There were no children's books in those times. Indeed, there were very
few books to be had of any kind. But young Daniel Webster found nothing
too hard to read.

"I read what I could get to read," he afterwards said; "I 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."

One day the man who kept the little store in the village, showed him
something that made his heart leap.

It was a cotton handkerchief with the Constitution of the United States
printed on one side of it.

In those days people were talking a great deal about the Constitution,
for it had just then come into force.

Daniel had never read it. When he saw the handkerchief he could not rest
till he had made it his own.

He counted all his pennies, he borrowed a few from his brother Ezekiel.
Then he hurried back to the store and bought the wished-for treasure.

In a short time he knew everything in the Constitution, and could repeat
whole sections of it from memory. We shall learn that, when he
afterwards became one of the great men of this nation, he proved to be
the Constitution's wisest friend and ablest defender.

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