and girls have known me
ever since I was a small boy and went barefoot."

"Does your heart fail you, my son?" asked his mother, who sympathized
with him, yet saw that it was a trial which must come.

"I can't exactly say that, but I dread to begin."

"We must expect to encounter difficulties and perplexities, James. None
of our lives run all smoothly. Shall we conquer them or let them conquer
us?"

The boy's spirit was aroused.

"Say no more, mother," he replied. "I will undertake the school, and if
success is any way possible, I will succeed. I have been shrinking from
it, but I won't shrink any longer."

"That is the spirit that succeeds, James."

James laughed, and in answer quoted Campbell's stirring lines with
proper emphasis:

"I will victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With my face to the field and my feet to the foe."

So the time passed till the eventful day dawned on which James was to
assume charge of his first school. He was examined, and adjudged to be
qualified to teach; but that he anticipated in advance.

The building is still standing in which James taught his first school.
It is used for quite another purpose now, being occupied as a
carriage-house by the thrifty farmer who owns the ground upon which it
stands. The place where the teacher's desk stood, behind which the boy
stood as preceptor, is now occupied by two stalls for carriage-horses.
The benches which once contained the children he taught have been
removed to make room for the family carriage, and the play-ground is now
a barnyard. The building sits upon a commanding eminence known as Ledge
Hill, and overlooks a long valley winding between two lines of hills.

This description is furnished by the same correspondent of the Boston
_Herald_ to whom I am already indebted for Henry Boynton's reminiscences
contained in the last chapter.

When James came in sight, and slowly ascended the hill in sight of the
motley crew of boys and girls who were assembled in front of the
school-house on the first morning of the term, it was one of the most
trying moments of his life. He knew instinctively that the boys were
anticipating the fun in store for them in the inevitable conflict which
awaited him, and he felt constrained and nervous. He managed, however,
to pass through the crowd, wearing a pleasant smile and greeting his
scholars with a bow. There was trouble coming, he was convinced, but he
did not choose to betray any apprehension.