the teacher of this school at her residence, late in the afternoon,
giving familiar instruction to some ten boys and girls, all but two
being under twelve years, who read the twenty-first chapter of the Book
of Revelation, and the story of Lazarus in the eleventh chapter of St.
John. Elsie was one of these. Seeing me taking notes, she looked archly
at the teacher, and whispered,--"he's putting me in the book"; and as
Elsie guessed, so I do. The teacher was instructing her pupils in some
dates and facts which have had much to do with our history. The
questions and answers, in which all the pupils joined, were these:--

"Where were slaves first brought to this country?"

"Virginia."

"When?"

"1620."

"Who brought them?"

"Dutchmen."

"Who came the same year to Plymouth, Massachusetts?"

"Pilgrims."

"Did they bring slaves?"

"No."

A teacher in Beaufort put these questions, to which answers were given
in a loud tone by the whole school:--

"What country do you live in?"

"United States."

"What State?"

"South Carolina."

"What island?"

"Port Royal."

"What town?"

"Beaufort."

"Who is your Governor?"

"General Saxton."

"Who is your President?"

"Abraham Lincoln."

"What has he done for you?"

"He's freed us."

There were four schools in the town of Beaufort, all of which I visited,
each having an average attendance of from sixty to ninety pupils, and
each provided with two teachers. In some of them writing was taught. But
it is unnecessary to describe them, as they were very much like the
others. There is, besides, at Beaufort an industrial school, which meets
two afternoons in a week, and is conducted by a lady from New York, with
some dozen ladies to assist her. There were present, the afternoon I
visited it, one hundred and thirteen girls from six to twenty years of
age, all plying the needle, some with pieces of patchwork, and others
with aprons, pillow-cases, or handkerchiefs.

Though I have never been on the school-committee, I accepted invitations
to address the schools on these visits, and particularly plied the
pupils with questions, so as to catch the tone of their minds; and I
have rarely heard children answer with more readiness and spirit. We had
a dialogue substantially as follows:--

"Children, what are you going to do when you grow up?"

"Going to work, Sir."

"On what?"

"Cotton and corn, Sir."

"What are you going to do with the corn?"

"Eat it."