I developed an early interest in Canadian men and newspapers. Of the newspapers entering the farmhouse the most prominent were from Montreal and Toronto. From Montreal came "The Weekly Witness" which was notable for its religious sentiments, and to which I ultimately became a subscriber. From Toronto we received the "Christian Guardian" which was the church paper (and its name arrested my attention as somewhat high sounding and peculiar), but I liked the productions of the Editor, the Rev Edward Hartley Dewart, and was glad in time to claim him as a personal friend, and I looked eagerly for every scrap of poetry produced by him. From Toronto we also received what was then the outstanding newspaper of Canada, and which was published by the Hon George Brown. I was interested in him because I had heard that he had spent years of his life on his newspaper paying off his father's debts -- he was too busy to marry until in the forties. The paper was strongly Reform in politics. It used to be brought into the farm house, especially when an election agitated the country, and some one would sit on the edge of the table and read aloud, and he boasted that he read the globe by the page. Such a paper introduced public men to me -- men like the Hon Edward Blake, who in election campaigns visited our farm house, and whom I have heard conducting the evening family prayers. The Globe during one year had pages given to steel engravings of public men of Canada, and these I carefully preserved in a scrap book.
Among the public and useful men of the day was County School Inspector Scarlett. How the teachers feared him! Who ever knew a good school Inspector who was not feared? It became my privilege to know the Inspector and in later years to have welcome in his home.
The new school teacher was under his direction, and probably largely by his direction she had been engaged for our school. It was her first school, and she had to make some reputation. As I write after more than fifty years, she still lives; and is held in my most reverent memory and with grateful affection, for she was able to take hold of such material as I was and help me to get on my feet. As I owe gratitude to Master Hughes for leading and inspiring me into new ways and to a new land, so I acknowledge with gratitude that it was the young schoolmistress Jean Dodds who became my pilot at the right moment, and who while at first was startled by the seeming prodigy that she had to deal with, yet patiently and wisely accepted her task and qualified him for meeting the Inspector without fear, winning over him in a trial of grammatical skill, and becoming a school teacher.
She had been in charge of school one week when she asked:- "What are you studying for?" "I would like to be a school teacher".
"And when do you wish to try the examinations?"
"Next June". "Yes. And do you know your subjects of study for examination?"
"No, I do not, and I shall be glad if you can inform me".
"Well, have you yet taken up algebra, or geometry?"
"No, I know nothing about them".
"Well, you will have algebra through equations, geometry through Hamblin Smith's first book of Euclid, also Smith's higher arithmetic, William Mason's Grammar, selections in Literature, the geography of the world, and special work in mastering Latin and Greek roots of English words. I do not see how you can cover all of this work in six months. You see you have forty-nine propositions in geometry, with all of the deductions, and you need to go over those propositions three times; in our class in the Institute we covered only nineteen propositions once in six months". I think she paused for want of breath, and I meekly asked:- "You do not object to my trying?"
"Oh, dear no. I shall be glad to help you all that I can, and I shall count it a feather in my cap if you get through".
There is such a state as having a dormant mentality aroused, and because for so long it has not traversed certain pathways, it has become all the more eager to explore new realms of light and thought. I knew nothing consciously of philosophy, or psychology; I simply knew that I wanted to know, and that I could and would know. The teacher was amused, and possibly sceptical of her pupil's ability, but she was a serious and good teacher.
She detected her pupil's weakness -- "You are memorising Euclid; you cannot learn him that way. You must reason, and when once you have reasoned the matter, you will never forget it".
I was sure I was not memorising. I passed along through the first three propositions in triumph and asked what was hard about it. But then came the trial. I was called on Wednesday morning to the blackboard for the Fourth proposition. I was asked to enunciate it; there I failed. "What is it you want to do?" I did not know. "There is something given as data, on which something has to be proved". That teacher knew how to leave her pupil to himself for the remainder of that week, and for him it was a miserable week. Nothing else could be done because of the intricacies of the enunciation of that problem. School closed on Friday and there was no joy because of the sense of failure. It was on Saturday, while swinging the flail in the barn in the act of threshing peas that the mystery suddenly cleared. Throwing down the flail, and using the grainery door for a slate, with a lead pencil I drew the two triangles, stated the terms given and rattled off the demonstrations. It was a very exalted pupil that met his teacher on Monday morning. After that he took three propositions per day. In the six months he worked the first book and its deductions three times, the second book twice; then came the teacher's confession "I shall have to ask you to stop there, as I have learned no more".
I had a victory in arithmetic when I came to Hamblin Smith's method of contraction in the multiplication of decimals. After thinking over it in the weekend, it was my proud privilege on Monday to invite the teacher to the blackboard and demonstrate for her benefit how it was done.
I had my first experience in school teaching on Easter Monday. "I am going home for Easter" said Miss Dodds, "and the train may be a bit late on Monday morning, so I shall be obliged if you will open the school for me".
I did so; but it proved to be an all day session for me, as teacher did not appear until the next day. And it was John George's opportunity; but he miscalculated. He made himself busy with numerous pins and other things to upset the pupils and try out the "supply". He found his match, for I actually had him standing on the floor under condemnation. No one expected that the quiet pupil might be the seat of so much thunder, in the new role of teacher!
Quite unexpectedly, Inspector Scarlett appeared one fine Spring afternoon. He found the school quietly at work. A few words with the teacher, and then a request for her highest class brought me to the front of the school room. The Inspector sat in the teacher's chair, and a table stood between us, while teacher stood behind the Inspector and signalled me with her eyes.
I was requested to read a paragraph from the "Battle of Naseby". At the end of the reading a few questions were asked and answered, and then the Inspector commanded:- "Analyse the passage". I proceeded to some extent when he cried out excitedly:- "Stop! Stop! That is not right". "I do not see what other way it could be taken, Inspector", I said. He requested the teacher's book, and this he examined for a few minutes. Teacher looked at me with smiles of approval and a nodding head. The Inspector's face grew crimson in color. At last he said:- "Alright! Go on!" That was a victory indeed. And probably it put a "feather" in the teacher's cap. The occasion ended when the Inspector invited me to walk out with him to where his carriage stood, and once outside he questioned me concerning my intentions for the future.
Examinations for those who desired to enter the teaching profession took place in the city of Belleville, thirty miles distant. My application form was duly forwarded, and I left school on Friday to be in attendance at the examination on Monday; but I did not say "Goodbye" to teacher, because I fully expected to return to the school and its playing ground. However I saw neither teacher nor schoolhouse again for forty years.
It was Sunday afternoon when I arrived in the city, in time for evening church service, and made a call at the Marchmont Home which I had not seen for eight years -- eight long years to me -- and here it was that Miss Ellen Bilbrough, her sister Miss Anna Bilbrough and Mrs Anna Davidson greeted me; these three were to play a larger part in my future course than I then thought of. I was greatly surprised on learning that Miss Ellen Bilbrough knew my story and my purposes. "I understand" she said "that you are looking forward to being a minister. What brings you to the city at this time?"
I informed her. "Oh I am pleased", she said. "Well, now, you will have tea with us, then you can attend church down town; and you will return after church, and I want you to make this your home as long as you are in the city".
I accepted the unexpected invitation, and Marchmont became my "home", in a fuller sense than I could possibly have anticipated, and through many crucial years; as for Miss B., she became all that a mother could have been in the days of climbing, and more than any mother had been.
The examination was over. A hundred or more assembled in the testing room. I doubted if I had done well. Some weeks passed and then a letter came from Miss Anna Bilbrough with its congratulations.
"You will make your home with us. Sixty-five passed, and you are forty-five". This work introduced me to a new county -- a county which was to mean much to me -- there were two Inspectors, one for the north and one for the south. It was to the south that Belleville belonged. Presently these guardian angels of mine found that the inspector designed sending me for professional training to the northern Model School, and they intervened. "He belongs to us" they said, "and his home is with us"; and to this the Inspector had to yield.
Thereafter I was dressed in city clothes; the farm clay was washed away; any cobwebs that may have gathered about my eyes were to be dispelled; and to this end Miss B. arranged that in company with Thomas Scott who later became medical Missionary in Ceylon, I should have a holiday among the Thousand Islands of the St Lawrence River. What wonders and glories of Nature that holiday trip revealed! I have elsewhere unfolded my admirations of this scenic grandeur, and may yet now turn aside to do so; suffice it to say that my soul was refreshed and recalled to a fuller consciousness of God and his works by a journey that was my first holiday in eight years, and gave to my mind a delighted rebound from farm drill.
I returned to the farm for a final six weeks work in the harvest field, during which time I endeavoured to complete everything connected with the summer doings, even working all night in one field so as to bring the harvesting to an end. I assisted some neighbours in threshing so that when I was gone, the farmer would find himself provided with a return of help. For this six weeks work I received Twenty Five Dollars, and with this and two suits of clothes, on the First day of September Eighteen Hundred and Seventy Nine, just twenty one days short of eight years, I bade farewell to the farm, to make a brief visit to it in ten weeks time, and for half an hour again after forty years.
"All the way my Saviour leads me".
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