daniel had now successfully accomplished the first object of his ambition. he was a college graduate. though not the first scholar in his class he was very near the head, and probably in general culture stood first. there was a little misunderstanding which led to his declining to appear at commencement. his friends desired him to deliver the valedictory, but the faculty selected another, and daniel remained silent. there is a report that he tore up his diploma in anger and disgust in presence of his classmates, saying, “my industry may make me a great man, but this miserable parchment cannot.” had this story been true it would have done daniel little credit. george ticknor curtis, who has written the most elaborate and trustworthy memoir of webster states emphatically that there is no foundation for this story. even if not entirely satisfied with the treatment he received at that time, daniel’s loyalty to his alma mater was never doubted.
and now the world was before the young graduate. what was he to do?
his thoughts had long been fixed upon the legal profession. this was no proof of a special fitness for it, for at least half of the young men who graduate from our colleges make the same choice. but with daniel the choice was a more serious one, for he very well knew that he could not afford to make a mistake here. poverty was still his hard taskmaster, and he leaned beneath its dark shadow.
my young reader will remember that at the age of fourteen daniel officiated as office-boy for a young lawyer in his native town—thomas w. thompson. now a college graduate of nineteen, he re-entered the same office as a law student. mr. thompson was a man of ability. he was a graduate of harvard, where also he had filled the position of tutor. while the boy was obtaining an education at dartmouth, thompson was establishing a lucrative law practice. he became in time prominent in state politics, and finally went to congress. it will be seen, therefore, that daniel made a good choice, and that mr. thompson was something more than an obscure country lawyer.
it is a little significant that the first law books which the young student read related to the law of nations. he read also standard literary works, and gave his leisure hours to hunting and fishing, the last of which was always a favorite sport with him. he gained some insight into the practical business of a law office. the reader will be amused at a humorous account of the manner in which he was employed during a temporary absence of his legal preceptor and a fellow-student.
“i have made some few writs,” he says, “and am now about to bring an action of trespass for breaking a violin. the owner of the violin was at a husking, where
‘his jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,’
made the girls skip over the husks as nimbly as virgil’s camilla over the tops of the corn, till an old surly creature caught his fiddle and broke it against the wall. for the sake of having plump witnesses the plaintiff will summons all the girls to attend the trial at concord.”
here is another extract from a letter to the same friend which will amuse: “i thank you for your receipt for greasing boots. have this afternoon to ride to the south road, and in truth my boots admit not only water, but peas and gravel-stones. i wish i had better ones. as for ‘my new friend, tobacco,’ he is like most of that name has made me twice sick, and is now dismissed.
“heighho! a man wants a remedy against his neighbor, whose lips were found damage-feasant on his—the plaintiffs—wife’s cheek! what is to be done? but you have not read the law against kissing. i will write for advice and direction to barrister fuller.”
so the young man appeared to be enjoying himself while pursuing his studies, and would probably have wished nothing better than to have gone on till he was prepared for admission to the bar on his own account. but there was a serious obstacle. his good father had well nigh exhausted his means in carrying daniel through college, and ezekiel through his preparatory studies, and was now very much straitened for money. it was felt to be time for daniel to help him. he, therefore, “thought it his duty to suffer some delay in his profession for the sake of serving his elder brother,” by seeking employment outside.
as a general thing when a college graduate is pressed by hard necessity, he turns his attention to the task of teaching, and such was the case with daniel. fortunately he soon found employment. from fryeburg, maine, there came to him an invitation to take charge of the academy there, and the young man accepted it. he was to be paid the munificent salary of three hundred and fifty dollars per year, and he felt that the offer was too dazzling to be rejected.
