Page:Navvies and Their Needs.djvu/20

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NAVVIES AND THEIR NEEDS.

was entirely changed, The school was, after a time, placed under Government inspection, and obtained very favourable reports. It is very creditable to the inhabitants of the huts that when they were called upon to pay an extra sixpence a week in their rent for the support of the school, they so highly appreciated the boon that no grumbling was occasioned by the tax. The sum thus raised was supplemented by a private contribution. But, to return. As soon as we arrive in the school, everything is made ready for the day's work, but we have generally been preceded by one or two of the men who have been busy getting the forms arranged for each class. And now the bell is rung, and the scholars begin to assemble. All ages are represented in the stream that flows through the open door, from the aged man who leans on his stick to the infant who can just walk, and is led by an elder brother or sister. All come to learn; none of the adult scholars can be pursuaded to act as teachers, unless on a very rare emergency. And, indeed, not a few of the men come there to learn their letters; the majority have yet to acquire the power of reading with any facility, and only one here and there can read, when he comes, with tolerable correctness. I know of many men who left L——— W——— with books among their most treasured possessions, who but for the Sunday-school would have gone as they came, quite unable to read anything but the sign of a public-house. The adult class numbers about twenty, and the children bring the total up to nearly one hundred. Having opened the school with prayers and a hymn—always heartily sung—as the muster of teachers is good, and my presence not required when once all are fairly at work, I will ask the reader to accompany me in a walk