bedsteads, and other furniture for houses. Some people are tanners, and get a living by making leather; some are bakers, some are tailors, and some are hatters. Some make jugs, and bowls, and milk pans and other vessels of clay, and are called potters. The tinman makes pails and other things of tin; the coopers make barrels, tubs and kegs. Some people dress cloth, and are called clothiers; some make wagons and chaises, and coaches; some drive stages; some print books, and some bind books. In some parts of the State, people get a living by splitting stones into long square blocks, and hammering them smooth. They use the stones in buildings of various kinds. The best stone for this use, is of a grayish blue color, and is called granite. The granite is very hard, but it is split easily with small iron wedges. Some people make bricks of clay; some make paper; and some make clocks. Some keep various kinds of goods in stores to sell, and are called traders and merchants. Some are lawyers, some are doctors, some are ministers, and some keep school.

There are a great many other sorts of business, which I do not mention now for fear of tiring you.

LETTER X.

THE people of Massachusetts are generally pretty good to work. Some of them complain a good deal of hard times; but almost all make out to get a comfortable living. Yet there are some people who are old, and sick, and unable to work; and there are some who are idle and will not work. Some people in almost every town, lay out nearly all the money they can get, in buying rum; and drink so much, that they are not fit for anything. These are very bad people; and if they suffer ever so much, they suffer by their own fault. But do you not pity their poor little children, who often go ragged and barefoot, and in the winter shiver with cold, and sometimes have no bread to eat? I think you must pity such poor little children with all your heart, especially when you consider, that, for want of clothing, many of them are prevented from going to school, to meeting, and to the sabbath school.

The poor old people, and the poor sick people who cannot work, and the little children who have nobody to take care of them, are taken care of by the towns; that is, by the inhabitants of the towns. Many towns have

a house, built on purpose for such people to live in. This house is called the poor-house, and sometimes the alms-house. Some towns have no poor-house, but board out their poor in different families.

Every town in the State is provided with a number of school-houses; and teachers are hired to keep school in them. These schools. are called district schools. The larger towns have a school which is kept all the year; and which is called a grammar school. The district schools are commonly kept about three months in the winter by men.

At this time

the larger children go to school, and learn to write and cipher, and some of them study grammar and geography. In the summer, the district schools are kept by women; and then the smaller children go to school, and learn to read and spell, and sometimes to write and cipher. Every child in Massachusetts has an opportunity of learning to read and write, if he will improve it. But some children are idle and naughty, and do not try to learn. I hope this will never be the case with any of my children; for bad children are a great trial to their parents, and almost always make bad men and women, if they live to grow up.

Beside the district, or common schools, there are many others, called private schools;

and in many of the towns there are schools, called academies. Your teacher or some oth

er friend, will explain to you the difference between district schools, and private schools, and academies. I suppose, there is no state in the world, where the children are better provided with schools, than in Massachusetts.

Every town in the State has a meetinghouse, where the people meet together to worship God, and to hear the minister preach; and to learn how they must behave, if they expect to be happy.* All good people are very careful to go to meeting on the sabbath, and to attend to what the minister says. I do not suppose there is any town in the State so bad, as not to have a meetinghouse; some towns have two or three, and some have many more.

What is the alms-house for?
What is said of district schools?
Do you attend school?

A district school? Or a private school?

IN

LETTER XI.

In every town in Massachusetts, the inhabitants have several meetings every year, which

* Meetinghouses are also called churches; in cities and large towns they are commonly so called.

are called town-meetings. Perhaps you would like to know a little about them. The first meeting is commonly held some time in the month of March; and the first thing that is done at this meeting is to choose a moderator. A moderator is a person to keep order and govern the meeting. The men write, on little pieces of paper, the name of the person whom they wish to have for moderator. These little pieces of paper with names on them, are called votes or ballots, and the men put them into a box or hat. This is called voting or balloting. After the men have voted, the votes are turned out on a table, or desk, and counted. The person who has more than half of all the votes, is moderator of the meeting.

After the moderator is chosen, he commonly asks the minister to make a prayer. After prayer, the moderator calls upon the people to bring in their votes for town clerk. The town clerk is the man who writes down in a book what is done at the meeting.

After the town clerk is chosen, the voters choose selectmen. The selectmen are commonly three, five, or seven, of the principal people in the town, who are chosen every year to manage town affairs. They also choose persons to say how much tax each man