We were engaged that night, and I went rail-splitting no more. But I
fenced my estate; and while running the line on the western boundary
I found the grave of Highland Mary. It was in the middle of a grove
of oak and hickory saplings, and was nearly hidden by hazel bushes.
The tombstone was a slab about two feet high, roughly hewn. Her
epitaph was, "Mary Campbell, aged 7. 1827." That was all. Poor
little Mary.

The Common Schools of Illinois were maintained principally from the
revenue derived from grants of land. When the country was first
surveyed, one section of 640 acres in each township of six miles
square was reserved for school purposes. There was a State law on
education, but the management was entirely local, and was in the
hands of a treasurer and three directors, elected biennally by the
citizens of each school district. The revenue derived from the
school section was sometimes not sufficient to defray the salary of
the teacher, and then the deficiency was supplied by the parents of
the children who had attended at the school; those citizens whose
children did not attend were not taxed by the State for the Common
Schools; they did not pay for that which they did not receive. In
some instances only one school was maintained by the revenue of two
school sections. When the attendance in the school was numerous, a
young lady, called the "school-marm," assisted in the teaching.
Sometimes, as in the case of Miss Priscilla, she fell into trouble.

The books were provided by the enterprise of private citizens, and an
occasional change of "Readers" was agreeable both to teachers and
scholars. The best of old stories grow tiresome when repeated too
often. One day a traveller from Cincinnati brought me samples of a