SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 31 



I don't care to ask and be denied ; but if you will 

 go and ask her, I will pay you for your day's 

 work.' 



" He went accordingly. Her answer was, she 

 would be advised by her brother Ayscough, upon 

 which Mr. Smith sent the same person to Mr. 

 Ayscough on the same errand, who, upon con- 

 sulting with his sister, treated with Mr. Smith, 

 who gave her son Isaac a parcel of land, one of 

 the terms insisted upon by the widow if she mar- 

 ried him." 



Though for a time she was thus removed from 

 Isaac, leaving him with his grandmother, on the 

 death of Eev. Mr. Smith, she returned to the 

 manor-house. . 



When Isaac had reached his fifteenth year, his 

 mother, not seeming to think of any profession for 

 her mechanical son, decided to make of him a 

 farmer and grazier. On Saturdays, the market day 

 at Grantham, she would send him with grain and 

 other agricultural produce, in the care of an old 

 and trusty servant. The boy had no taste for 

 selling produce, and would hasten to the attic in 

 the house of Mr. Clark, an apothecary, with whom 

 he had boarded while at school, and there spend 

 his hours in reading old books, till the time came 

 for him to go home, the servant meantime having 

 sold the vegetables. 



Sometimes, however, the lad would not go as far 

 as Grantham, but, seating himself beside a hedge 

 along the road, would read some favorite author 



