pass of the instrument started tears of pain, which were soon succeeded by cries of anger, words of abuse, yells of fury. Still the steady reformer pursued his work until the humbled and suffering girl, reduced to silence by exhaustion and shame, ceased to resist, and was allowed to take her accustomed seat, which she did not leave for the day. At evening, she had an interview with the teacher. We never knew what further witchcraft he used, if any; but the next day a demure maiden, with carefully braided locks and modest air, sat in the seat occupied the previous day by Mopsy, and ever after was known by the name of Sarah Grove, until she lost it by joining her fortunes to those of another.

It might be inferred that my first master was very severe; but, as the times went, far from it. He was much given to persuasives, as I have already implied, particularly in regard to young children; but he sometimes gave them lessons that showed he must not be trifled with. I remember a boy who sat next me on the long, low form, a hard, rude little wight, named Enoch Perrin. He brought chestnuts to school, and ate them "on the sly." He purloined his luncheon at intermission from other pupils. He tied strings to the tail of Miss Skinner's gray cat. He made faces in imitation of Mr. Airy's double chin, when that individual's back was turned. He tore the pictures from his primer, and ruined the burning of John Rogers with diluted molasses candy. He never

studied if he could help it, and took a kind of pride in being the chief of small dunces. I have reason to think that our good master studied his sources of fear more deeply than most men would have done. From some one he learned that Enoch had a strange dread of confinement, and particularly when this was in darkness. He acted upon this fact on the following occasion:

moor.

A large soap-stone inkstand of home manufacture fell into Perrin's busy hands. He pulled from it the tow which was stuffed into the stand to absorb the ink against mishaps, and very hideously, and yet with no mean skill, blackened his face. He then raised it to the view of his companions, and held up at the same time his begrimed hands. It need not be said that he created a sensation. Our good old master, at the roar of laughter which fell upon his active ear, straightened himself from the writing-book over which he was bending, and, pointing his gaze at one corner of the room, carried it steadily round until it had drank in every visible object within reach, among the rest, the little artistic blackaSuch a look! We expected to see some sudden outbreak for a certainty; but we were disappointed. A few moments were spent considering what he should do, laugh or rave. Neither. He calmly walked to the oven, which I have said flanked the fireplace, and taking away the cover, ordered one of the boys to remove the kindling wood that was stored there. The culprit turned pale between his black streaks with an uncertain dread. But when all the wood lay in the corner of the room, the deliberate old gentleman walked to the lad, took off the jacket he wore, removed very carefully his shoes and stockings, and wrapping around him a long knit sash so as to secure his hands and feet, raised him in his arms and solemnly asked him, in such tones as made us youngsters quiver, whether he had anything to send his mamma to remember him by before he was put into the oven for baking. Then, for the first time, it seemed to occur to the poor lad that he was to tenant the oven and undergo - who knew what? He raised a piteous cry. He made all the confessions he knew how to express. "Don't cook me! don't burn me! don't shut me up in the d-a-a-ark; I'll be a good boy! I won't be black any more! Do let me off this once! Dear mamma, help!" I think the master