My Boyhood and Youth 



ordinary clock that could be bought for a 

 dollar. I also made a few dollars addressing 

 circulars in an insurance office, while at the 

 same time I was paying my board by taking 

 care of a pair of horses and going errands. This 

 is of no great interest except that I was thus 

 winning my bread while hoping that something 

 would turn up that might enable me to make 

 money enough to enter the State University. 

 This was my ambition, and it never wavered 

 no matter what I was doing. No University, 

 it seemed to me, could be more admirably, 

 situated, and as I sauntered about it, charmed 

 with its fine lawns and trees and beautiful lakes, 

 and saw the students going and coming with 

 their books, and occasionally practising with a 

 theodolite in measuring distances, I thought 

 that if I could only join them it would be the 

 greatest joy of life. I was desperately hungry 

 and thirsty for knowledge and willing to endure 

 anj^hing to get it. 



One day I chanced to meet a student who 

 had noticed my inventions at the Fair and now 

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