he distance to
that town for comparative safety, perhaps of being obliged to flee in
the night. Signals of alarm were arranged by the General Court. Alarm
was to be given "by distinctly discharging three muskets, or by
continual beat of the drum, or firing the beacon, or discharging a pesse
of ordnance, and every trained soldier is to take the alarm immediately
on paine of five pound." It was also ordered, "That every town provide a
sufficient place for retreat for their wives and children to repaire to,
as likewise to keepe safe the ammunition thereof." And also, "That all
watches throughout this country bee set at sunset at the beat of the
drums, & not bee discharged till the beate of the drum at sunne rising."

But those old Puritans were not men to be bundled by any of the
weaknesses of human nature. In ten days, when it was found that nobody
had started "westward, ho!" another town-meeting was held, in which, in
spite of the dangers to be encountered by the new colony, the first vote
was re-affirmed, and it was decided that "the thirtie families be chosen
by ye seven men," probably the selectmen. And to ensure the matter,
it was determined that this vote should not be repealed except by the
consent of every freeman in the town. So, in the spring, this tiny
colony went out to Salisbury new-town.

In 1647, a law was passed requiring every township of fifty families to
maintain a school. This is the way that the preamble reads:--

"It being one chiefe pr'ject of yt ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men
from ye knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in former times by keeping ym in
an unknown tongue, so in these latt'r times by pr'suading from ye use of
tongues yt so at least ye true sense & meaning of ye original might be
clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, yt learning may not
be buried in ye grave of o'r fath'rs in ye church & commonwealth, the
Lord assisting our endeavor. It is therefore resolved," &c.

It seems overturning the cornerstone of our forefathers' intentions to
banish from our schools the Scriptures, those finest examples of the
strength and beauty of the English language, to say nothing of their
lessons in individual self-government, which is the only foundation that
a republic can be built upon.

From this old law have grown up all the public schools of Amesbury.
There is now a high school, and there are, of course, the required
number of small schools; some of these in the outlying districts