"I should be exceedingly glad to do so, sir," answered the young man, his face brightening with hopeful expectation.

"You are aware that I hold the position of registrar of deeds for the county. It is my duty to see that all deeds are properly recorded?"

"Yes, sir."

"This work I do not care to do myself, having sufficient other work to occupy my time. How would you like to undertake it in the evening? It would not interfere with your school duties." "I am not a very good penman," said the young man doubtfully.

"Handsome penmanship is not required. It is sufficient if the deeds are copied in a plain, legible hand, and this may be attained by effort."

"How much compensation would be allowed?" "I receive two shillings and threepence for each deed recorded. I will allow you one shilling and sixpence, and you can average two deeds in an evening. What do you say?"

One shilling and sixpence was twenty-five cents. Two deeds therefore would bring the young teacher fifty cents, and four evenings' work, therefore, would pay his board, and leave him his salary clear. This was a tempting inducement, though it would involve dry and tedious labor. "I will accept," said Daniel promptly.

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"Then you can begin at once," said Mr. Osgood, well satisfied.

It was a hard way of earning money, but money was very much needed. So, after the fatigues of the day, when supper was over, Daniel sat down to record dry deeds. The curious visitor to Fryeburg can still see two volumes of deeds, a large part of them in Daniel Webster's handwriting. Though not a good writer, he forced himself to write well, and in his autobiography he says, "The ache is not yet out of my fingers, for nothing has ever been so laborious to me as writing, when under the necessity of writing a good hand."

I may be permitted to call the attention of my young readers to this point-that what he had undertaken to do he did well, although it was a task far from congenial. A young man or boy who observes this rule is likely to succeed in the end: Whatever you have to do do as well as you can.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PRECEPTOR OF FRYEBURG ACADEMY.

Ir may be supposed that between his school in the daytime and his duties as copyist in the evening, Daniel found his time pretty well occupied. As we know, he was not drawn to the teacher's office by any special love of that honorable vocation, but simply by the pecuniary emolument. But, though this was the case, he discharged his duties with conscientious fidelity, and made himself a favorite both among his pupils and in the village, where the new preceptor was, as is usual, a person of importance.

He was accustomed to open and close the school with extemporaneous prayer, and those who remember the deep solemnity of manner which he could command at will will readily believe that this exercise was made impressive by the young teacher.

No stories have been handed down of insubordination among his pupils. If there had been any, it would speedily have been quelled by the

preceptor, whose demeanor was naturally dignified.

It is remarkable how many of our great men have spent a portion of their early lives at the teacher's desk. Gen. Garfield had an unusually. extensive and varied experience as teacher, and would have passed through life very happily if he had never withdrawn from the school-room. Daniel Webster had not his special aptitude for it, but was nevertheless very fairly successful. One qualification, as we learn from the testimony of a pupil, was his "remarkable equanimity of temper." The vexations of the school-room are neither few nor far between, but none of them were able to bring a frown to young Webster's brow. Calmly he met and conquered all difficulties that came in his way, and secured the confidence and respect of his scholars.

The young man also impressed his pupils and friends as a man of competent scholarship. Hon. Samuel Fessenden, of Portland, writes: "The first I ever knew of Daniel Webster was immediately after he left college, and was employed by my father, the secretary of the Trustees of Fryeburg Academy, to become the principal instructor in that institution. He was not, when he commenced, twenty years old. I heard no one complain that his scholarship was not adequate to

the duty he had assumed. On the contrary, I heard the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Porter, of Conway, and my father, the Rev. William Fessenden, of Fryeburg, both of whom were good scholars, and the former, Rev. Dr. Porter, a very great man, say that Daniel Webster was a very good scholar for his years. He did, while at Fryeburg, exhibit traits of talent and genius which drew from these two divines, and from other professional gentlemen, unqualified praise of his powers of mind. I remember very distinctly hearing my father remark that if Mr. Webster should live, and have health, and pursue a straightforward course of industry and virtue, he would become one of the greatest men this country had produced."

When it is remembered that the young man of whom this prediction was made was at the time an obscure teacher, in an obscure town, in what was then a frontier settlement, we must infer that he exhibited remarkable ability, and gave hints of a reserved power not yet called into action.

In spite of his engrossing employments, the young man found time to enlarge his general culture by various reading. Nor did he neglect his professional studies, but continued the reading of Blackstone's Commentaries. It is remarkable