by friends; others may fill
their places who are of different opinions, and who have friends of
their own to provide for. You will lose your place; or, supposing you
to retain it, what are you but a clerk for life? And your prospects as
a lawyer are good enough to encourage you to go on. Go on, and finish
your studies; you are poor enough, but there are greater evils than
poverty; live on no man's favor; what bread you do eat, let it be the
bread of independence; pursue your profession, make yourself useful to
your friends and a little formidable to your enemies, and you have
nothing to fear."

How fortunate Webster as to have at this point in his career so wise
and far-seeing a friend! His father, who had made many sacrifices to
educate his boys, saw in the proffered clerkship a great opening for
his favorite, Daniel. He never dreamed of the future that was to make
him one of America's greatest orators and statesmen. At first he could
not believe that the position which he had worked so hard to obtain was
to be rejected.

"Daniel, Daniel," he said sorrowfully, "don't you mean to take that
office?"

"No, indeed, father," was the reply, "I hope I can do much better than
that. I mean to use my tongue in the courts, not my pen; to be an
actor, not a register of other men's acts. I hope yet, sir, to astonish
your honor in your own court by my professional attainments."

Judge Webster made no attempt to conceal his disappointment. He even
tried to discourage his son by reminding him that there were already
more lawyers than the country needed.

It was in answer to this objection that Daniel used the famous and
oft-quoted words,--"There is room enough at the top."

"Well, my son," said the fond but doubting father, "your mother has
always said you would come to something or nothing. She was not sure
which; I think you are now about settling that doubt for her."

It was very painful to Daniel to disappoint his father, but his purpose
was fixed, and nothing now could change it. He knew he had turned his
face in the right direction, and though when he commenced to practice
law he earned only about five or six hundred dollars a year, he never
regretted the decision he had made. He aimed high, and he had his
reward.

It is true now and forever, as Lowell says, that--

"Not failure, but low aim, is crime."

THE UPLIFT OF A SLAVE BOY'S IDEAL

Invincible determination, and a right nature, are the levers that