worked and ate, when he could get anything
to eat; and slept, if he wasn't too tired to sleep. Later, he had
a room in the university. While he was there he painted pictures to
get money enough to buy food; there, too (1839), he took the first
photograph ever made in America. Yet with all his hard work there
were times when he had to go hungry, and once he told a young man
that if he did not get some money he should be dead in a week--dead
of starvation.

[Illustration: A COPY OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH MADE IN AMERICA. (The
tower of the Church of the Messiah, in New York. The church is no
longer standing.)]

224. Professor Morse gets help about his telegraph; what Alfred Vail
did.--But better times were coming. A young man named Alfred Vail[4]
happened to see Professor Morse's telegraph. He believed it would
be successful. He persuaded his father, Judge Vail, to lend him two
thousand dollars, and he became Professor Morse's partner in the work.
Mr. Vail was an excellent mechanic, and he made many improvements
in the telegraph. He then made a model[5] of it at his own expense,
and took it to Washington and got a patent[6] for it in Professor
Morse's name. The invention was now safe in one way, for no one else
had the right to make a telegraph like his. Yet, though he had this
help, Professor Morse did not get on very fast, for a few years later
he said, "I have not a cent in the world; I am crushed for want of
means."

[Footnote 4: Alfred Vail: he was the son of Stephen Vail (commonly
known as Judge Vail), owner of the Speedwell iron-works, near
Morristown, New Jersey. Judge Vail built the engines of the
_Savannah_, the first steamship which crossed the Atlantic.]

[Footnote 5: Model: a small copy or representation of something.
Professor Morse made a small telegraph and sent it to Washington,
to show what his large telegraph would be like.]

[Footnote 6: Patent: a written or printed right given by the
government at Washington to an inventor to make something; as, for
instance, a telegraph or a sewing-machine. The patent forbids any
one except the inventor, or holder of the patent, from making such
a machine, and so he gets whatever money comes from his work. In order
to get a patent, a man must send a model of his invention to be placed
in the Patent Office at Washington.]

225. Professor Morse asks Congress to help him build a telegraph
line; what Congress thought.--Professor Morse now asked Congress to
let