recited chapter after chapter. Indeed, the teacher cried. "enough," and gave him his reward long before he had said all he knew!

Daniel Webster was so fond of reading that he borrowed all the books he could, and learned them by heart. Besides, he carefully saved up his few pennies to buy a handkerchief on which was printed the Constitution of the United States, and committed that to memory, too. When told to watch the saw in his father's mill, he used to set it going, and read while the work went slowly on, instead of playing or fishing, as did most boys of his age.

When Daniel had learned all the village schoolmaster could teach him, his father made a great effort, and sent him first to Ex'e-ter Academy and then to Dart'mouth College. He studied hard in both places, for he knew he must make the best of his opportunities.

Daniel was, besides, very quick-witted. Once, when he and an older brother were out driving together, they found the road completely blocked by a heavily laden cart. Ezekiel, who was large and strong, fancied they would have to wait until the teamster came back with men to help him; but Daniel cried: "Come, we can start this team. You put your shoulder to the hind wheel, and I will mount the near horse." Ezekiel obeyed, and the team, thus encouraged, drew the load up to the top of the hill, where the road was wide enough to let the Websters drive past. They were almost out of sight when the teamster came back with the help he no longer needed.

Like most New England country people of that time, the Websters made their own garments from the wool of their sheep. Once, on his way to college, the sleigh in

which Daniel was riding broke through the ice while they were crossing a stream, and the young man was drenched To keep from freezing, he ran behind the sleigh until he came to a farmhouse, where he went to bed so that his clothes could be dried. On undressing, he was at first greatly alarmed to find his body dark blue; but after a while he discovered, as he quaintly said, that “the contents of my mother's dye pot were left on my body instead of my clothes."

Daniel was very kind and brotherly, and taught school for a while to help Ezekiel through college. Then he began to study law, although an old farmer had advised him to become a conjurer, saying he could earn a great deal of money by telling people where to find the things they had lost, or by telling fortunes.

His family was so poor that it seemed at one time as if he would have to give up his studies to accept a position offered him. But the lawyer with whom he was studying said: "Go on and finish your studies. You are poor enough, but there are worse evils than poverty. Live on no man's favor; what bread you do eat, let it be the bread of independence. Pursue your profession, make yourself useful to your friends and a little formidable to your enemies, and you have nothing to fear."

Daniel Webster took this advice, finished his studies, and went to Ports'mouth to practice law. Although far from rich, he was generous. very late, he saw a poor woman steal the boards he had laid down in front of his house as a walk. He followed her home, and seeing that she was in great need, sent her a load of wood the next day.

One night, while walking home

O

XXVIII. WEBSTER'S SPEECHES.

NCE a blacksmith came to Daniel Webster with a very

difficult case. Webster had to study hard to get it right, and was even forced to spend fifty dollars for the books he had to consult. He won the case, and, knowing the man was poor, charged him only fifteen dollars. This good deed was not to remain unrewarded, however. A few years later Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States, consulted Webster about a case like the blacksmith's. Thanks to the careful preparation he had made for that case, and to his wonderful memory, Webster this time earned a large fee in a few minutes.

A teamster who had known him as a dark-eyed, brownskinned farmer's boy was disgusted to find he had been engaged to defend him. But after Daniel had made one of his grand speeches, and thus won the case, the man's friends slyly asked what he thought of Webster now. "Think!" cried the teamster, warmly; "why, I think he is an angel sent down from heaven to save me from ruin, and my wife and children from misery.

As time went on, Webster rose ever higher in his profession, until he was elected to Congress, where his careful study of the Constitution was a great help to him. Besides being a lawyer, he was also a good statesman, and one of the most eloquent men the world has ever seen. His first public speech was a Fourth of July oration, delivered when he was only eighteen; but after that he made many famous speeches besides those already mentioned. One of his finest historical speeches was made at Plym'

outh, to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and his greatest political speech was his answer to Hayne, while in the Senate.

When this last-named speech was over, knowing Webster could never do any better, one of his admirers said: "Mr. Webster, I think you had better die now, and rest your fame on that speech." But Governor Hayne quickly said: "You ought not to die; a man who can make such speeches as that ought never to die."

This was very generous on Hayne's part, for Webster's speech had surpassed his own. The next time they met, when Webster asked him how he felt, Hayne again showed that he owed his rival no grudge by answering, with a merry smile, "None the better for you, sir.”

Webster not only helped to make the Ashburton treaty, but wrote such a clever letter to England that, although the British had still claimed the right to search American ships, they no longer dared do so except in the way the law allowed.

Webster, like his father, was an ardent patriot, and when the quarrels on the slavery question grew so bitter that it seemed as if the words of John Quincy Adams must soon come true, he made a great effort to preserve the Union. He fancied this could best be done if the Northern people yielded to the Southerners on some points, and he therefore made a speech in Congress on the 7th of March, 1850, which greatly disappointed his antislavery friends.

Because they did not like the views expressed in that speech, they began to abuse him, and when he wanted to be nominated for President most of them would not even

consider him. This was a great disappointment to Webster, who sadly withdrew to private life. Soon after this he became ill, and being thrown from his carriage, he

grew rapidly worse until he died. As the churcn bells tolled out his age, the people around his country house at Marshfield looked at one another, and solemnly said: "It must be that Daniel Webster is dead. The pride of our nation is fallen."

Webster's famous speeches have been printed, and if you want to read some of the most soul-stirring and patriotic words an American orator ever spoke, you must turn to the speech which he made in Congress to answer Hayne. Because Webster is one of our greatest orators you will