n, acquired a very good
knowledge of pronunciation by listening to the clerical orator, Mr.
Fawcet. Drawn by the speaker's popularity, he went to hear him one
Sabbath evening, and he was so impressed with his choice and enunciation
of words, that he continued to attend his preaching in order to perfect
himself in the proper use of language--not a very high object for which
to hear preaching, but illustrative of what may be learned by close
observation. In this way Nat, like Bloomfield and Patrick Henry, studied
"men and things," in connection with books, during the eventful years of
his apprenticeship.

Nat's admiration of the power of the human voice was not all a youthful
hallucination. What is there like it? From the nursery to the Senate it
controls and sways the heart of man. From the mother's voice at the
fireside, to the eloquence of a Webster in the "cradle of liberty," it
soothes, arouses, elevates, or depresses, at its pleasure. Listen to the
gifted orator, as the flowing periods come burning from his soul on
fire, riveting the attention of his hearers in breathless silence for an
hour, almost causing them to feel what he feels, and to believe what he
believes, and bearing them upward by the witchery of his lofty eloquence
until they scarcely know whether they are in the flesh or not, and say
if there is aught of earth to compare with the power of the human
voice.

CHAPTER XX.

GOSSIP.

One such youth as Nat in a country village is the occasion of a good
deal of gossip. Many opinions are expressed in regard to his motives and
prospects, though in this case there were few conflicting sentiments. In
the sewing circle, a good old lady, who could not appreciate education
because she had none herself, said,

"Nat is a smart feller, but I'm feared he'll never be nothin' he thinks
so much of book larning. I 'spose he thinks he can get a living by his
wits."

The old lady had a half dozen champions of the tongue down upon her at
once.

"No, no, Mrs. Lane," said one, "you judge Nat too severely. There is no
one who attends to his work more closely than he does. You never heard
one of his employers complain that he was indifferent to his business."

"He only employs his leisure moments in study," said another; "and I
think that is much to his credit. If more boys in the village were like
him, it would be vastly to our credit, and theirs, too."

"Yes," added a third; "and you may be sure that when a b