Once a flock of quail came marching in demurely at the open door, while teacher and pupils maintained a silence at the pretty sight.

And once the place was cleared by an invasion of hornets enraged at something.

That was a great day for the boys.
The studies were not as varied as in the cross-roads schools to-day.
There was the primer, and there were a few of the old Webster spelling-books, but, while the stories of the boy in the apple tree and the overweening milkmaid were familiar, the popular spelling-book was Town's, and the readers were First, Second, Third and Fourth, and their "pieces" included such classics as "Webster's Reply to Hayne" and "Thanatopsis," and numerous clever exploits of S.P.Willis in blank verse.

Davie's Arithmetic was dominant, and, as for grammar, whenever it was taught, Brown's was the favorite.

There was, even then, in the rural curriculum the outlining of that system of the common schools which has made them of this same region unexcelled elsewhere in all the world.