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Awful Disclosures - Containing, Also, Many Incidents Never before Published by Maria Monk
page 41 of 340 (12%)
assistant.

The government society paid her 20_l_: a-year: she was obliged to
teach ten children gratuitously; might receive fifteen pence a month
(about a quarter of a dollar), for each of ten scholars more; and then
she was at liberty, according to the regulations, to demand as much as
she pleased for the other pupils. The course of instruction, as required
by the society, embraced only reading, writing, and what was called
ciphering, though I think improperly. The only books used were a
spelling-book, l'Instruction de la Jeunesse, the Catholic New Testament,
and l'Histoire de Canada. When these had been read through, in regular
succession, the children were dismissed as having completed their
education. No difficulty is found in making the common French Canadians
content with such an amount of instruction as this; on the contrary, it
is often very hard indeed to prevail upon them to send their children at
all, for they say it takes too much of the love of God from them to sent
them to school. The teacher strictly complied with the requisitions of
the society in whose employment she was, and the Roman Catholic
catechism was regularly taught in the school, as much from choice as
from submission to authority, as she was a strict Catholic. I had
brought with me the little bag I have before mentioned, in which I had
so long kept the clippings of the thread left after making a dress for
the Superior. Such was my regard for it, that I continued to wear it
constantly round my neck, and to feel the same reverence for its
supposed virtues as before. I occasionally had the toothache during my
stay at St. Denis, and then always relied on the influence of my little
bag. On such occasions I would say--

"By the virtue of this bag, may I be delivered from the toothache;" and
I supposed that when it ceased, it was owing to that cause.
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