One day in the early winter, Judge Webster asked Daniel to ride with him
to Boscawen. Boscawen was a little town, six miles away, where they
sometimes went for business or for pleasure.
Snow was on the ground. Father and son rode together in a little,
old-fashioned sleigh; and as they rode, they talked about many things.
Just as they were going up the last hill, Judge Webster said:
"Daniel, do you know the Rev. Samuel Wood, here in Boscawen?"
"I have heard of him," said Daniel. "He takes boys into his family, and
gets them ready for college."
"Yes, and he does it cheap, too," said his father. "He charges only a
dollar a week for board and tuition, fuel and lights and everything."
"But they say he is a fine teacher," said Daniel. "His boys never fail
in the college examinations."
"That is what I have heard, too," answered his father. "And now, Dannie,
I may as well tell you a secret. For the last six years I have been
planning to have you take a course in Dartmouth College. I want you to
stay with Dr. Wood this winter, and he will get you ready to enter. We
might as well go and see him now."
This was the first time that Daniel had ever heard his father speak of
sending him to college. His heart was so full that he could not say a
word. But the tears came in his eyes as he looked up into the judge's
stern, kind face.
He knew that if his father carried out this plan, it would cost a great
deal of money; and if this money should be spent for him, then the rest
of the family would have to deny themselves of many comforts which they
might otherwise have.
"Oh, never mind that, Dan," said his brother Ezekiel. "We are never so
happy as when we are doing something for you. And we know that you will
do something for us, some time."
And so the boy spent the winter in Boscawen with Dr. Wood. He learned
everything very easily, but he was not as close a student as he had been
at Exeter.
He was very fond of sport. He liked to go fishing. And sometimes, when
the weather was fine, his studies were sadly neglected.
There was a circulating library in Boscawen, and Daniel read every book
that was in it. Sometimes he slighted his Latin for the sake of giving
more time to such reading.
One of the books in the library was _Don Quixote_. Daniel thought it the
most wonderful story in existence. He afterwards said:
"I began to read it, and it is literally true that I never closed my
eyes until I had finished it, so great was the power of this
extraordinary book on my imagination."
But it was so easy for the boy to learn, that he made very rapid
progress in all his studies. In less than a year, Dr. Wood declared that
he was ready for college.
He was then fifteen years old. He had a pretty thorough knowledge of
arithmetic; but he had never studied algebra or geometry. In Latin he
had read four of Cicero's orations, and six books of Virgil's _Aeneid._
He knew something of the elements of Greek grammar, and had read a
portion of the Greek Testament.
Nowadays, a young man could hardly enter even a third-rate college
without a better preparation than that. But colleges are much more
thorough than they were a hundred years ago.
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