14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



at all hazards, to go to school, and often did I 

 jump from my bed-room window and run a dis- 

 tance of half a mile to the school-house. My 

 greatest ambition was to be a merchant, and I 

 knew that I must procure at least a limited 

 scholastic education to enable me to succeed in 

 my anticipated calling. But, while I was laying 

 my youthful plans for the future, my father would 

 lay plans for work, and often, on returning at 

 night from school, I would hide in the barn 

 till after dark, dreading the punishment which 

 awaited me for having gone to school in place 

 of working. 



At the age of ten years I have taken a team, 

 gone alone into the woods and loaded saw-logs 

 on a sleigh, using the horses to draw up the logs. 

 As my father owned a saw-mill as well as a farm, 

 it seemed to him necessary that every effort 

 should be put forth to keep both branches of 

 business going ; therefore, no time was allotted 

 to his children for securing an education. Many 

 times have I approached him, timidly and with 

 tears, humbly requesting to be allowed to go to 



