opewell; and here
they increased to such a degree that one of the early historians relates
that the Baptist Church there was founded by the Stouts, and that for
forty-one years the religious meetings were held in the houses of
different members of the Stout family, while, at the time he wrote, half
of the congregation of the church were still Stouts, and that, all in
all, there had been at least two hundred members of that name. So the
Baptist Church in Hopewell, as well as all the churches in Middletown,
owed a great deal to the good Indian who carried poor Penelope to his
village, and cured her of her wounds.

THE SCHOOLMASTER AND THE DOCTOR.

Of course, it was not long after New Jersey began to be settled and
cultivated, before there were a great many boys and girls who also
needed to be cultivated. And if we are to judge their numbers by the
families of Elizabeth, who started for the New World in a hogshead, and
of Penelope, who began her life here in a hollow tree, there must have
been an early opportunity for the establishment of flourishing schools;
that is, so far as numbers of scholars make schools flourishing.

But in fact it does not appear that very early attention was given in
this State to the education of the young. The first school of which we
hear was established in 1664; but it is probable that the first settlers
of New Jersey were not allowed to grow up to be over forty years old
before they had any chance of going to school, and it is likely that
there were small schools in various places of which no historical
mention is made.

It is admitted, however, by the historians of these early days of New
Jersey, that education was not attended to as it should have been; and
we read that in 1693 an act was passed to "establish schoolmasters
within the Province, 'for the cultivation of learning and good manners
for the good and benefit of mankind, which hath hitherto been much
neglected in the Province.'"

These early schools were not of a very high order; the books used by
younger scholars being what were called hornbooks, which were made by
pasting upon a board a piece of paper containing the alphabet and some
lessons in spelling, and covering the whole with a very thin sheet of
horn, which was fastened on the board as glass is fastened over a framed
picture. Thus the children could see the letters and words under the
horn, but were not able to deface or tear the paper. It was difficult to
get