So the children were taught on the Common. They had their old teachers,
who taught as a labour of love and without fee. They received in return
a few eggs, a little milk, butter, cheese, in fact, anything which poor
people share with each other, not forgetting Burston smiles.
However, trouble was a-brewing. The Law Assyrian came down like a wolf
on the fold. The parents were summoned for not sending their children to
school. On the 14th of May, 1914, thirty parents appeared before the
magistrates at Diss, three miles away, to show cause whereby, inasmuch,
as aforesaid, likewise hereinafter. Why not! Oh, Law! Lor! Perhaps
you have had experience of engaging a lawyer to defend you from another
lawyer?
The Burston Braves appeared before the Diss Solons for not sending their
children to school.
I pause here to blame the children. Had the children been intelligent
enough to choose rich parents they could have been taught in their own
homes, including Windsor, Knowsley, Welbeck, or anywhere else. Rich
parents have this slight advantage over Burston village bairns. Let this
be a warning to the bairns.
The solicitor for the defence questioned the School Attendance Officer,
who admitted that _he_ had made no inquiries to ascertain whether the
children were attending another school.
By the way, what did that well-known writer say, whose name I do not
know? “Man is an animal that looks above, behind, but never beneath his
nose.”
The attendance officer had nothing to say on behalf of the Education
Committee as to the efficiency of the old teachers.
The magistrates heard _one_ case. The Burston Brave proved that her
little son had regularly attended a school conducted by the late mistress
and master, so the bench inflicted a fine of five shillings upon her and
29 more women. These are hard wooden benches, aren’t they? I wonder
what fine would have been inflicted if the children had not attended
school!
But, knowing their antipathy to blacklegging, they could not do otherwise
than stick to their old teachers.
In the certificate of membership, issued by the National Union of
Teachers, is the following: