back to back, so the occupants, not infrequently sweethearts, amused themselves and their neighbors instead of studying. The little house in winter was a microcosm of climates. From the frigid cor- ners came forth at frequent intervals the cry: “Teacher, kin I go to the fire ?“ followed by the scuffling of cold feet as they made their way to the torrid zone around the heated stove. Ventilation -- and frequently pneumonia, -- was afforded through the single door or the upraised windows.

Blackboards were few and small, and usually served as orna- ments, being hung beyond the reach of the pupils. Of globes, num- eral frames, and maps, except of Delaware, there were none outside of Wilmington.

A uniform system of text-books was as yet a dream. Comly's Spelling-Book, the English Reader, Murray's Grammar, and Pike’s Arithmetic were used more than any other books, but students were generally sent to school without books, or such as suited the caprice or poverty of their parents.

Dr. Grimshaw said in 1855:

“I found in one school with forty-three names on the roll, the average attendance of which was twenty-seven, five different kinds of reading-books, and seven different sorts of arithmetic.”

Rev. Robert W. Todd describes a typical peninsular schoolhouse of the thirties as follows:

“A litle while after this, the school house at Chinquepin was completed. We thought it very fine in appearance and comfortable in appointments, It was furnished with a writing-desk on either side, instead of but one, as heretofore, so that both boys and girls could write at the same time. There were six nice slab benches, three each for boys and girls. but all so high from the floor that the smaller children literally went to roost on a perch whenever they sat down. This new school-house was furnished with a large tenplate stove, in the center of the room; altogether it was so very fine that there was much competition among country professors as to who should have the distinguished honor of presiding at Chinquepin."

Few of the teachers were qualified to teach even the elementary branches of an English education. One of the most popular teachers in central Delaware twenty years ago, as the writer distinctly remembers, was given to such ludicrous mistakes as the

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