The boy's spirit was aroused.

"Say no more, mother," he replied. "I will undertake the school, and if
success is any way possible, I will succeed. I have been shrinking from
it, but I won't shrink any longer."

"That is the spirit that succeeds, James."

James laughed, and in answer quoted Campbell's stirring lines with
proper emphasis:

"I will victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With my face to the field and my feet to the foe."

So the time passed till the eventful day dawned on which James was to
assume charge of his first school. He was examined, and adjudged to be
qualified to teach; but that he anticipated in advance.

The building is still standing in which James taught his first school.
It is used for quite another purpose now, being occupied as a
carriage-house by the thrifty farmer who owns the ground upon which it
stands. The place where the teacher's desk stood, behind which the boy
stood as preceptor, is now occupied by two stalls for carriage-horses.
The benches which once contained the children he taught have been
removed to make room for the family carriage, and the play-ground is now
a barnyard. The building sits upon a commanding eminence known as Ledge
Hill, and overlooks a long valley winding between two lines of hills.

This description is furnished by the same correspondent of the Boston