Sentences were also read by Marcus and Ellen Blake, who had now become an inmate of the house. Another round was then proposed with a larger list of words; and now that the character of the play was better understood, they found it even more amusing than at first.
The “Hay-Mow Debating Society,” so named from the place in which it usually held its meetings, was established at the commencement of the vacation, and met once or twice a week until the new term commenced. All the children belonged to it, and all were required to take part in the discussions. Subjects were assigned beforehand, and disputants appointed for each side, so that all were prepared to say something. The questions discussed were not perhaps so important as those which sometimes agitate senates and parliaments, but they were such as the young debaters could grasp, and feel an interest in. Marcus gave out for the first discussion the proposition, “Education is of more value to a man than wealth.” The manner in which this grave theme was handled, induced him to throw away his list of propositions for discussion, and to make a new set, of a very different order. Some of these were as follows: “Which is preferable, summer or winter?” “Which is pleasanter, a residence on a hill, or in a valley?” “Which is most desirable, a half holiday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, or a whole holiday, every Saturday?” “Who enjoy themselves most, boys or girls?” Though these may look like trivial questions, they served to wake up the ideas of the young people, and sometimes the debates became quite exciting, occasionally taking a very amusing turn.
One evening, as riddles, puzzles, etc., were in the ascendant, Ellen read the following from a scrap of paper:—
“There was a man of Adam’s race,
Who had a certain dwelling place;
He had a house well covered o’er,
Where no man dwelt since nor before.
It was not built by human art,
Nor brick nor lime in any part,
Nor wood, nor rock, nor nails, nor kiln,