Our Home. 187

 

a gentleman rode up shouting for some one to hold
his horse, and I sprang out and took it until a man
came round from the stable t6 lead it away. I had
not long to wait in the hall before I was summoned
before the committee, which consisted of Squire
Philipps, the clergyman of the parish, and my
gentleman of the horse. This latter gentleman
looked surprised at seeing me. “So you are the
schoolmaster applying for the situation?” he said.
“Well, civil lad—teach the boys obliging manners,
eh? better than book-learning any day.”

“But book-learning helps to good manners, sir.”
The words came off my tongue before I had con-
sidered whether I did well to utter them.

“There is truth in that,” said the parson; “at
least where the learning is more than a smattering.
I think you said you were certificated ?”

Yes, I had passed at Christmas, and passed well—
as, indeed, I ought; for few, if any, of those who
went up with me had had such good teaching as I
received.

“But we should wish for something beyond the
mere routine of school-work,” said the parson.
“Some of our farmers might be glad to have their
boys carried a little further by means of a more
advanced night-school; what could you teach
them—algebra, for instance, and Euclid ?”