There were neighbors from a half mile to three and five miles away, and
they called and offered their assistance to contribute to our comfort.
It was found that there were seventeen children within a radius of five
miles, and the subject of starting a school was discussed.
The school-house was a log shanty six logs high, with holes for a
window and a door, which had been removed and were now a part of Mr.
Boardman's new house. Trees were cut down and the trunks split open and
holes bored in the ends of each half of the log; legs were put in, and
then they were hewed as smooth as an ax could make them, and placed on
the ground for benches. Four of these "puncheon" benches were made, and
at half-past nine the teacher took her place on a chair, which had been
brought especially for her, and called the school to order.
The first thing to do was to get an idea of what books the pupils
had. Mother had sent all her children had ever owned, and so had
others, and there were Cobb's Spelling-book, Dayball's Arithmetic,
Parley's Geography, McGuffey's Reader, Saunders's Spelling-book, Ray's
Arithmetic, Spencer's Spelling-book, Adams's Arithmetic, and Saunders's
Reader, gathered from all parts of America. There were no duplicates.
The school opened with a prayer by Mr. Wilbur.
We were not long in wearing a well-beaten path between our house
and the school, which for a number of years was a thoroughfare for
pedestrians.
My chief duty after school was to hunt up the cows and drive them
home in time for milking, and I came to know every foot of country
within a radius of ten miles. No boy's country life can be complete
without having hunted cows. "Old Red" wore the bell. Every neighbor
in the country had a bell-cow and a cow-bell, and my friend Matt Wood
and I always arranged that our cattle should herd together, and they
were invariably driven to the same range in the morning. Each of
us boys owned dogs, and we knew not only every cow-bell, but every
woodchuck-hole and every gopher-hole, and many a time, I fear, father
used to milk after dark because our dog had found a deep gopher-hole,
and that gopher must be had, milk or no milk, supper or no supper.
The first summer father planted and raised two acres of potatoes, with
some cabbages, onions, beets, carrots, and five acres of corn, and
he succeeded in splitting rails and putting a fence around ten acres
of land. I was trained to all branches of usefulness on a new farm.
Once in two weeks I went for the mail to the nearest village, eleven
miles away, often returning to tell father that there was a letter in
the office with sixpence postage to pay. In those days there was no
compulsory prepayment on letters, and it was sometimes months before
a turn of any kind would bring the money to get the letter out of the
post-office. The New York _Weekly Tribune_ was always a member of our
family, and our copy was read by everybody in the settlement. For three
years I walked to the village every week for that paper. We children
had to listen to my father read it every Sunday afternoon, as it was
wicked to play out of doors, and we had only morning church to attend.