Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-07-17
DIR SCHOOLMISTRESS.
CHAPTER 1.

ru myself IN the lltlle LOWn Vi St. DRUG
efs where it happened, and l know the
whole story from beginning to end, and
the beginning was this:
was paving a morning visit to dear
old Mrs. Ambrose, our Wears wife, when
the Vicar himself marched into the room
With his wide-awake on, and said:
.Botherr
Twill do him the justice to say that he
took off his wide-awake as soon as he saw
me. and met the requirements of the occa-
sion by addressing me.
airs. Acton, here's bother!"
"What" we exclaimed, hurriedly, for
we saw there was something serious.
"That-that prig of an inspector says
we must have certifcated Mistress" re-
nlied the Vicar; and then he sat down,
and we all looked at each other in solemn
silence for full three minutes.
A certifcated mistress at ST. Bridget's!
That meant turning out the dear old wo-
man who had kept the school for the last
6ye-and-twenty years, and had taught our
girls to hem and stitch and darn so beau
fifully that they got places as working
women far and wide! And she had
taught both girls and boys the best man
ners of any children in Southshire, and
had trained them up to be honest, God
fearing men and women, besides teaching
them some reading and writing, and the
first four rules of arithmetic. Nearly all
the children who had stayed long enough
at the school could read easy words in
large print, and several of the clever ones
had been known to write out the Lords
Prayer from memory, and to say the null
tplicatlon table quite perfectly. What
III
Mr.. Ambrose called the inspector prig.
called him something much worse, but
as my thoughts were not put into words,
they need not be repeated
ooh, dear, dear!" cried poor Mrs. Am
decision broke upon her. "What shall we
heart"
"And that's not the worst of it. The
school will be ruined-good for nothing
IN the world" exclaimed the Vicar, get
ting up and tramping about the room
'The children will be stuffed with facts;
but they won't get the education they do
now. As if knowledge and education
were the same thing! l suppose some
fools think they are" he added, kicking a
stool as viciously as if it had been the in
spector himself.
81 don't know about education I re-
plied-which was quite true, for didn't;
'but no one will teach sewing like Mrs
Toxins, | am sure, and the certificated
mistresses l have seen have been such
very grand young women that, if they are
all alike, | shall be afraid to 60 into the
school,"
ooh, they are all alike, my DEAR" sighed
Mrs. Ambrose; "they wear chignOns and
silk dresses, and feathers, and they are
dreadful"
"Can't we get out of it9" I asked, faint
ly. But the Vicar shook his head, and l
did not repeat the question. Even at ST.
Bridget's we knew something Of the Ed
ucation act, which was driving scores of
inoffensive incumbents mad, and upset.
ting the peace of half the parishes in
England. dare say it is very wise and
necessary act but it is dreadfully tire
some one; and as we sat in the drawing
room that day, we did not know which
was the worse, losing an old mistress or
getting anew one; but we did hate the in
spector with hatred that was not quite
consistent with our religious principles
There was terrible stir in the town
when the news was whispered about, and
every time l went to the vicarage Mrs.
Ambrose had some fresh trouble to con-
fide in me. Who broke the news to Mrs.
Toxins | never heard, but suppose the
Vicar did it. did not go near the school
for week, fearing that / should be re-
celved with tears and lamentations; but
the old lady bore it much better than we
could have hoped and we subscribed large
ly, and bought her testimonial-of
course it was teapot-and we invited
her to party, when the Vicar and the
Churchwarden made speeches, and every
body else cried, and we felt much better
afterwards.
80, on the whole, we got rid of Mrs.
Toxins much better than we expected
But finding her successor, the certificated
mistress, was quite another business. We
had thought it would be an exceedingly
simple matter, for naturally there would
be great competition for such school
as ours, and the Vicar would select the
most suitable person from among the list
OF candidates. 1t took us several days to
realize this astonishing fact, and we doubt
ed whether the Guardian had duly inserted
the advertisement. But when we came to
look, we found it in the proper column,
only it struck us for the first time that
there were an enormous number Of other
advertisements very much like ours in
deed, except that some of them offered a
great deal more money than we had
thought of giving.
Mrs. Ambrose made this discovery as
she looked over the Guardian on Thurs
day morning.
MY dear, here are three-no, four
advertisements for certifcated mistresses,
offering fifty pounds year!"
Fifty We have only said thirty-fve,"
replied the Vicar. "No wonder we have
no answers"
And as the days went on, and weeks be-
gan to slip away, he saw that it behooved
him to do something, or the inspector
would be coming again before we had our
mistress, and there was no saying what
would happen then; we should lose our
grant, and possibly incur other penalties.
"I'll write to Dobson," said Mr.. AM
brose to his wife.
And he wrote to Mr.. Dobson the next
morning, as soon as he went to his study.
Mr.. Dobson was the principal of the great
training college at Hatley, and an old
friend of the Wears, so he might just as
well have written to him sooner, only
49,