and stand in a row according to their failures. Those who have not failed go together behind the table. The others sit down at the foot of the table.
Concerning the letter-writing to each other.
It may be mentioned that I attended to two schools as already said for twelve years, and also four summers (that is three months which I had free from harvest) kept school in Germantown. The scholars in Skippack, when I went to the school in Salford, gave me letters to take with me. When I came back again the Salford scholars did likewise. It was so arranged that those appointed to write to each other were of equal advancement. But if it happened that one was superior to the other, he then wrote to another to whom he thought himself equal. The superscription was only this, “My friendly greeting to N. N.” The contents of the letter were a short rhyme, or a selection from the Bible, to which was added something concerning their school exercises, what they had for a motto during the week, and where it was written and the like. He also gave a question in his letter which the other should answer with a quotation from the Holy Scriptures. I do not doubt but that two schoolmasters, whether they lived in the same place or not, if they had such regard for each other and were willing to inculcate affection in the young, and were inspired in this work by a heartfelt love of God and the common good of youth, could inspire love in this way.
So much is circumstantially given as to the guiding and leading the young to learn spelling, and how they, step by step, must progress before they can be brought to the point which is kept in view for the honor of God and their welfare, and which at last follows.
