the following forenoon. It was a log
building, about twenty feet square. There were no desks and the seats
were plank set on blocks of wood. Every child able to walk was there
full of curiosity as to what school was like. Archie's difficulties
began at once. Not one of the would-be scholars had a book of any kind;
those who said they wanted to learn to write had no paper and no slates.
Had they anything they could recite from memory? A little girl forthwith
began, Now I lay me down to sleep. With great patience, Archie taught
them the first verse of the 23rd psalm, and, trying if they could sing
it, found there were several good voices. He felt encouraged. Telling
them to bring books of any kind next day, he ended the lessons by one in
arithmetic, using the fingers. The second day was better. The children
came with all kinds of books except school-books, mostly bibles. One
girl had a copy of the crown lands rules and regulations. Only six could
read a sentence by spelling each word. They had to be started from the
beginning, and Archie had provided for that by producing a smoothly
planed board on which he had printed, with a carpenter's pencil, the
alphabet on one side and figures on the other. The children, with a few
exceptions, were eager to learn. Then he got them to memorize the second
verse of the 23rd psalm, and taught them a simple hymn, singing both.
They were strong on singing, and a boy volunteered to give them a song
he had heard, which had a chorus of Derry Down. So it went on. A supply
of smooth shaved shingles was got and with bits of chalk the scholars
learned to write simple words and cast up sums. At the close of each day
Archie told them a story and questioned to see how much of it they
remembered and understood. At the end of a fortnight three of the
settlers visited to see how matters were progressing and left satisfied.

Shifting his boarding-place each Saturday Archie came to know the
settlers intimately, and perceived how little outside their daily toil
there was to engage their minds. He proposed a singing-class for the
young fellows and the girls, and set a date for the first meeting. The
evening came and there was so great a crowd that the school could not
hold them so a number clustered round the open door. Archie knew nothing
about musical notation, but he had a good voice and a great store of
songs. The difficulty was knowledge of the words, which he overcame by
singing whatever any number