at about this period of his life, that is to say, when he was of
the age of thirteen, or we may perhaps say fourteen years, for we do not
wish to overstate his precocity, that he experienced a sensation so
entirely novel, that, to the best of his belief, it was such as no other
young person had ever known, at least in anything like the same degree.
This extraordinary emotion was brought on by the sight of Myrtle Hazard,
with whom he had never before had any near relations, as they had been at
different schools, and Myrtle was too reserved to be very generally known
among the young people of his age.

Then it was that he broke forth in his virgin effort, "Lines to M----e,"
which were published in the village paper, and were claimed by all
possible girls but the right one; namely, by two Mary Annes, one Minnie,
one Mehitable, and one Marthie, as she saw fit to spell the name borrowed
from her who was troubled about many things.

The success of these lines, which were in that form of verse known to the
hymn-books as "common metre," was such as to convince the youth that,
whatever occupation he might be compelled to follow for a time to obtain
a livelihood or to assist his worthy parent, his true destiny was the
glorious career of a poet. It was a most pleasing circumstance, that his
mother, while she fully recognized the propriety of his being diligent in
the prosaic line of business to which circumstances had called him, was
yet as much convinced as he himself that he was destined to achieve
literary fame. She had read Watts and Select Hymns all through, she
said, and she did n't see but what Gifted could make the verses come out
jest as slick, and the sound of the rhymes jest as pooty, as Izik Watts
or the Selectmen, whoever they was,--she was sure they couldn't be the
selectmen of this town, wherever they belonged. It is pleasant to say
that the young man, though favored by nature with this rarest of talents,
did not forget the humbler duties that Heaven, which dresses few
singing-birds in the golden plumes of fortune, had laid upon him. After
having received a moderate amount of instruction at one of the less
ambitious educational institutions of the town, supplemented, it is true,
by the judicious and gratuitous hints of Master Gridley, the young poet,
in obedience to a feeling which did him the highest credit, relinquished,
at least for the time, the Groves of Academus, and offered his youth at
the shrine of Plu