d,
hunting for game, or to sit on the bank of some stream fishing by the
hour. When not enjoying himself out-of-doors he might be heard playing his
violin.

Of course the neighbors said, "A boy so idle and shiftless will never
amount to anything," and his parents did not know what to do with him.
They put him, when fifteen years old, as clerk into a little country
store. Here he remained for a year, and then opened a store of his own.
But he was still too lazy to attend to business, and soon failed.

[Illustration: Patrick Henry.]

When he was only eighteen years old, he married. The parents of the young
couple, anxious that they should do well, gave them a small farm and a few
slaves. But it was the same old story. The young farmer would not take the
trouble to look after his affairs, and let things drift. So before long
the farm had to be sold to pay debts. Once more Patrick turned to
storekeeping, but after a few years he failed again.

He was now twenty-three years old, with no settled occupation, and with a
wife and family to support. No doubt he seemed to his friends a
ne'er-do-well.

About this time he decided to become a lawyer. He borrowed some law-books,
and after studying for six months, he applied for permission to practise
law. Although he passed but a poor examination, he at last was started on
the right road.

He succeeded well in his law practice, and in a few years had so much
business that people in his part of Virginia began to take notice of him.
In 1765, soon after the Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament, he
was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a body not unlike
our State Legislature.

PATRICK HENRY'S FIERY SPEECH AGAINST THE STAMP ACT

History gives us a vivid picture of the young lawyer at this time as he
rides on horseback along the country road toward Williamsburg, then the
capital of Virginia. He is wearing a faded coat, leather knee-breeches,
and yarn stockings, and carries his law papers in his saddle-bag. Although
but twenty-nine, his tall, thin figure stoops as if bent with age. He does
not look the important man he is soon to become.

When he reaches the little town of Williamsburg, he finds great
excitement. Men gather in small groups on the street, talking in anxious
tones. Serious questions are being discussed: "What shall we do about the
Stamp Act?" they say. "Shall we submit and say nothing? Shall we send a
petition to King George asking him