6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1817, 



distinct recollections of school are of spelling-matches, 

 in which at six or seven years I was a champion. 1 



active boy safe for a few hours. Her young sisters lived not far 

 away, and the youngest aunt, a girl of ten, was proud to take him to 

 school ; she had already taught him his letters. His father promised 

 him a spelling-book of his own as soon as he reached baker, which 

 was a marked spot of advance in the spelling-book. A few weeks 

 saw him far enough on, and the coveted prize was given. He went 

 proudly to school the next day, and as he could not speak to the 

 teacher to proclaim his triumph, he walked in front of her desk to 

 his seat, waving the book with a great flourish before her ! It was 

 just before he was three years old. 



1 Of one of these, his friend, now over eighty years old, gives an 

 account in the succeeding letter : 



SAUQUOIT, February 19, 1888. 



DEAR A. I would like to give you some information of your un- 

 cle's early life if I were well informed, but I have only one little inci- 

 dent, and perhaps that would be of small account at the present era, 

 though at the time it took place it was of great moment to us both as 

 children. Asa lived with his parents at Paris Furnace, now Clayville. 

 I lived where Mr. Bragg afterward built his new house. Well, we 

 had a lovely teacher that summer by the name of Sally Stickney, 

 living at Colonel Avery's. She ruled by gentleness. For our class 

 she had an old-fashioned two-shilling piece, with a hole through to 

 insert a yard of blue ribbon. She put this over the head of the one 

 that stood first in our class. So it traveled every night, all that 

 summer, with some one of us, until the ribbon was worn and faded. 

 But more than all that, the one that stood at the head on the last 

 day of school was to be the owner of that two-shilling piece that we 

 had watched with jealous eyes so many weeks, and studied Web- 

 ster's old spelling-book so hard to gain. I think our eyes must 

 have magnified it, for I have never seen a coin since that seemed 

 so large. I think it was the same in Asa's eyes. Well, with hearts 

 beating fast, and eyes on the coveted prize, we were called on the 

 last day of school to spell ; we took our places ; I was at the head, 

 Asa next. I missed and he went above me ; my all was gone, but 

 it was worse to have him point his finger at me and say out loud 

 " kee-e-e.' ' I braved it without a tear ; a few more words would end 

 the strife. It came around to him, and he missed ; how quick I went 

 above him ; but in an instant he dropped his head on the desk before 

 him and wept as though his heart would break. School was dis- 

 missed, scholars were leaving ; still he did not move, until our kind 

 teacher came to him, whispered to him, soothed and petted him ; then 



