to get along without a dictionary. "What shall
I do?" he thought; "there is no one from whom I can borrow a Latin
dictionary, and I cannot ask father to buy me one, because he cannot
afford it. But I MUST have it." That "must" settled the question. Three
quarters of a century ago, book stores were few and books very costly.
Boys and girls who have free access to libraries and reading rooms, and
can buy the best works of great authors, sometimes for a few cents, can
hardly imagine the difficulties which beset the little farmer boy in
trying to get the book he wanted.

Did he get the dictionary? Oh, yes. You remember he had said, "I must."
After thinking and thinking how he could get the money to buy it, a
bright idea flashed across his mind. The bushes in the fields about the
farm seemed waiting for some one to pick the ripe whortle-berries.
"Why," thought he, "can't I gather and sell enough to buy my
dictionary?" The next morning, before any one else in the farmhouse was
astir, Theodore was moving rapidly through the bushes, picking,
picking, picking, with unwearied fingers, the shining berries, every
one of which was of greater value in his eyes than a penny would be to
some of you.

At last, after picking and selling several bushels of ripe berries, he
had enough money to buy the coveted dictionary. Oh, what a joy it was
to possess a book that had been purchased with his own money! How it
thrilled the boy and quickened his ambition to renewed efforts! "Well
done, my boy! But, Theodore, I cannot afford to keep you there."

"Well, father," replied the youth, "but I am not going to study there;
I shall study at home at odd times, and thus prepare myself for a final
examination, which will give me a diploma."

Theodore had just returned from Boston, and was telling his delighted
father how he had spent the holiday which he had asked for in the
morning. Starting out early from the farm, so as to reach Boston before
the intense heat of the August day had set in, he cheerfully tramped
the ten miles that lay between his home in Lexington and Harvard
College, where he presented himself as a candidate for admission; and
when the examinations were over, Theodore had the joy of hearing his
name announced in the list of successful students. The youth had
reached the goal which the boy of eight had dimly seen. And now, if you
would learn how he worked and taught in a country school in order to
earn the money to spend two years