e village, where he attended the famous Rockwood Academy. Then some
one to whom the elder Hill was indebted, signified a desire for the
colt, and the father turned the horse over to the creditor. When little
Jim went out and found that the stall was empty he had a good cry, all
by himself.

Three years after this, when his father died, he cried again, and that
was the last time he ever wept over any of his own troubles.

* * * * *

From his seventh to his fourteenth year young Jim Hill attended the
Rockford Academy. This "Academy" had about thirty boarding boys and a
dozen day-scholars. Jim Hill was a "day-scholar," and the pride of the
master. The boy was studious, appreciative, grateful. He wasn't so
awfully clever, but he was true.

The master of the Academy was Professor William Wetherald, stern to
view, but very gentle of heart. His wife was of the family of Balls. The
Ball family moved from Virginia two generations before, to Western New
York, and then when the Revolutionary War was on, slid over to Ontario
for political reasons best known to themselves.

There was quite an emigration to Canada about then, including those
worthy Mohawk Indians whose descendants, including Longboat the runner
and the Princess Viroqua, are now to be found in the neighborhood of
Brantford.

And certainly the Indians were wise, for Canada has treated the red
brother with a degree of fairness quite unknown on this side of the
line. As for the Tories--but what's the need of arguing!

The Balls trace to the same family that produced Mary Ball, and Mary
Ball was the mother of George Washington--so tangled is this web of
pedigree! And George Washington, be it known, got his genius from his
mother, not from the tribe of Washington.

William Wetherald died at an advanced age--near ninety, I believe--only
a short time ago. It is customary for a teacher to prophesy--after the
pupil has arrived--and declare, "What did I tell you!" Wetherald looked
after young Hill at school with almost a father's affection, and
prophesied for him great things--only the "great things" were to be in
the realms of science, oratory and literature.

Along about Eighteen Hundred Eighty-eight, when James J. Hill was
getting his feet well planted on the earth, he sent for his old teacher
to come to Saint Paul. Wetherald spent several weeks there, riding over
the Hill roads in a private car, and discussing old times with the owne