From Farm Boy to Senator

in letters as well as in the educational field. He was a man of dignified presence, who exact

itted to his presence, "I have brought my son Daniel t

towards the bashful boy, and

," answer

reading. Take this Bible, m

uke's Gospel, and was very well adapted a

uld not read. Probably he had learned from his mother, and his first text-book was the Bible. He was

's reading, and he listened, half forgetful of the object he had in view. It is a good deal to say that he actually enjoyed it. He had seldom listened to a voice at once s

r. Abbot said, abruptly, "You are q

mination which in hi

Cass, Levi Woodbury, John E. Palfrey and others received here the first rudiments of their classical education, and all of them looked back with affection to their Alma Mater.

to the manner in which he improved the advantages which his father's self-denial had

one after a full collegiate course. He had also made rapid progress in the study of the Latin language. Dr. Abbot, fully appreciating the capacity of his most remarkable pupil, did not tie him down to the ordinary routine of study, nor compel him to lag behind with the other pupils, but gave him free scope and

ry of Euclid, and on being asked what he thought of it, that he knew it all before. He understood geometry, it seems, by intuition, or by a perception so rapid that it seems like intuition; but it was also true of the great astronomer that he had great difficulty in remembering even his own calculations after he had gone through with them. Daniel Webster, on the other hand, though endowed with a very extraordinary quickness of insight, worked harder for his knowledge than did New

, that he was selected to fill the position of tutor. He it was who first directed the studies of the new scholar, and encouraged the bashful boy to do his best. In after life Webster never displayed timidity or awkwardness; but, fresh from the farm, thrown among a hundred boys, mos

imself out loud in the solitude of his own room, but when the time came to get up and declaim it b

eyes turned upon my seat, I could not raise myself from it. Sometimes the masters frowned, sometimes they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always pressed and entreated with the most win

gnominious failure in the very department in which he afterwards excelled. It is a lesson for parents also. Don't too hastily conclude that your boys ar

h a friend on a Scotch lake, when they mutually challenged each other to produce a few lines of poetry. Both made the trial, and both failed. Thereupon Scott said good-humoredly to his companion, "It's clear neither of

e made his mark as a scholar. When he was approaching the end of his first term the usher

ng whether in any way h

said, "The term is nearly over.

orded, but his feelings had been hurt at times by the looks of a

lf great credit. You are a better scholar than any in your class.

eturn, and regardless of ridicule pursue with dil

s afterwards they saw the boy whom they had ridiculed moving forward with rapid strid

r correspondent of the Chicago Advance, an anecdote of Da

always heard him called. Daniel had up to this time led only the secular life of a country farmer's boy, and, though the New Hampshire farmers have sent out many heroes as firm and true as the granite rocks in the pasture, there cannot be among the hard and homely work which su

ts, on either side of his plate. Daniel was a bashful boy of very delicate feelings, and the Squire feared to wound him by speaking to him directly on the subject. So he called aside one of the other students with whom he had been l

present arms. The Squire drew his attention to his position, courteously begged his pardon for speaking of the matter, and added a few kind words on the importance of young men correcting such little hab