day, saw the trustees, and made my application. I suspect my youth
and general greenness caused them to hesitate; they would consider
and let me know inside of a week. So, in a day or two, hearing of
no other vacancies, I returned home the same way I had come. It was
the first day of April when I made the return trip. I remember this
because at one of the hotels where we changed horses I saw a copper
cent lying upon the floor, and, stooping to pick it up, found it
nailed fast. The bartender and two or three other spectators had a
quiet chuckle at my expense. Before the week was out a letter came
from the Tongore trustees saying I could have the school; wages, ten
dollars the first month, and, if I proved satisfactory, eleven for
the other five months, and "board around."

I remember the handwriting of that letter as if I had received it
but yesterday. "Come at your earliest opportunity." How vividly I
recall the round hand in which those words were written! I replied
that I would be on hand the next week, ready to open school on
Monday, the 11th.

Again I took the stage, my father driving me twelve miles to
Dimmock's Corners to meet it, a trip which he made with me many
times in after years. Mother always getting up and preparing our
breakfast long before daylight. We were always in a more or less
anxious frame of mind upon the road lest we be too late for the
stage, but only once during the many trips did we miss it. On that
occasion it had passed a few minutes before we arrived, but, knowing
it stopped for breakfast at Griffin's Corners, four or five miles
beyond, I hastened on afoot, running most of the way, and arrived
in sight of it just as the driver had let off the first crack from
his whip to start his reluctant horses. My shouting was quickly