other information as would enable him to decide upon the
best means of putting his plans into execution. He saved his wages with
the greatest care, and at the end of his first year in Boston had
accumulated a modest little sum, which he meant should support him while
he was learning his new trade.

On the 15th of February, 1819, without the loss of a day, he began work
with a piano-maker.

He had now entered upon what he meant should be the business of his
life, and he was resolved that he would be master of it. From the first
he took rank in his employer's factory as the most careful workman in
it. He spared no pains to make his knowledge full in every detail. Time
was of no consequence compared with knowledge, and he was never anxious
to hurry through with his work. It soon came to be recognized by his
employer and fellow-workmen that he was the best fitted for those
portions of the work upon the instrument which required the greatest
patience as well as the greatest care, and the most difficult and
delicate work was always intrusted to him, his wages being, of course,
in proportion. Other men had no thought but to earn a living. This man
meant to win fame and fortune, and to enlarge the scope of that art to
which he was so passionately devoted. He labored with his mind as well
as his hands, familiarizing himself with every detail of the
manufacture, and devising in silence the means for improving the
instrument and the implements used in its construction. He could afford
to wait, to be slower than his fellows. Every moment spent over his
task made his workmanship the better, and opened to his mind new sources
of improvement. He spent three years as a journeyman, and then went into
business for himself. He associated himself with a Mr. Stewart, under
the firm of Stewart & Chickering.

Fifty years ago the piano-forte was a wretched piece of mechanism
compared with the superb instrument of to-day. It was originally a
progressive growth from the ancient lyre, through the harp, psaltery,
dulcimer, clavictherium, clavichord, virginal, spinet, harpsichord, to
the piano of Christofali in the early years of the last century. At the
period of Mr. Chickering's entrance into business, it was still very
imperfect, and the various manufacturers of the instrument were
earnestly endeavoring to discover some means of remedying the defects of
which they were all conscious. There are four divisions in the
manufacture of a piano, eac