It will be just one hundred years, on the 18th of January, since Daniel
Webster, the great statesman, orator, and lawyer, was born, and the time
seems a fit one for saying something of his boyhood.
Webster's father lived near the head waters of the Merrimac River, and
the only school within reach was a poor affair kept open for a few
months every winter. There Webster learned all that the ignorant master
could teach him, which was very little; but he acquired a taste which
did more for him than the reading, writing, and arithmetic of the
school. He learned to like books, and to want knowledge; and when a boy
gets really hungry and thirsty for knowledge, it is not easy to keep him
ignorant. When some of the neighbors joined in setting up a little
circulating library, young Webster read every book in it two or three
times, and even committed to memory a large part of the best of them. It
was this eagerness for education on his part that led his father
afterward to send him to Exeter to school, and later to put him in
Dartmouth College.
There are not many boys in our time who have not declaimed parts of
Webster's great speeches; and it will interest them to know that the boy
who afterward made those speeches could never declaim at all while he
was at school. He learned his pieces well, and practiced them in his own
room, but he could not speak them before people to save his life.
Webster was always fond of shooting and fishing, and however hard he
studied, the people around him called him lazy and idle, because he
would spend whole days in these sports. Once, while he was studying
under Dr. Woods to prepare for college, that gentleman spoke to him on
the subject, and hurt his feelings a little. The boy went to his room
determined to have revenge, and this is the way he took to get it. The
usual Latin lesson was one hundred lines of Virgil, but Webster spent
the whole night over the book. The next morning before breakfast he went
to Dr. Woods and read the whole lesson correctly. Then he said:
"Will you hear a few more lines, doctor?"
The teacher consenting, Webster read on and on and on, while the
breakfast grew cold. Still there was no sign of the boy's stopping, and
the hungry doctor at last asked how much further he was prepared to
read.
[Illustration: "TO THE END OF THE TWELFTH BOOK OF THE ÆNEID," ANSWERED
THE "IDLE" BOY, IN TRIUMPH.]
"To the end of the twelfth book of the Æneid," answered the "idle" boy,
in triumph.
After that, Webster did not give up his hunting and fishing, but he
worked so hard at his lessons, and got on so fast, that there was no
further complaint of his "idleness." He not only learned the lessons
given to him, but more, everyday, and besides this he read every good
book he could lay his hands on, for he was not at all satisfied to know
only what could be found in the school-books.
Webster's father was poor and in debt, but finding how eager this boy
was for education, and seeing, too, that he possessed unusual ability,
he determined, ill as he could afford the expense, to send him to
college. Accordingly, young Daniel went to Dartmouth. But after he had
been there two years, and had gone home for his vacation, he startled
his father one morning by declaring that he would not go back to college
unless his brother Ezekiel could be educated too. This seemed out of the
question. The father could barely afford to educate one son, and he
could not spare the other from the farm-work that provided the means for
this. But young Dan was generous and resolute. If Zeke could not be
educated, he would not. He would not let them sacrifice Zeke for him,
and there was an end of the matter. The good old mother solved the
difficulty. She was getting old, she said, and her children were dear to
her; she was willing to give up everything for their good, and if they
would promise to take care of her during her old age, the property
should be sold, the debts paid, and what remained should be spent in
educating both the boys. After much debate, the matter was settled in
this way, and it is pleasant to know that the dear old mother never knew
want as a consequence of her devotion to the welfare of her children.
Many anecdotes are told to illustrate the character of young Dan. He was
always lavish of his money when he had any, while his brother was
careful but generous, especially to Dan, whom he greatly admired. On one
occasion the boys went to a neighboring town on a high holiday, each
with a quarter of a dollar in his pocket.
"Well, Dan," said the father on their return, "what did you do with your
money?"
"Spent it," answered the boy.
"And what did you do with yours, Zeke?"
"Lent it to Dan," was the answer. As a fact, Dan had spent both
quarters.
Young Webster was very industrious in his studies, as we have seen, and
he was physically strong and active, as his fondness for sport proved;
but he could never endure farm-work. One day his father wanted him to
help him in cutting hay with a scythe; but very soon the boy complained
that the scythe was not "hung" to suit him, that is to say, it was not
set at a proper angle upon its handle. The old gentleman adjusted it,
but still it did not suit the boy. After repeated attempts to arrange it
to Dan's liking, the father said, impatiently, "Well, hang it to suit
yourself." And young Dan immediately "hung" it over a branch of an
apple-tree and left it there. That was the hanging which pleased him.
After finishing his college course, Webster began studying law, but
having no money, and being unwilling to tax his father for further
support, he went into Northern Maine, and taught school there for a
time. While teaching he devoted his evenings to the work of copying
deeds and other legal documents, and by close economy he managed to live
upon the money thus earned, so that he saved the whole of his salary as
a teacher. With this money to live on, he went to Boston, studied law,
and soon distinguished himself. The story of his life as a public man,
in the Senate, in the cabinet, and at the bar, is well known, and it
does not belong to this sketch of his boyhood.