Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year Part 9

"Now," the good master would say, when this was done, "who will take this new scholar and help him to learn?" When the new boy or girl was clean and bright 10 looking, many would be willing to take charge of him or her; but there were few ready to teach a dirty, ragged little child. Sometimes no one would wish to do it. In such a case the master would offer to the one who would take such a child a reward of one of the beautiful texts of Scripture 15 which the schoolmasters of that time used to write and decorate for the children. Or he would give him one of the pictures of birds which he was accustomed to paint with his own hands.

Whenever one of the younger scholars succeeded in 20 learning his A, B, C, Christopher Dock would send word to the father of the child to give him a penny, and he would ask his mother to cook two eggs for him as a treat. These were fine rewards for poor children in a new country.

There were no clocks or watches in the country. The 25 children came to school one after another, taking their places near the master, who sat writing. They spent their time reading until all were there; but everyone who succeeded in reading his pa.s.sage without mistake stopped reading and came and sat at the writing table to write. 30 The poor fellow who remained last on the bench was called the Lazy Scholar.

Every Lazy Scholar had his name written on the blackboard.

If a child at any time failed to read correctly, he was sent back to study his pa.s.sage and called again after a while. If he failed a second or a third time, all the scholars cried out, "Lazy!" Then his name was written on 5 the blackboard, and all the poor Lazy Scholar's friends went to work to teach him to read his lesson correctly. And if his name should not be rubbed off the board before school was dismissed, all the scholars might write it down and take it home with them. But if he could read well before 10 school was out, the scholars, at the bidding of the master, called out, "Industrious!" and then his name was erased.

The funniest of Dock's rewards was that which he gave to those who made no mistake in their lessons. He marked a large O with chalk on the hand of the perfect scholar. 15 Fancy what a time the boys and girls must have had, trying to go home without rubbing out this O!

If you had gone into this school some day, you might have seen a boy sitting on a punishment bench, all alone.

This was a fellow who had told a lie or used bad language. 20 He was put there as not fit to sit near anybody else. If he committed the offense often, a yoke would be put round his neck, as if he were a brute. Sometimes, however, the teacher would give the scholars their choice of a blow on the hand or a seat on the punishment bench. They usually 25 preferred the blow.

The old schoolmaster in Skippack wrote one hundred rules of good behavior for his scholars. This is perhaps the first book on good manners written in America. But rules of behavior for people living in houses of one or two rooms, 30 as they did in that day, were very different from those needed in our time. Here are some of the rules:

"When you comb your hair, do not go out in the middle of the room," says the schoolmaster. This was because families were accustomed to eat and sleep in the same room.

"Do not eat your morning bread on the road or in school,"

he tells them, "but ask your parents to give it to you at 5 home." From this we see that the common breakfast was bread alone, and that the children often ate it as they walked to school.

"Put your knife upon the right and your bread on the left side," he says. Forks were little used in those days, 10 and the people in the country did not have any. He also tells them not to throw bones under the table. It was a common practice among some people of that time to throw bones and sc.r.a.ps under the table, where the dogs ate them.

As time pa.s.sed on, Christopher Dock had many friends, 15 for all his scholars of former years loved him greatly. He lived to be very old, and taught his schools to the last.

One evening he did not come home, and the people went to look for the beloved old man. They found their dear old master on his knees in the schoolhouse. He had died 20 while praying alone.

--_Stories of American Life and Adventure._

1. How was Christopher Dock's school different from most pioneer schools of that day?

2. How did he teach good behavior? What inducements were offered for scholarship? You often hear people say that only the "three R's" were taught when they went to school. What do they mean?

3. What information about pioneer home life does this article give you?

4. You will be interested to know that the pupils in the early schools studied their reading aloud at the top of their voices. They learned reading by singing "ab," "ba," etc. Later, when geography was taught, the capitals of the states were sung.

FRENCH LIFE IN THE NORTHWEST

BY JAMES BALDWIN

You will recall that the French explorers Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, and others established missions and trading posts in the Illinois country.

It was due to these early explorations that the French got control of a large part of the Northwest Territory.

The following narrative tells of the simple life of the French settlers in that territory.

It is interesting to learn how the French people in the Illinois country lived in friendship with the savage tribes around them. The settlements were usually small villages on the edge of a prairie or in the heart of the woods.

They were always near the bank of a river; for the watercourses 5 were the only roads and the light canoes of the _voyageurs_ were the only means of travel. There the French settlers lived like one great family, having for their rulers the village priest and the older men of the community.

The houses were built along a single narrow street and so 10 close together that the villagers could carry on their neighborly gossip each from his own doorstep. These houses were made of a rude framework of corner posts, studs, and crossties, and were plastered, outside and in, with "cat and clay"--a kind of mortar, made of mud and 15 mixed with straw and moss. Around each house was a picket fence, and the forms of the dooryards and gardens were regulated by the village lawgivers.

Adjoining the village was a large inclosure, or "common field," for the free use of all the villagers. The size of 20 this field depended upon the number of families in the settlement; it sometimes contained several hundred acres.

It was divided into plots or allotments, one for each household, and the size of the plot was proportioned according to the number of persons in the family. Each household 5 attended to the cultivation of its own ground and gathered its own harvest. And if anyone should neglect to care for his plot and let it become overgrown with weeds and thistles, he forfeited his right to any part of the common field and his ground was given to another. 10

Surrounding the common field was a large tract of cleared land that was used as a common pasture ground.

In some cases there were thousands of acres in this tract, and yet no person was allowed to use any part of it except for the pasturage of his stock. When a new family came 15 into the settlement or a newly married couple began housekeeping, a small part of the pasture ground was taken into the common field, in order to give the new household its proper allotment.

The priest occupied the place of father to all the villagers, 20 whether white or red. They confided all their troubles to him. He was their oracle in matters of learning as well as of religion. They obeyed his word as law.

The great business of all was fur trading and the care of their little plots of ground. The women kept their homes 25 in order, tended their gardens, and helped with the plowing and the harvesting. The men were the protectors of the community. Some were soldiers, some were traders, but most were engaged in hunting and in gathering beaver skins and buffalo hides to be sold to the traders. 30

The traders kept a small stock of French goods--laces, ribbons, and other articles, useful and ornamental--and these they exchanged for the products of the forest. The young men, as a rule, sought business and pleasure in the great woods. Some of them became _voyageurs_, or boatmen, in the service of the traders. In their light canoes they explored every rivulet and stream and visited the distant 5 tribes among the sources of the Mississippi and Missouri.

Others took to the forest as woods rangers, or _coureurs de bois_, and became almost as wild as the Indians themselves.

They wandered wherever their fancy led them, hunting game, trapping beavers, and trading with their dusky 10 friends. Those who roamed in the Lake regions built here and there small forts of logs and surrounded them with palisades. In one of these forts a company of two or three _coureurs_ would remain for a few weeks and then leave it to be occupied by anyone who might next come that way. 15 A post of this kind was built at Detroit long before any permanent settlement was made there; and scattered long distances apart on the Lake sh.o.r.e and in the heart of the wilderness, were many others.

The northern _coureurs_, when returning from the woods, 20 resorted to Mackinac as their headquarters; or loaded with beaver skins they made their way to Montreal, where they conducted themselves in a manner that would have shamed a Mohawk or a Sioux. But the rangers of the Illinois country were in the habit of returning once 25 each year to their village homes. There they were welcomed with joy, b.a.l.l.s and festivals were given in their honor, and old and young gathered around them to hear the story of their adventures.

Thus in the heart of the wilderness, these French settlers 30 pa.s.sed their lives in the enjoyment of unbounded freedom.

They delighted in amus.e.m.e.nts and there were almost as many holidays as working days. Being a thousand miles from any center of civilization they knew but little of what was taking place in the world. In their hearts they were devoted to their mother country; they believed that "France ruled the world and therefore all must be right." 5 Further than this they troubled themselves but little.

They were contented and happy and seldom allowed themselves to be annoyed by the perplexing cares of business.

They had no wish to subdue the wilderness--to hew 10 down the forest, and make farms, and build roads, and bring civilization to their doors. To do this would be to change the modes of living that were so dear to them. It would destroy the fur trade, and then what would become of the traders, the _voyageurs_, and the _coureurs 15 de bois_? These French settlers were not the kind of people to found colonies and build empires.

We are indebted to Father Marest for a description of the daily routine of life among the converts and French settlers at Kaskaskia. At early dawn his pupils came to 20 him in the church, where they had prayers and all joined in singing hymns. Then the Christians in the village met together to hear him say Ma.s.s--the women standing on one side of the room, the men on the other.

The French women were dressed in prettily colored 25 jackets and short gowns of homemade woolen stuffs or of French goods of finer texture. In summer most of them were barefooted, but in winter and on holidays they wore Indian moccasins gayly decorated with porcupine quills, sh.e.l.ls, and colored beads. Instead of hats they wore 30 bright-colored handkerchiefs, interlaced with gay ribbons and sometimes wreathed with flowers.

The men wore long vests drawn over their shirts, leggings of buckskin or of coa.r.s.e woolen cloth, and wooden clog shoes or moccasins of heavy leather. In winter they wrapped themselves in long overcoats with capes and hoods that could be drawn over their heads and thus serve for 5 hats. In summer their heads were covered with blue handkerchiefs worn turbanlike as a protection from mosquitoes as well as from the rays of the sun.

After the morning devotions were over, each person betook himself to whatever business or amus.e.m.e.nt was 10 most necessary or congenial; and the priest went out to visit the sick, giving them medicine and consoling them in whatever way he could. In the afternoon those who chose to do so came again to the church to be taught the catechism.

During the rest of the day the priest walked about 15 the village, talking with old and young and entering into sympathy with all their hopes and plans. In the evening the people would meet together again to chant the hymns of the church. This daily round of duty and devotion was often varied by the coming of holidays and festivals 20 and sometimes by occurrences of a sadder nature--death, or misfortune, or the threatened invasion of savage foes.

--_The Discovery of the Old Northwest._

1. Contrast the life of these French communities with the life of the Dutch settlers as described in pages 70-72. How did it differ from pioneer life in Ohio (pages 62-67)?

2. Why did the French communities not make progress? Why did the English colonists finally overcome them?

3. Longfellow's _Evangeline_ describes French life in Nova Scotia. If you have read it, tell your cla.s.smates how Evangeline lived.

4. Find from your histories what parts of North America were settled by the French. What parts of it are still peopled largely by French?

A BEAR STORY