without
stockings or shoes and with trousers half way up to the knees? On one
occasion the little Ichabod was so thoroughly chilled that he had to
stop at a house to get warm, and the good woman took pity on him, made
him put on a pair of long black stockings, and a pair of her own shoes.
Thus equipped, with his long black legs extending far out of his short
trousers, and the woman's shoes lashed to his feet, he presented a
highly ludicrous appearance, and one which, he thought, might have
conveyed a valuable hint to his master. In the daytime he was usually
employed in the shop making harnesses, a business in which he became
expert. He served this man five years, or until he was fourteen years of
age, when he made a complete harness for one of his cousins, which
rendered excellent service for many years, and a part of it lasted
almost as long as the maker.

Thus, at fourteen, he had completed his first apprenticeship, and had
learned his first trade. The War of 1812 having given a sudden start to
manufactures in this country, he went to work in a cotton factory for a
while, where, for the first time in his life, he saw complicated
machinery. Like a true Yankee as he was, he was strongly attracted by
it, and proposed to learn the machinist's trade. His guardian opposed
the scheme strongly, on the ground that, in all probability, by the time
he had learned the trade the country would be so full of factories that
there would be no more machinery required.

Thus discouraged, he did the next best thing: he went apprentice to the
blacksmith's trade, near Worcester, where he was destined to spend the
rest of his life. He was sixteen years of age when he began this second
apprenticeship; but he was still one of the most timid and bashful of
lads. In a fragment of autobiography found among his papers after his
death he says:--

"I arrived at Worcester about one o'clock, at Syke's tavern where we
were to dine; but the sight of the long table in the dining-room so
overpowered my bashful spirit that I left the room and went into the
yard without dinner to wait till the stage was ready."

On reaching his new home, eighty miles from his mother's house, he was
so overcome by homesickness that, the first night, he sobbed himself to
sleep. Soon he became interested in his shop and in his work, made
rapid progress, and approved himself a skillful hand. Having been
brought up to go to church every Sunday, he now hired a seat in the