erson addressed.

"Esquire ----'s office, the young orator we have heard so much about."

Nat's father was very much amused at this turn of matters; but he kept
on a sober face, and replied, pointing to Nat, who was planing a board,

"That is the young man you want to see, I suppose."

The committee looked at each other, and then at the black-haired
board-planer, with perfect amazement. Their countenances told just what
they thought; and if we should write their thoughts out in plain
English, they would run thus:

"What! that young fellow the stump orator of which we have been told so
much. We better have staid at home, than to risk our party in his hands.
Why! he is nothing but a boy. There must be some mistake about the
matter."

While astonishment was evaporating from the tops of their heads, and
oozing out of the ends of their fingers, Nat had turned away from the
bench to welcome the official strangers. There he stood hatless, and
coatless, with his shirt-sleeves stripped up to his elbows, and his
noble brow wet with perspiration, looking little like one who could sway
an audience by the power of his eloquence.

"We are a committee from the town of----instructed to wait on you, and
engage you to address a political convention," said one of them,
breaking the silence.

"When is the convention?" inquired Nat.

"Two weeks from this time, the 15th day of October."

"I will be there," answered Nat, "and do the best I can for you."

The matter was adjusted, and the committee left, evidently thinking that
an orator whose office was a carpenter's shop could not be a remarkable
defender of democratic principles. On their way home, they spoke freely
to each other of their mistake in engaging one so inexperienced to
address the convention. They concluded that it would teach them a good
lesson, and that in future they would not risk the reputation of their
party in unskilful hands.

It is sufficient to say, that Nat filled the appointment to the
satisfaction of the crowd, and the surprise of the committee. Before he
had spoken fifteen minutes, the committee discovered that they had
misjudged the orator, and that he was, indeed, the youthful champion of
their party. His speech fully convinced them that he could address a
political assembly a little better than he could plane a board.

[Footnote A: A good sketch of Eli Whitney's Life, and the lives of some
other self-made men, spoken of in this volume, may be foun