wise precepts,
as well as not a little harm by his sometimes immoral example. For
myself, I honor him because he was my teacher on a point of great
practical importance, and because he was to thousands of over-credulous
people a light and a benefactor.

Although I had not at this time any very serious thoughts of becoming a
physician and surgeon, yet I certainly inclined in that direction. My
great poverty was the chief difficulty that lay in my way; but this
difficulty at that time seemed insurmountable. Besides, I was wedded to
my father's farm, and I did not see how the banns could very well be
sundered.

CHAPTER IX.

LEE'S WINDHAM BILIOUS PILLS.

I was, at length, twenty-two years of age. I had about fifty dollars in
my pocket, besides a few books. But what would this do towards giving me
a liberal education? And yet, to an education in the schools, of some
sort, either as a means to a profession, or as affording facilities for
obtaining knowledge or communicating it to others, I certainly did
aspire. But I seemed compelled for the present to plod on in the old
way.

There had been, but recently, a gold fever--not, it is true, of
California, but of Carolina. The young men of the North, shrewd,
intelligent, active, and ambitious Yankees, had flocked by hundreds, if
not by thousands, from New England to the Southern States, to sell tin
ware and clocks, especially the former. The trade at first had been very
lucrative. Though many had been made poor by it, yet many more had been
made rich. I do not say how honorably the trade had been conducted. To
sell tin lanterns, worth fifty cents each, for silver, at fifty dollars,
and tin toddy sticks, worth a New York shilling, for twelve dollars, did
not in the final result redound much to our New England credit. Though
it brought us gold, it did not permanently enrich us.

A much better trade had now, in 1820, sprung up with the South. The
North--the great nursery of America--had still a surplus of young men
who wanted to go somewhere. A part of them found their way to Carolina
and Georgia, and engaged during the winter, and occasionally through the
year, in teaching; while another part labored on their canals and
railroads and in their shops. This was to furnish the South with a
commodity of real value, for which we received in return a fair
compensation. Besides, it had a better effect than clock and tin
peddling, both on the seller and buyer.

To improve