er would attempt to be a
princely merchant, and took the stage for home. It was a delightful
ride home on the top of the rocking coach, with the driver lashing
his whip and his horses doing their best.

"I think it was in 1841 that Daniel Webster attended the Merrimac
County Agricultural Fair at Fisherville, now Penacook. I was there
with a fine yoke of oxen which won his admiration. He asked me as to
their age and weight, and to whom they belonged. He recognized nearly
all of his old acquaintances. I saw him many times during the
following year. He was in the prime of life,--in personal appearance a
remarkable man."

Thus far it will be seen that there was little in Mr. Coffin's life
and surroundings that could not be easily told of the average New
England youth. Besides summer work on the farm, and "chores" about the
house, he had taken several terms at the academy in Boscawen. During
the winter of 1841-42, while unable to do any outdoor work, on account
of sickness, he bought a text-book on land-surveying and learned
something of the science and art, yet more for pastime than from any
expectation of making it useful.

Nevertheless, that book had a powerful influence upon his life. It
gave him an idea, through the application of measurement to the
earth's surface, of that order and beauty of those mathematical
principles after which the Creator built the universe. It opened his
eyes to the vast modification of the landscape, and the earth itself,
by man's work upon its crust. It gave him the engineer's eye.
Henceforth he became interested in the capacity of every portion of
the country, which came under his notice, for the roads, fields,
gardens, and parks of peace, and for the making of forts, military
roads, and the strategy of battle. In a word, the book and its study
gave him an enrichment of life which fitted him to enjoy the world by
travel, and to understand the arena of war,--theatres of usefulness to
which Providence was to call him in after-life.

In August, 1843, in his twenty-first year, he became a student at
Pembroke Academy. The term of ten weeks seemed ever afterwards in his
memory one of the golden periods of his life. The teacher, Charles G.
M. Burnham, was enthusiastic and magnetic, having few rules, and
placing his pupils upon their honor. It was not so much what Carleton
learned from books, as association with the one hundred and sixty
young men and women of his own age, which here so stimula