_Your_ chance will be poorer than mine in that
respect, for you read more books than I do, and of course you will want
more."

Nat was in season at the dedication, and secured a seat near the
platform, where he could see and hear the speaker to the best advantage.
He was not there, as doubtless some boys were, just to see what was
going on; but he was there to _hear_. An address was to be delivered by
a gentleman whose reputation would naturally create the expectation of
an intellectual treat, and that address was what Nat wanted to hear. It
was singular that the lecture should be upon the life and character of a
self-made man, of the stamp of Dr. Franklin and others, whose
biographies our young hearer had read with the deepest interest. But so
it was. The subject of the address was Count Rumford; and you might know
that Nat swallowed every word, from the leading points of it, which were
in substance as follows:--

The real name of Count Rumford was Benjamin Thompson. He was born in
Woburn, Mass., in the year 1752. His father was a farmer in humble
circumstances, and he died when Benjamin was an infant. His mother was
only able, when he attained a suitable age, to send him to the common
school. He was a bright boy, though he was not so much inclined to study
books. He preferred mechanical tools, with which he exhibited
considerable ingenuity in constructing various articles, particularly
rough drafts of machinery. Among other things he sought to produce a
model of perpetual motion. He was sure he could do it, and he set to
work with a resolution worthy of a nobler enterprise. When one attempt
failed, he tried again, and yet again, until his friends and neighbors
called him a "simpleton," and openly rebuked him for his folly. His
mother began to think he never would learn any craft by which he could
gain a livelihood, and she was really discouraged. He was not vicious
nor indolent. He had energy and perseverance, intelligence and tact; and
still he was not inclined to choose any of "the thrifty occupations of
human industry." At thirteen years of age he was apprenticed Mr.
Appleton, a merchant of Salem, where he distinguished himself only by
neatly cutting his name, "Benjamin Thompson," on the frame of a shop
slate. He cared less for his new business than he did for the tools of
the workshop and musical instruments, for which he had a decided taste.
He soon returned to Woburn.

When he was about seventeen years of age