Yes, I have had great joy of these essays. Amy informs us “how she brought her mouth organ and Violet brought her accordeon, and how those Barnardo girls told stories, for they had not been caned.” One feels quite young as one reads of “Ben Turner borrowing two planks to write upon, how schoolmistress, whom they term governess, would come and catch us not redein, an’ we would have to do a slate full of trancription”—whatever that may mean. One may read, mark, and learn “how the boys sat on planks with their legs in the ditch,” and “how when it was sewing day, we sat on the copper in the coal-house, and when it raned we ranned into the cottage,” and “how we had our liteness tooken twice.” But some of the essays are grand and reflect credit upon all concerned. To read them brings back youthful days. A SCHOOL ON THE COMMON. So the children were taught on the Common. They had their old teachers, who taught as a labour of love and without fee. They received in return a few eggs, a little milk, butter, cheese, in fact, anything which poor people share with each other, not forgetting Burston smiles. However, trouble was a-brewing. The Law Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold. The parents were summoned for not sending their children to school. On the 14th of May, 1914, thirty parents appeared before the magistrates at Diss, three miles away, to show cause whereby, inasmuch, as aforesaid, likewise hereinafter. Why not! Oh, Law! Lor! Perhaps you have had experience of engaging a lawyer to defend you from another lawyer? The Burston Braves appeared before the Diss Solons for not sending their children to school. I pause here to blame the children. Had the children been intelligent enough to choose rich parents they could have been taught in their own homes, including Windsor, Knowsley, Welbeck, or anywhere else. Rich parents have this slight advantage over Burston village bairns. Let this be a warning to the bairns. The solicitor for the defence questioned the School Attendance Officer, who admitted that _he_ had made no inquiries to ascertain whether the children were attending another school. By the way, what did that well-known writer say, whose name I do not know? “Man is an animal that looks above, behind, but never beneath his nose.” The attendance officer had nothing to say on behalf of the Education Committee as to the efficiency of the old teachers. The magistrates heard _one_ case. The Burston Brave proved that her little son had regularly attended a school conducted by the late mistress and master, so the bench inflicted a fine of five shillings upon her and 29 more women. These are hard wooden benches, aren’t they? I wonder what fine would have been inflicted if the children had not attended school! But, knowing their antipathy to blacklegging, they could not do otherwise than stick to their old teachers. In the certificate of membership, issued by the National Union of Teachers, is the following: