When they were passed he was the first to endeavour to carry them out and to save the village the cost and the possible quarrelling of a school board.

He went through all the preliminary work, and reconciled, as far as possible, the jarring interests that came into play.

The two largest landlords of the place were unfortunately not on good terms.
Whatever the one did the other was jealous of, so that when one promised the necessary land for the school, and it was accepted, the other withdrew his patronage, and declined to subscribe.

With great efforts the vicar, nevertheless, got the school erected, and to all appearance the difficulty was surmounted.
But when the Government inspection took place it was found that, though not nearly filled with scholars, there was not sufficient cubic space to include the children of a distant outlying hamlet, which the vicar had hoped to manage by a dame school.

These poor children, ill fed and young, could hardly stand walking to and from the village school--a matter of some five miles daily, and which in winter and wet weather was, in itself, a day's work for their weary little limbs.