tion: THE OLD STONE HOUSE.]

"Master Oliver Cory kept the village school" in those child-days of
Fenimore Cooper, and long after. "He was well qualified for that post;
laborious, upright, firm, yet patient and kindly by nature. His
training of the boys was excellent. Saturdays were given to religious
lessons, and he paid careful but quiet attention to their morals and
manners." From his sister Hannah's teaching Judge Cooper's youngest son
went to Master Cory's school. It was kept in "one of those tasteless
buildings that afflict all new countries," and here was called the
"Academy." It served Cooperstown in timely ways for religious and
political meetings; public courts were held here, and a ball was given
now and then under its roof. As to the school, time and incident brought
out a taste for music in the pupils of Master Cory. It seems that Judge
Cooper had brought from Philadelphia a large upright organ of imposing
appearance and power, which he placed in his manor-house hall. Its
arrival in the village made a summer's sensation. When put up and
adjusted, a rehearsal of country dances, reels, and more serious music
came floating through the broad door and ample windows of Otsego Hall
into Master Cory's domain, the Academy, which stood in the adjoining
street. As, with magic effect the strains of "Hail Columbia" poured into
the schoolroom, Master Cory skilfully met a moment of open rebellion
with these words: "Boys, that organ is a remarkable instrument. You
never heard the like of it before. I give you half an hour's
intermission. Go into the street and listen to the music!"

[Illustration: COOPERSTOWN PRIOR TO 1835.]

These "Academy boys" were ambitious; each annual exhibition was crowded,
to listen to the speeches "of Coriolanus, Iago, Brutus, and Cassius" by
"raw lads from the village and adjoining farms," in all the bravery of
local militia uniform--blue coats "faced with red, matross swords, and
hats of '76." On such an occasion James Cooper, then a child of eight
years, became the pride and admiration of Master Cory for his moving
recitation of the "Beggar's Petition"--acting the part of an old man
wrapped in a faded cloak and leaning over his staff. It is recorded that
James had the fine, healthy pie-appetite usual to his age, for, says the
record, when his eldest brother "was showing the sights of New York to
the youngest, he took him to a pasty-shop, and, after watching the boy
eat pasty after pasty, said