mily
originated in the successful enterprise of a New England ship carpenter."

Chapter III

"At the death of Sir William Phips," proceeded Grandfather, "our chair was
bequeathed to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, a famous school-master in Boston. This
old gentleman came from London in 1637, and had been teaching school ever
since; so that there were now aged men, grandfathers like myself, to whom
Master Cheever had taught their alphabet. He was a person of venerable
aspect, and wore a long white beard.

"Was the chair placed in his school?" asked Charley.

"Yes, in his school," answered Grandfather; "and we may safely say that it
had never before been regarded with such awful reverence--no, not even when
the old governors of Massachusetts sat in it. Even you, Charley, my boy,
would have felt some respect for the chair, if you had seen it occupied by
this famous school-master."

And here Grandfather endeavored to give his auditors an idea how matters
were managed in schools above a hundred years ago. As this will probably
be an interesting subject to our readers, we shall make a separate sketch
of it, and call it

THE OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL

Now imagine yourselves, my children, in Master Ezekiel Cheever's
school-room. It is a large, dingy room, with a sanded floor, and is
lighted by windows that turn on hinges, and have little diamond shaped
panes of glass. The scholars sit on long benches, with desks before them.
At one end of the room is a great fire-place, so very spacious, that there
is room enough for three or four boys to stand in each of the chimney
corners. This was the good old fashion of fire-places, when there was wood
enough in the forests to keep people warm, without their digging into the
bowels of the earth for coal.

It is a winter's day when we take our peep into the school-room. See what
great logs of wood have been rolled into the fire-place, and what a broad,
bright blaze goes leaping up the chimney! And every few moments, a vast
cloud of smoke is puffed into the room, which sails slowly over the heads
of the scholars, until it gradually settles upon the walls and ceiling.
They are blackened with the smoke of many years already.

[Image #2]

Next, look at our old historic chair! It is placed, you perceive, in the
most comfortable part of the room, where the generous glow of the fire is
sufficiently felt, without being too intensely hot. How stately the old