gston had a beautiful
daughter about John's age, who was fond of Ossian, too, or said she was.

And as this is not a serial love-story, there is no need of keeping the
gentle reader in suspense, so I will explain that some years later John
married the girl, and the mating was a very happy one.

After John had been to King's College two years we find in the faded and
yellow old letter-book an item written by the father to the effect that:
"Our Johnny is doing well at College. He seems sedate and intent on
gaining knowledge; but rather inclines to Law instead of the Ministry."

Doctor Johnson was succeeded by Doctor Myles Cooper, a Fellow of Oxford,
who used to wear his mortarboard cap and scholar's gown up Broadway. In
young Jay's veins there was not a drop of British blood. Of his eight
great-grandparents, five were French and three Dutch, a fact he once
intimated in the Oxonian's presence. And then it was explained to the
youth that if such were the truth it would be as well to conceal it.

Alexander Hamilton got along very well with Doctor Cooper, but John Jay
found himself rusticated shortly before graduation. Some years after this
Doctor Cooper hastily climbed the back fence, leaving a sample of his gown
on a picket, while Alexander Hamilton held the Whig mob at bay at the
front door.

Cooper sailed very soon for England, anathematizing "the blarsted country"
in classic Latin as the ship passed out of the Narrows.

"England is a good place for him," said the laconic John Jay.

So John Jay was to be a lawyer. And the only way to be a lawyer in those
days was to work in a lawyer's office. A goodly source of income to all
established lawyers was the sums they derived for taking embryo
Blackstones into their keeping. The greater a man's reputation as a
lawyer, the higher he placed his fee for taking a boy in.

In those days there were no printed blanks, and a simple lease was often a
day's work to write out; so it was not difficult to keep the boys busy.
Besides that, they took care of the great man's horse, blacked his boots,
swept the office, and ran errands. During the third year of
apprenticeship, if all went well, the young man was duly admitted to the
Bar. A stiff examination kept out the rank outsiders, but the nomination
by a reputable attorney was equivalent to admittance, for all members knew
that if you opposed an attorney today, tomorrow he might oppose you.

To such an extent was this system of taki