Daniel Webster | Page 4

and Gibraltar, of Prince
Ferdinand and General Gage, of Bunker Hill, and finally of the
American armies, to which the soldier-sailor had deserted. The boy
repaid this devoted friend by reading the newspapers to him; and he
tells us in his autobiography that he could not remember when he did
not read, so early was he taught by his mother and sisters, in true New
England fashion. At a very early age he began to go to school;
sometimes in his native town, sometimes in another, as the district
school moved from place to place. The masters who taught in these
schools knew nothing but the barest rudiments, and even some of those
imperfectly. One of them who lived to a great age, enlightened perhaps
by subsequent events, said that Webster had great rapidity of
acquisition and was the quickest boy in school. He certainly proved
himself the possessor of a very retentive memory, for when this
pedagogue offered a jack-knife as a reward to the boy who should be
able to recite the greatest number of verses from the Bible, Webster, on
the following day, when his turn came, arose and reeled off verses until
the master cried "enough," and handed him the coveted prize. Another
of his instructors kept a small store, and from him the boy bought a
handkerchief on which was printed the Constitution just adopted, and,
as he read everything and remembered much, he read that famous
instrument to which he was destined to give so much of his time and
thought. When Mr. Webster said that he read better than any of his
masters, he was probably right. The power of expression and of speech
and readiness in reply were his greatest natural gifts, and, however
much improved by cultivation, were born in him. His talents were
known in the neighborhood, and the passing teamsters, while they
watered their horses, delighted to get "Webster's boy," with his delicate

look and great dark eyes, to come out beneath the shade of the trees and
read the Bible to them with all the force of his childish eloquence. He
describes his own existence at that time with perfect accuracy. "I read
what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at
school, was a farmer's youngest boy, not good for much for want of
health and strength, but expected to do something." That something
consisted generally in tending the saw-mill, but the reading went on
even there. He would set a log, and while it was going through would
devour a book. There was a small circulating library in the village, and
Webster read everything it contained, committing most of the contents
of the precious volumes to memory, for books were so scarce that he
believed this to be their chief purpose.
In the year 1791 the brave old soldier, Ebenezer Webster, was made a
judge of the local court, and thus got a salary of three or four hundred
dollars a year. This accession of wealth turned his thoughts at once
toward that education which he had missed, and he determined that he
would give to his children what he had irretrievably lost himself. Two
years later he disclosed his purpose to his son, one hot day in the
hay-field, with a manly regret for his own deficiencies and a touching
pathos which the boy never forgot. The next spring his father took
Daniel to Exeter Academy. This was the boy's first contact with the
world, and there was the usual sting which invariably accompanies that
meeting. His school-mates laughed at his rustic dress and manners, and
the poor little farm lad felt it bitterly. The natural and unconscious
power by which he had delighted the teamsters was stifled, and the
greatest orator of modern times never could summon sufficient courage
to stand up and recite verses before these Exeter school-boys.
Intelligent masters, however, perceived something of what was in the
lad, and gave him a kindly encouragement. He rose rapidly in the
classes, and at the end of nine months his father took him away in order
to place him as a pupil with a neighboring clergyman. As they drove
over, about a month later, to Boscawen, where Dr. Wood, the future
preceptor, lived, Ebenezer Webster imparted to his son the full extent
of his plan, which was to end in a college education. The joy at the
accomplishment of his dearest and most fervent wish, mingled with a
full sense of the magnitude of the sacrifice and of the generosity of his

father, overwhelmed the boy. Always affectionate and susceptible of
strong emotion, these tidings overcame him. He laid his head upon his
father's shoulder and wept.
With Dr. Wood Webster remained only six months. He went home on