"Agreed w'th M'r John Barnerd as followeth, he to build a new School House of forty foot Long Twenty five foot wide and Eleven foot Stud, with eight windows below and five in the Roofe, with wooden Casements to the eight Windows, to Lay the lower floor with Sleepers & double boards So far as needful, and the Chamber floor with Single boards, to board below the plate inside & inside and out, to Clapboard the Outside and Shingle the Roof, to make a place to hang the Bell in, to make a paire of Staires up to the Chamber, and from thence a Ladder to the bell, to make one door next the Street, and a petition Cross the house below, and to make three rows of benches for the boyes on each Side of the room, to find all Timber, boards, Clapboards shingles nayles hinges. In consideration whereof the s'd M'r John Barnerd is to be paid One hundred pounds, and to have the Timber, Boards, and Iron worke of the Old School House." Some interesting reminiscences are given, by some of his pupils, of these school-days in Boston. The Reverend John Barnard, of Marblehead, who was born in Boston in 1681, speaks of his early days at the Latin School, in his Autobiography, which is now in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Among other things he says: "I remember once, in making a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of one word, which was not used by me heedlessly, but designedly, and therefore I told him there was a plain grammar rule for it. He angrily replied, there was no such rule. I took the grammar and showed the rule to him. Then he smilingly said, 'Thou art a brave boy; I had forgot it.' And no wonder: for he was then above eighty years old." President Stiles of Yale College, in his Diary, says that he had seen a man who said that he "well knew a famous grammar-school master, Mr. E. Cheever, of Boston, author of The Accidence; that he wore a long white beard, terminating in a point; that when he stroked his beard to the point, it was a sign for the boys to stand clear."