ey, people seemed to be very slow in
perceiving the advantages of schools in their midst. Schools had sprung
up here and there in towns and villages, many of them boarding schools;
and to these the richer farmers would send their children. But it took
people in some rural places a good while to find out that it would be a
good thing to have a school in their midst.

A story is told of the establishment of a school of this kind in
Deckertown as late as 1833. The people of this village had never thought
it worth while to have a school of their own; and even after a gentleman
of learning and ability, who was well known in the place, offered to
take charge of such a school, they did not look with any favor upon the
enterprise. The only place for a schoolhouse, which he was able to
obtain, was a very small building, consisting of one room, and situated
on the outskirts of the town. Here he started a school with one scholar;
and even this little fellow was not a Jersey boy, but came from New
York.

For a considerable time this single scholar constituted the school, and
he and the schoolmaster walked back and forth from the village to the
little cabin every day; while the only interest that the townspeople
seemed to take in them was shown by their laughing at the schoolmaster,
and comparing him to a hen with one chicken. It must not be supposed
that it was because the citizens did not believe in education; but, as
they had been in the habit of sending their children away to school,
they thought that that was the proper thing to do, and, as there never
had been a school in the town, they saw no reason why there should be
one then. But the school increased, and in less than a year it numbered
twenty scholars.

There is a rather peculiar story told of this school in its early days.
It had been established about two months, when the schoolmaster happened
to be walking in the direction of the school quite late in the evening
and to his amazement he saw that the little room was brilliantly
lighted. Now, as he and his scholar had left it in the afternoon, and he
had locked the door, he could not understand the state of affairs.
Hurrying to the house, he looked in at the window, and saw that the room
was nearly filled with well-dressed men, who were standing and sitting
around a table on which were spread cards and money. He saw that they
were a company of gamblers; but how they came there, and why they came,
he could not imagine.