She replied that he had been making a fiddle. 'Ah!' added he
despondingly, 'I fear Eli will have to take his portion in fiddles.' He
was at this time about twelve years old. This fiddle was finished
throughout, like a common violin, and made tolerably good music. It was
examined by many persons, and all pronounced it to be a remarkable piece
of work for such a boy to perform. From this time he was employed to
repair violins, and had many nice jobs, which were always executed to
the entire satisfaction, and often to the astonishment of his customers.
His father's watch being the greatest piece of machinery that had yet
presented itself to his observation, he was extremely desirous of
examining its interior construction, but was not permitted to do so. One
Sunday morning, observing that his father was going to meeting, and
would leave at home the wonderful little machine, he immediately feigned
illness as an apology for not going to church. As soon as the family
were out of sight, he flew to the room where the watch hung, and, taking
it down, he was so much delighted with its motions, that he took it all
in pieces before he thought of the consequences of his rash deed; for
his father was a stern parent, and punishment would have been the reward
of his idle curiosity, had the mischief been detected. He, however, put
the work all so neatly together, that his father never discovered his
audacity until he himself told him many years afterwards."[A] Such was
the boyhood of one who invented the _cotton-gin_, made improvements in
the manufacture of fire-arms, by which the national government saved, as
Mr. Calhoun said "twenty-five thousand dollars per annum," and
contributed largely to advance other mechanical arts. How distinctly we
can trace, in all these examples, the moulding influence of boyhood upon
manhood! And how marked the correspondence between the early life of all
these men and that of Nat! Thus it is that the beautiful poem of
Longfellow, "The Village Blacksmith," is abundantly illustrated in the
biography of both the living and the dead! A few of the verses are:--

"Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

"His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns what e'er he can,
And l