Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/202

 156 THE HISTOriY OF BARKINGTON. it, and were perhaps not the worse for having to turn our hands to these little offices." In addition to the books already referred to, a word should be said as to the Hornbook of our ancestors. This book was a simpler book for beginners than the New England Primer, which in its later editions contained the catechisms of John Cotton and that of the Westminster Assembly. The Horn- book was so called on account of its horn cover, which ren- dered it indestructible from without. Shakespeare calls it the "teacher of boys" in his time, and it was used in Mas- sachusetts and other parts of New England a little over a hundred years ago. "He does not know his hornbook," was equivalent to " he does not know his letters." A single book would often serve two or three generations of children of the same family, so carefully were those early text books used and handed down from parents to children. But facts enough have been given to show from what small begin- nings our present efficient public school system has sprung. As the town has settled a schoolmaster over its educa- tional interests for the term of twenty years, we may safely leave the boys and girls of that generation to Mr. Devotion's care, and turn backward forty years to the stirring and tragic events of Philip's War.