of education. Indeed, any thing like regular schools was rendered
impossible by the then-existing circumstances. Clearings had made a
very inconsiderable encroachment on the wilderness. There were here
and there farmhouses, with deep forests between. It was long before
easily traversable roads could be made. A schoolhouse placed
permanently on any particular spot would be within the reach of but
very few. Farmers most competent to the work, who had enjoyed the
advantages of some degree of education, and could manage to set apart
any time for the purpose, were, in some instances, prevailed upon to
receive such children as were within reaching distance as pupils in
their own houses, to be instructed by them at stated times and for a
limited period. Daniel Andrew rendered this service occasionally. At
one period, we find them practising the plan of a movable school and
schoolmaster. He would be stationed in the houses of particular
persons, with whom the arrangement could be made, a month at a time,
in the different quarters of the village, from Will's Hill to Bass
River. Of course, there was a great lack of elementary education. For
a considerable time, it was reduced to a very low point; and there
were heads of families,--men who had good farms, and possessed the
confidence and respect of their neighbors,--who appear not to have
been able to write.

It is difficult, however, to come to a definite estimate on this
subject, as the singular fact is discovered, that some persons, who
could write, occasionally preferred to "make their mark." Ann Putnam,
in executing her will, made her mark; but her confession, with her own
proper written signature, is spread out in the Church-book. Francis
Nurse very frequently used his peculiar mark, representing, perhaps,
some implement of his original mechanical trade; but, on other
occasions, he wrote out his name in a good, round hand. The same was