is purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin too approved
of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of
sermons,--I suppose as a stock to set up with,--if I would learn his
character. I continued, however, at the grammar school not quite one
year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the
class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into
the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at
the end of the year. But my father in the mean time,--from a view of
the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he
could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were
afterwards able to obtain,--reasons that he gave to his friends in my
hearing,--altered his first intention, took me from the grammar
school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a
then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his
profession generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him
I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic,
and made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to
assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler
and soap-boiler,--a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on
his arrival in New England, and on finding his dyeing trade would not
maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly I was
employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping-mold and
the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my
father declared against it: however, living near the water, I was much
in and about it, learnt early to swim well and to manage boats; and
when in a boat or canoe with other boys I was commonly allowed to
govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions
I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into
scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early
projecting public spirit, though not then justly conducted.

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge
of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much
trampling we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a
wharf there, fit for us to stand upon; and I showed my comrades a
large heap of stones which were intended for a new house near the
marsh, and which would very