Birth and Childhood. J 



one of them as an apprentice. After due deliberation 

 it was decided that Vincent should go with Mr. Bur- 

 rill, and that after his return home he should set up a 

 wagon shop and communicate the mysteries of this 

 handicraft to his brother. Accordingly, in the au- 

 tumn of 1808, having nearly completed his fifteenth 

 year, Vincent Youmans went to Sheffield. His art 

 was learned with conscientious thoroughness. Upon 

 his return to Coeymans he opened a wagon shop 

 and worked early and late, from daybreak until 

 nightfall, and then by candlelight. He took great 

 pains in gathering his materials, and his work was 

 done with most scrupulous care. No detail was 

 neglected, and it used to be said that Youmans's 

 wagons lasted forever. But his profits were small ; 

 and besides the three or four wagons which he 

 could make by hand in the course of a year, it was 

 necessary to eke out the scanty income by more 

 or less repairing and tinkering, and by shoeing 

 horses. 



While he was engaged in these avocations Miss 

 Scofield was teaching school in the neighbourhood. A 

 favourite sister of Vincent Youmans was about to be 

 married ; and while he was speaking one day of the 

 loneliness that would come upon the household when 

 she left it, one of his sisters told him he had better get 

 married himself, and added, that if he could only get 

 " the school-teacher at Uncle Levi's " it would be the 

 luckiest thing that could ever happen to him. This 

 remark made, a strange impression upon the young 

 man. Though he had never seen Miss Scofield, he 

 had " a feeling at his heart which he could not mis- 

 take," and which he interpreted as a sign by which 

 God gave him to know that she would one day be his 



