ABSTRACT
Then, there are schoolmistresses; which certainly reads oddly at the first; for we are so little accustomed to think of the soldier as a family man, or of the barrack square as a nursery-ground, that it looks almost like a joke to read of "army school-mistresses," pupil teachers, and monitresses. The first of these it is desirable should be as much over twenty-one years of age as is convenient; the post is one of peculiar danger and difficulty even for the steadiest, wherefore the authorities discountenance the employment of young unmarried women as much as possible (but there are always many applications from that class), and encourage the appointment of the wives of non-commissioned officers, and, better still, the wives of the schoolmasters themselves. A schoolmistress gets thirty-six, thirty, or twenty-four pounds a year, according as she is of the first, second, or third class; after twenty-four years' service she has a pension of two shillings a day; she has the same pay as the schoolmaster when travelling with troops or when detained, but only half the amount if she be the schoolmaster's wife; she has her three hundred-weight of baggage if moving with troops, which does not allow of much spare finery; and she has the right to the conveyance of four hundred-weight if unmarried, and of six hundred-weight if married, save to a trained schoolmaster, or if not travelling with her husband. There are three weeks' holidays twice in the year, in summer and winter; and the life seems to be pleasant enough, though dangerous and needing extra caution in the way of walking.
