CHAPTER II. 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 



1831-1837. Age 10-16. 



AFTER living in Greenfield ten years, Vincent You- 

 mans determined to leave it and buy a farm, where he 

 could add to the very limited gains of wagon making. 

 At Milton, two miles away, he was offered at a low 

 price a farm of eighty acres. He bought it and re- 

 moved there in the fall of 1831. The place had been 

 owned by a widow, and worked at much disadvan- 

 tage ; the soil, originally thin, had been pretty well ex- 

 hausted ; the fences were dilapidated, and of timber 

 little was left. The house was much smaller than 

 the one in Greenfield. It had been erected the 

 previous winter by a " bee," to replace a house de- 

 stroyed by fire, and its hasty workmanship and make- 

 shift materials afforded much incidental ventilation 

 through walls and roof. However, the removal to 

 Milton was advantageous in many ways. Farming 

 gave the father employment when wagons were not 

 in demand ; the boys, as they grew up, were helpful ; 

 a dairy and poultry yard, managed by the mother, 

 yielded a small but certain cash income, which was 

 carefully hoarded to pay the debts. Food and shel- 

 ter, so costly in cities, were supplied by the farm, and 

 gave no concern ; but there were the doctor's bills, 

 school bills, church subscriptions, and so forth, to be 



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