the time. He had the faculty of putting questions and of
changing them to meet the capacities of the pupils. He compelled
thinking. I attended the winter school about ten terms, and of these
not less than six terms were taught by Mr. Kilburn.

In later years we had Colburn's Sequel as the arithmetic. From this I
passed to algebra and geometry, and during the last two terms I
studied Latin Grammar. My school-going days ended in February, 1835,
a month after my seventeenth birthday.

[* During the session of the Legislature of 1843 or 1844, I walked with
my father on the ice from Boston to Fort Warren, a distance of about
three miles. The authorities were then engaged in cutting a channel
for the departure of a Cunard steamer.]

II
LIFE AS A STORE-BOY AND CLERK

In the month of December, 1830, when I was about one month less than
thirteen years of age, Mr. Simeon Heywood, the postmaster at Lunenburg
and the owner of a small store, proposed to my father that I should go
into his service to remain four years. An arrangement was made by
which I was to receive my board and clothes, and the privilege of
attending school during the winter months. I commenced my service the
26th of December, 1830, and I remained until December 1, 1834.

My life with Mr. Heywood was a peculiar one. The business of the store
was largely in the sale of goods for hats made of palm leaf. The
business was comparatively new at the time. For many previous years
the women had been employed in braiding straw and making hats and
bonnets for market. Gradually, work in palm leaf had taken the place
of work in straw. The neighbor of Heywood, Major Daniel Putnam, was
doing a large business in hats. The preparation of the palm leaves was
not an easy business. The leaves were stripped on the folds by the
hand, then bleached with sulphur in large boxes. The leaves were then
split so as to produce straws from one twentieth to one eighth of an
inch in width. The first process of stripping the leaves on the folds
was paid for at the rate of ten cents per one hundred leaves. I
devoted my leisure to the work, and thus earned a small sum of money.
Heywood was a shoemaker by trade, and an end of the store was used as
a shop. There one man and sometimes two men were employed. From much
seeing I was able to make a pair of shoes for myself--rather for the
amusement of the thing than from any advantage. While at Heywood's
store, probably about 1