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ventilation, or shut to preserve the warmth of the room. Scarcely had the workman time to adjust the slide in its place, before every particle of impure air had apparently escaped through the opening, to pass off by the crevices in the roof. All felt and acknowledged the change, with astonishment and delight. The sensations of languor and oppression, that had begun to weigh heavily on the feelings and spirits of the company, had left them almost as unexpectedly and suddenly as fell the bundle of sins from the back of Bunyan's Pilgrim.

"Well, gentlemen," said Doctor Lincoln, as he looked round, and saw in the speaking countenances of the company, that all were as well satisfied as they were gratified at the result; "I believe the mystery is now solved. At all events, I'll agree to cure, for nothing, all the scholars that are hereafter made sick from any thing about the schoolhouse, or in the conduct of their master."

"Yes, the room is as clear as a horn, by George!" exclaimed Bunker, "and the thing is done-proved out as square as a brick, right in our face and eyes; and there's no getting away from it. But what sticks in my crop is, that we must have a man and a book man, too, though he plainly don't swallow books whole, without chewing, as most of 'em do have a man come thirty miles to think it out for us! Master, you and I ought to be trounced."

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"Well, Mr. Moderator," said the deacon's tormenter, the rustic humorist, we mean, who was the first to take up for Locke in the debate, and who now seemed greatly to enjoy the triumph of the latter over the little clique of his chopfallen foes 66 Well, Mr. Moderator, how is it about the old boy and his little blue influences, now? Don't you think they've pretty much all cleared out through that hole up yonder? Ah! I was about right, deacon: if the old chap had been any great affair, he could n't have crept out through

so small a hole as that comes to, quite so quick, you may depend on 't."

But the deacon, who suddenly recollected a promise he had made to carry, that night, some thorough-wort to a jaundery neighbor, was in too much of a hurry to reply to such scoffing questions; and he, with one or two of his most zealous supporters, immediately quitted the house, leaving the rest of the vanquished party, whether superstitionists or alarmists, to join the master and his increasing number of friends, acknowledge their error, and reciprocate congratulations on the unexpectedly happy result of the whole of this singular affair. We say the whole; for, before the company broke up, word was brought by one of the larger scholars, who had gone over to Widow Marvin's during the meeting, and just returned, that the sick boy there had fallen into a quiet sleep, attended by gentle perspiration;-symptoms which the gratified doctor at once pronounced to be a plain indication that the disease was going off, by what he technically termed resolution. And the result, in this case at least, went to prove the doctor's skill in prognostics. The boy, after that night, was consigned, by his departing physician, to the care only of his grateful mother, who, within a fortnight, had the unspeakable happiness of seeing her darling son restored to health, and his still loved, but now more temperately pursued studies.

Of the remainder of young Amsden's career in this district, little more need be added. Compared with the trials, vexations, and labors of the past, he now found but a path of flowers. The recent misfortune in his school, and the consequent infatuated movement to overthrow him, operating as all overwrought persecutions usually do, instead of injuring him, were the means of turning the popular current strongly in his favor, and of giving him a place in the estimation of nearly all around him, which he otherwise would have failed

to obtain. Being no further troubled with the injudicious interference of parents, or the misbehavior of their children,those two evils which too often require the best part of a teacher's time and attention to meet and overcome them,- he had nothing to do but instruct his pupils. And by no means unprofitably did the latter use the opportunity thus afforded them. From a rough, wild, unthinking set of creatures, who could appreciate nothing but animal pleasures or physical prowess, they became rational beings, ambitious for the acquisition of knowledge, and capable of intellectual pleasA new standard of taste and merit, in short, had been imperceptibly raised among them; and the winter that Locke Amsden kept school became an era in the district, from which commenced a visible and happy change in the whole moral and intellectual tone of its society.

ures.

Nor were the advantages which attended his exertions in this place wholly on one side. In teaching others, the master himself was often taught. Questions were daily put to him, even by children in their abs, which led him to reflection, research, and discoveries of truths, which, thorough scholar as he was, he found, to his surprise, he had before overlooked, and which otherwise might never have occurred to him; - discoveries, we repeat, of important truths, in almost every study of his school, and particularly in those of orthography, orthoepy, and etymology, those sadly neglected branches which require a philosopher to teach them understandingly, but which are yet, oftener than otherwise, entrusted to the teaching of an ignoramus !

In what is termed a physical education, also, he here received hints, which led him to the adoption of much more correct and enlarged views than any he had before entertained. His attention, indeed, had never been directed to the subject; and he had therefore continued to look upon it as did others around him, either as a matter of little im

portance, or, at best, as one which had no legitimate connection with popular education. But the painful and alarming occurrences which we have described, as arising from the want of ventilation in his school-house, taught him a lesson which could not be disregarded or easily forgotten; caused him to give an earnest consideration to this subject in all its bearings, whether in relation to ventilation, length of confinement to study, or ease of position; and forced upon his mind the conviction, that physical education, or an observance of those laws of life which can only insure the health of the body, and the consequent health of the mind, is, as truly as any other, a part of an instructor's duty, for the performance. of which, before high Heaven, he will be held responsible.

CHAPTER VI.

"Low in the world, because he scorns its arts;
A man of letters, manners, morals, parts;
Unpatronized, and therefore little known;
Wise for himself and his few friends alone."

COWPER.

HAVING fulfilled his engagement in the Horn-of-the-Moon, and bid a regretful adieu to the many friends he had there made, among the stanchest of whom was the straight-going and strong-minded Bunker, young Amsden returned to his family, with the intention of negociating, on some terms, with his father, for his time, during the remainder of his minority, that he might resume his studies. On naming the subject to his parents, his father gave him the choice of serving out his time, and receiving in return a portion of the homestead or a new lot of land when he should become of age, or of going now with nothing. Locke thanked him for the option, and instantly decided to depart. His decision, however, was not grounded on any dislike to an agricultural life; for, on the contrary, he ever thought highly of that healthful and noble avocation, which so early received the signal sanction of Heaven. And ever since that charmed hour in which he listened to the glowing picture of the life of the scientific farmer, drawn by the stranger gentleman, whose visit, with that of his bright-eyed daughter, was still secretly cherished in remembrance, as an event which first fairly apprised him he had a mind to be expanded, and a heart to be affected, he had determined eventually to return to that life. But he must first have knowledge, more knowledge, a little more

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