in a moment of passion will be taken home by twenty tongues, and discussed in cold blood at twenty family supper-tables. A short call at the homes of your pupils will convince the old folks that the young teacher "isn't stuck up," will disarm prejudice, and conciliate the young folks.

Find out the two or three ruling families of the neighborhood, and make friends of them. Attend social gatherings whenever you are invited; the young folks like a human teacher. Bring the public opinion of the district over to your side, and you cannot make a failure in school.

V. ADVANTAGES OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

For a young teacher, whether man or woman, there is no better school of practice than an ungraded country school. Nor should its educational advantages for pupils be underrated. In the long race of life, boys educated in country schools do actually come out ahead of those ground out by the graded machinery of the city school. Perhaps one reason for this is that the country boy combines physical training with mental. During a part of the year, he works on the farm, and gets, not only muscular strength, but a habit of work. He goes back to school with a keen relish for study, and a habit of steady application. One day of hard work at ditching in his father's meadow made John Adams begin to be a good student of Latin. Hard work on his father's farm, from sunrise to sunset, hoeing corn, or haying, or digging potatoes, has made school-life seem a play-spell to many a boy, and has laid the foundation of habits that have led to brilliant success in mental work. The trouble with most city boys is that they have no work to do out of school, and they never

learn what labor means until school life is over. My observation as principal of an evening school of a thousand boys, for three years, convinced me that many of the boys made quite as rapid progress in the essential branches as did the boys of the day schools. The evening - school boys had a steadiness of purpose unknown to boys untrained to labor. Professor Runkle, of Boston, says, "So far from interfering with intellectual culture, industrial culture really lends to it a powerful support by strengthening the character and developing the moral energies. It is upon these moral energies that the entire value of human character depends."

"It takes more than a mere knowledge of books," says Superintendent Wickersham, "to make a useful member of society. We must so modify our system of instruction as to send out, instead, large classes of young people fitted for trades, and willing and able to work.

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Herein lies the great advantage of the country school: both boys and girls have a combination of mental and physical exercise. The morning and evening chores on the farm and in the household prevent undue mental exertion. They are not surfeited with school and books; school, indeed, is a relief from hard labor. Better six months' schooling in earnest than ten months of unwilling dawdling. For one, I am thankful that I was trained to habits of hard work in my boyhood, and went to a country school where I was not crammed with studies or worried with credits, or made wretched with written examinations.

If, for the teacher, the country school has its dark side in low wages or lack of society, it has also its bright side in contrast with the great schools of the towns and cities.

To show this, let me give you an encouraging thought from Professor William Russell, whose words, after a lapse of thirty years, still linger lovingly in my ears:

"A mind accustomed to large views, and working on broad principles, will, unconsciously and necessarily, adopt methods correspondent, and will radiate, from its own action, light and truth throughout the sphere of its influence. Nowhere is this statement more strikingly verified than in the case of an intelligent teacher, in the direction and instruction of an elementary school. It is in this sphere that ingenuity and tact, and originality and skill, are most needed, in endeavors to develop intellectual capabilities and build up the great fabric of mental power. Nowhere else, in the whole field of education, is the demand so urgent for a thorough insight into the nature and working of the mind, for the light to guide its advances, or the power to mould its expanding character."

VI. CONDENSED DIRECTIONS.

1. The true economy of teaching an ungraded school is to make the fewest possible number of classes, and to consider both age and capacity in making your classification.

2. If your school is a large one, do not attempt to hear daily recitations in everything, but alternate the studies of the more advanced pupils.

3. When they are not reciting, assign your classes textbook lessons or some piece of definite work on slates or blackboards.

4. Economize time and instruction by means of as many general exercises as possible, in which all except the youngest pupils can join; such as drill exercises in the four rules of arithmetic, mental-arithmetic examples, the

spelling of common words, abstracts in composition, review questions on the leading facts of geography, etc. To do this will require tact and forethought; but when well done, it is invaluable.

5. Take an hour, weekly, for select readings, dialogues, and lessons on morals and manners. You can fire a whole school with enthusiasm for good by reading the right kind of stories.

6. Occasionally give your classes a written examination. In most city schools, written examinations are carried to great extremes; but in most country schools there is not enough of written work to give readiness and exactness in the written expression of thought.

7. Train your older pupils to correct and credit the papers of the younger ones, and let the oldest girls play teacher occasionally.

8. If you are a woman, give your girls occasional talks on domestic economy. Buy some sensible book on the subject and lend it to them. A great many homes are poorly kept on account of ignorance. Huxley says, “I put instruction in the elements of household work and of domestic economy next in order to physical training." "Knowledge of domestic economy," says Kingsley, "saves income."

9. If you are a man, take some interest in the homework of your boys. Instil into their minds the necessity of labor for every human being. Point out to them the life-long value of being trained in boyhood to habits of regular employment in useful labor. Many a boy on a farm complains of his hard lot when he is really being blessed by hard labor. A wise teacher can often set him right in his notions.

10. Endeavor to make your school the district centre of civility, politeness, and good manners. If they learn good-breeding at all, many pupils must learn it at school. There is no limit to the civilizing influence of a gentle woman or a gentlemanly man in a country school. Send out your pupils with the seal of honor and truthfulness.

11. Persuade the parents to visit your school even if you have to do so by means of exhibitions in which their children take a part.

12. Remember that school trustees are your legal superiors in office. Argue with them, persuade and convince them if you can, but do not contradict them.

13. Bear in mind that though you may have more “book-learning” than most of the men and women in a country district, there are sure to be many parents who are your superiors in sound sense, in judgment, and in a knowledge of the solid facts of human life.

14. Before you begin school, if possible, call a meeting of the "trustees," or "committee." Talk over matters with them, ask their advice, and tell them your plans. It is well to go into a new school backed by the weight of official power.

15. Whenever you have any unusual cases of discipline, consult the trustees or the parents before you take action. 1 16. The following may be taken for practical guidance in your course of instruction:

A child of average mental powers ought to be able, on leaving school at fifteen years of age—

1. To read well and spell well.

2. To write a neat and legible hand.

3. To know the main points in the geography of the world, and the leading events in our country's history.