e or used bad language. 20
He was put there as not fit to sit near anybody else. If
he committed the offense often, a yoke would be put round
his neck, as if he were a brute. Sometimes, however, the
teacher would give the scholars their choice of a blow on
the hand or a seat on the punishment bench. They usually 25
preferred the blow.

The old schoolmaster in Skippack wrote one hundred
rules of good behavior for his scholars. This is perhaps the
first book on good manners written in America. But rules
of behavior for people living in houses of one or two rooms, 30
as they did in that day, were very different from those
needed in our time. Here are some of the rules:

"When you comb your hair, do not go out in the middle
of the room," says the schoolmaster. This was because families
were accustomed to eat and sleep in the same room.

"Do not eat your morning bread on the road or in school,"
he tells them, "but ask your parents to give it to you at 5
home." From this we see that the common breakfast
was bread alone, and that the children often ate it as they
walked to school.

"Put your knife upon the right and your bread on the
left side," he says. Forks were little used in those days, 10
and the people in the country did not have any. He also
tells them not to throw bones under the table. It was a
common practice among some people of that time to throw
bones and scraps under the table, where the dogs ate them.

As time passed on, Christopher Dock had many friends, 15
for all his scholars of former years loved him greatly. He
lived to be very old, and taught his schools to the last.
One evening he did not come home, and the people went
to look for the beloved old man. They found their dear
old master on his knees in the schoolhouse. He had died 20
while praying alone.

--_Stories of American Life and Adventure._

1. How was Christopher Dock's school different from
most pioneer schools of that day?

2. How did he teach good behavior? What inducements
were offered for scholarship? You often hear people
say that only the "three R's" were taught when they
went to school. What do they mean?

3. What information about pioneer home life does
this article give you?

4. You will b