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74 CHAPTER VI.

is nothing in New-England so eagerly sought for, or so highly prized by all classes of people, as the advantages of education. A farmer and his wife will deny themselves all other benefits that might result from the gains that have accrued to them from a summer of self-denial and toil, to give their children the privilege of a grammar-school during the winter. The public, or as they are called the town-schools, are open to the child of the poorest labourer. As knowledge is one of the best helps and most certain securities to virtue, we doubtless owe a great portion of the morality of this blessed region, where there are no dark corners of ignorance, to these wise institutions of our pious ancestors.

In the fall subsequent to the events we have recorded, a school had been opened in the village of, of a higher and more expensive order, than is common in a country town. Every mouth was filled with praises of the new teacher, and with promises and expectations of the knowledge to be derived from this newly opened fountain; all was