As early as 1836, ten years after its incorporation, Lowell began to show what the early mill girls and boys could do towards the material prosperity of a great city. It numbered over 17,000 inhabitants,--an increase of over 15,000 during that time. In 1848 over one-half of the depositors in the Lowell Institution for Savings were mill-girls, and over one-third of the whole sum deposited belonged to them,--in round numbers, $101,992; and the new-made city showed unmistakable signs of becoming, what it was afterwards called, the “Manchester of America.” But the money of the operatives alone could not have so increased the growth and social importance of a city or a locality. It was the result, as well, of the successful operation of the early factory system, managed by men who were wise enough to consider the physical, moral, and mental needs of those who were the source of their wealth. Free co-educational schools were established in Lowell as early as 1830-1832, and a rule was made by the several corporations that every child under fourteen should attend them three months in the year. Master Hills taught the North Grammar School, after it occupied its present site. I remember him in 1835; and I pause when I think of this teacher, and wonder if, in some other sphere, he remembers whipping a little girl to overcome her persistent denials of an accusation made against her, thereby forcing her to tell a lie. She was accused by one of her schoolmates of taking a one cent multiplication table from her desk, and tearing it in two. For this slight offence, he, a strong man, unheeding her denials of the charge, with a heavy strap, struck with his whole strength on the tender palm of the little hand of a child of scarcely ten years. He punished her till she could not see, for pain and terror, and then she gave in, _whipped into a lie_, and said she did it. The punishment over she staggered to her seat, thinking that at last it was all over. But the end was not yet, for she had to learn by this early experience that one is but the beginning of a sum, and that she must tell many lies and keep on telling them, in order to maintain her position. Her little schoolmates said, “Why did you not say sooner that you did it, and save yourself all that whipping?” She could not tell them the truth, for they would not believe her. Her dear mother said, “If you wanted another multiplication table, why did you not ask me for one?” But she could not even confess the truth to her. Her good aunt accosted her with, “You sinner! do you not know what becomes of liars?” She could not justify herself to avert _that_ awful fate, and so she went on throwing out lie after lie (a heavy ballast), to save herself and to maintain her standing as a liar, till she was heartily sick of the whole matter, and wished that she had stuck to the truth, even if the master had killed her.