296 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



couple of table spoonfuls of flour, work into a 

 thin paste and ductile batter by adding the milk 

 and eggs, and a little salt. Grease the pan with 

 a piece of sweet lard or butter, and stir briskly 

 to prevent adhering to the bottom. When the 

 under side is sufficiently browned, turn it. Leave 

 the cakes folded, with sugar or honey and butter 

 between the folds, or sugar alone. If this is 

 found to be too solid, add more eggs, and use less 

 flour. A slight sprinkle of grated nutmeg will 

 be an addition. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



NOAH WEBSTER. 



Every American boy and girl is, of course, ac- 

 quainted with the name of Noah Webster. His 

 spelling-book has made his name famous in every 

 school-house from Maine to California, and his 

 dictionary has given him a fame as widely spread 

 as the English language. I think therefore that 

 my readers would like to know a little about his 

 history. 



Noah Webster was a Connecticut boy. He 

 was born in Hartford, on the 16th of October, 

 1758. His father was a farmer, and descended 

 from one of the first settlers of Hartford. His 

 mother, too, came from a good family, her ances- 

 tor was William Bradford, second governor of 

 the colony of Plymouth. 



Thus, you see, young Noah had good blood in 

 his veins. But that did not, of itself, make him 

 what he afterwards became. Some boys are 

 proud of having great or wise ancestors, they do 

 nothing to make themselves great or good. They 

 expect to grow in consequence without eSbrt. 

 In such cases, however, in spite of all their 

 good blood and noble ancestry, they usually 

 grow up to be either very little, or very bad men, 

 or both. 



Noah had too much good sense to neglect his 

 own improvement. When he was fourteen years 

 old,. he began to study Greek and Latin with a 

 right good will. Two years afterwards, he en- 

 tered Yale College. While there, the war of 

 the Revolution began, and young Webster shoul- 

 dered a musket for a short time. But he soon 

 quitted the field and renewed his studies ; at the 

 expiration of his four years' course of study, he 

 graduated with credit both to himself and to his 

 teachers. 



But the war made the times hard and difficult. 

 Almost every one was tried in his affairs, and 

 Mr. Webster's father among the rest. Unable 

 to afford his son any further aid, the old gentle- 

 man gave him an ciglit dollar bill, worth only 

 ahout four dollars in silver, and tuld him he must 

 provide for himself. 



This was a small fortune, and if young Noah's 

 future had depended upon it, he would have 

 been poor indeed. But his real fortune was in 

 himself, as it is in every other boy. Ho had a 

 will to work, and energy to overcome difficulties. 

 It was his wish to study law, but not having mon- 

 ey enough to obtain regular instruction, he be- 

 gan to teach school, and to stud}"- law without 

 aid from others. So well did he succeed in doing 

 this, that he was admitted to the bar two years 

 afterwards. Let boys remember this fact, and 



learn that where there is a will to acquire knowl- 

 edge there is always a way. 



But his trials were not over yet. He was a 

 lawyer, to be sure, but the war of the Revolution 

 was just over, and times were very unsettled. 

 There was very little work for lawyers to do. 

 Still Mr. Webster was determined to do some- 

 thing. He taught a classical school in the State 

 of New York. Here he saw the need of good el- 

 ementary school-books. There were none in the 

 country that suited his ideal, and he set himself, 

 like a true genius, to the task of compiling them. 



The year after, he published his spelling-book, 

 grammar, and reading lessons. So popular did 

 his spelling-book become, that thirty millions of 

 copies have been published, and it is still selling 

 at the rate of a million a year. The profits on 

 this work supported him while he compiled the 

 great work of his life — his celebrated dictionary. 



We cannot follow Mr. Webster in his career 

 as publisher and writer, because it would not in- 

 terest you. I will only state a few facts to show 

 you how he made his dictionary. He probably 

 conceived the plan while at work on his spelling- 

 book, but he did not give himself wholly to its 

 production until he was forty-nine years of age. 

 Then he devoted himself to it in earnest, and 

 toiled at it incessantly for twenty years. In or- 

 der to render it the more perfect, he visited Eng- 

 land and France, examined the great public libra- 

 ries, and conversed with the learned men of those 

 countries. Having at last completed it, at the 

 close of the year 1828, he published the first 

 edition of twenty-five hundred copies. In 1840, 

 having improved it considerably, he published 

 three thousand more. 



The construction of this dictionary was a gi- 

 gantic task. What patience, zeal and persever- 

 ance Mr. Webster must have possessed, to keep 

 himself so steadily at work upon one object for 

 twenty years ! Only consider that he had to de- 

 fine the meaning of nearly eighty thousand 

 words ! But he never knew discouragement. 

 Little by little he pushed it forward, and thus 

 lived to see his work completed and published. 

 If my reader intends to accomplish anything 

 great, he must learn like him to toil slowly and 

 patiently along, persevering in defiance of obsta- 

 cles. I advise every boy who reads papers, to 

 save his money until he is able to purchase a 

 copy of Webster's unabridged. By studying it 

 he will get much wisdom. By viewing it as a 

 monument of the industry and perseverance of its 

 author, he will be stimulated to st^j-ive after sim- 

 ilar qualities. 



I am very glad to inform you that Mr. Web- 

 ster was a pious man. He loved God, believed 

 on Christ as his Saviour, and lived many years a 

 life of prayer. Hence, when called upon to die, 

 he was not afraid. "I know in w'lom I have be- 

 lieved," said he, as he iTiy upon his death-bed, 

 "and that he is able to keep that which I have 

 committed to him." With these words he fell 

 asleep in Jesus, on the 28th of May, 1843, in the 

 eighty-fifth year of his age. He left a widow 

 and seven children. 



Noah Webster was tall and slender in his per- 

 son. He walked very erect, and his step was 

 light and elastic. I hope every boy and girl of 

 my readers will live as usefully and die as peace- 

 fully as did Noah Webster. 



