all their life in
filth and wretchedness, and progressed but slowly. Many were the
hours, after the recitations were over, that Noll spent over at the
little village those warm days, planning with John Sampson about
broken doors and shattered beams, which were to be made strong and
serviceable, or, sitting on a pile of lumber, watching the carpenter
as he put in execution the plans which they had made. The children of
the village were generally playing near by, in the sand, with blocks
and chips,--growing up as unlettered and ignorant as their parents.
Some of them were great boys and girls,--almost as tall as Noll
himself,--and had never yet seen the inside of a book.

"If Uncle Richard would only hire a teacher," thought Noll, "and have
them grow up with some knowledge in their heads, they'd never get so
low and wretched as their parents. But that never'll be, I'm afraid.
Oh! if I were only rich, how quick I'd change it all!"

But there was no prospect of any such fortune befalling him, and he
usually turned away from the cluster of dirty, unkempt children with a
hopeless sigh. He said, one day, while sitting on a great heap of
shingles beside the carpenter,--

"What's to become of all these children, Mr. Sampson? Will they be
left to grow up like their fathers and mothers?"

"Well, I don't see much to hinder," said the carpenter, with a glance
at the dirty little ones who were throwing sand over their heads.
"Don't think you'll ever see many lawyers and ministers out o' the
lot."

"If there could only be a school here," continued Noll, "what a change
it would make! But there's no teacher, no schoolroom, no nothing, and
no prospect of there ever being anything!"

"Why don't you teach 'em yourself?" said Sampson, between the
creakings and rasping of his saw.

Noll was silent for a few minutes before he answered, "Why, to tell
the truth, I never had thought of the thing. But how can I? I don't
have any time till after four o'clock."

The carpenter sawed and planed, and made no reply, being entirely
indifferent to the whole matter; but his chance question had put an
idea in Noll's head which was not out of it for that afternoon, at
least. Could he teach those idle, ignorant children? he wondered.
Would they ever sit still long enough to look in a book? And where
could a room for the school be found? And where was the leisure time
to come from? Noll pondered over these questions many days, and