m to come to Joliet without
delay, and assume direction of the new school. This letter fell into
the hands of another lady who had just arrived at Dresden from New
England in search of her husband, who happened to be Mr. Sellars.
The letter which that other lady wrote to Miss Priscilla I did not
see, but it was said to be a masterpiece of composition, and it
emptied two schools. Mr. Tucker went over to Dresden and looked
around for Mr. Sellars, but that gentleman had gone out west, and was
never heard of again. The west was a very wide unfenced space,
without railways.

"The fact is," said Mr. Curtis, "we were all kinder shamed the way
things turned out, and we just let 'em rip. But people are now
stirring about the school being closed so long, so Mr. Strong and Mr.
Demmond have concluded to engage you and me to conduct the school."

We were engaged that night, and I went rail-splitting no more. But I
fenced my estate; and while running the line on the western boundary
I found the grave of Highland Mary. It was in the middle of a grove
of oak and hickory saplings, and was nearly hidden by hazel bushes.
The tombstone was a slab about two feet high, roughly hewn. Her
epitaph was, "Mary Campbell, aged 7. 1827." That was all. Poor
little Mary.

The Common Schools of Illinois were maintained principally from the
revenue derived from grants of land. When the country was first
surveyed, one section of 640 acres in each township of six miles
square was reserved for school purposes. There was a State law on
education, but the management was entirely local, and was in the
hands of a treasurer and three directors, elected biennally by the
citizens of each school district. The revenue derived from the
school section was sometimes not sufficient to defray the salary of
the teacher, and then the deficiency was supplied by the parents of
the children who had attended at the school; those citizens whose
children did not attend were not taxed by the State for the Common
Schools; they did not pay for that which they did not receive. In
some instances only one school was maintained by the revenue of two
school sections. When the attendance in the school was numerous, a
young lady, called the "school-marm," assisted in the teaching.
Sometimes, as in the case of Miss Priscilla, she fell into trouble.

The books were provided by the enterprise of private citizens, and an
occasional change of "Readers" was agreeable both t