834, I had a disagreeable experience, the
recollection of which has often returned. A blacksmith, named Choate,
died, and with another boy, whose name I do not recall, I was
summoned to watch the body during a night. We occupied an adjoining
room, and once an hour we were required to bathe the face of the corpse
in spirits of camphor. To this day I have never been able to
understand why two half-grown boys were put to such service.

Heywood was more of an inventor than a trader, and becoming interested
in the manufacture of nail kegs he made an invention in connection with
Dr. Bard for sawing staves concave on one side and convex on the other.
In the year 1834 they obtained a patent for the invention. As a
consequence the business of the store was neglected. The invention did
not yield a large return in money, as it was soon superseded by other
devices. The saw, a hoop-saw, was set up in a mill two miles away, and
from time to time I tended the saw, and thus I began a training in
mechanics which has been useful to me in my profession as a patent
lawyer. Heywood also invented a wheel for bringing staves to a bevel
and taper, for the construction of barrels systematically. Mr. Heywood
remained in town eight or ten years, when he moved to Claremont, N. H.,
where he died at the age of eighty years or more. He was thoroughly
upright, but he had too many schemes for a successful business man.
During my term with Mr. Heywood, I had charge of the post-office,
keeping the accounts, which were then cumbrous, and I made the returns
once in three months.

During a part of the time a stagecoach ran from Lowell, through
Tyngsboro, Pepperell, Townsend Harbor, Lunenburg and Fitchburg, and
thence westward through Petersham and Belchertown to Springfield. The
distance was about one hundred miles, and I was compelled to be ready
to open the mail three mornings each week, at about two o'clock. The
driver would sound his horn when he was eighty or one hundred rods
away, and it was my duty to be ready to take the mail when the coach
arrived at the door.

It was when so summoned that it was my fortune to see the shower of
falling stars in November, 1833. From the time I arose until after
daylight there was no part of the heavens that was not illuminated--not
with one meteor merely--but with many hundreds. Many of them left a
long train, extending through twenty, thirty, or even forty degrees. I
called at Bard's window and tol