business which he had in Boscawen, and removed to the city of
Portsmouth.

He was now twenty-five years old. In Portsmouth he would find plenty of
work to do; it would be the very kind of work that he liked. He was now
well started on the road towards greatness.

The very next year, he was married to Miss Grace Fletcher, the daughter
of a minister in Hopkinton. The happy couple began housekeeping in a
small, modest, wooden house, in Portsmouth; and there they lived, very
plainly and without pretension, for several years.

Mr. Webster's office was "a common, ordinary-looking room, with less
furniture and more books than common. He had a small inner room, opening
from the larger, rather an unusual thing."

It was not long until the name of Daniel Webster was known all over New
Hampshire. Those who were acquainted with him said that he was the
smartest young lawyer in Portsmouth. They said that if he kept on in
the way that he had started, there were great things in store for him.

The country people told wonderful stories about him. They said that he
was as black as a coal--but of course they had never seen him. They
believed that he could gain any case in court that he chose to
manage--and in this they were about right.

There was another great lawyer in Portsmouth. His name was Jeremiah
Mason, and he was much older than Mr. Webster. Indeed, he was already a
famous man when Daniel first began the practice of law.