Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/350

330 children would not be free all day to steal them! At last, after weeks of patient and thankless work, she collected her children and bought an old ox-shed to serve as school-house. Then a teacher had to be found. Few qualifications were necessary in these days. A little private fortune was desirable, for salaries were low, "A woman of excellent natural sense, good knowledge of the human heart, activity, zeal and uncommon piety," with a grown-up daughter, was one of the selected teachers for these early elementary schools. She taught reading, sewing, knitting and spinning. "I allow no writing for the poor," says Hannah More, "my object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety." As in the Sunday-schools, regular attendance was rewarded with sweets and gingerbread, augmented once a year by prizes of Bibles, calico aprons, caps and tippets. A marked improvement took place in the neighbourhoods where such schools as these had been started, and others began to rise up all over the country, until the private enterprise of a few individuals was merged in various societies, which undertook the education of the poor, till, in 1818, 605,704 children out of