* * * * *

V.--AT EXETER ACADEMY.


It was the first time that Daniel Webster had been so far from home. He
was bashful and awkward. His clothes were of home-made stuff, and they
were cut in the quaint style of the back-country districts.

He must have been a funny-looking fellow. No wonder that the boys
laughed when they saw him going up to the principal to be examined for
admission.

The principal of the academy at that time was Dr. Benjamin Abbott. He
was a great scholar and a very dignified gentleman.

He looked down at the slender, black-eyed boy and asked:

"What is your age, sir?"

"Fourteen years," said Daniel.

"I will examine you first in reading. Take this Bible, and let me hear
you read some of these verses."

He pointed to the twenty-second chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel.

The boy took the book and began to read. He had read this chapter a
hundred times before. Indeed, there was no part of the Bible that was