aming it, the stranger requested that a
deed be made out at once; he counted down the amount in gold, and gave
his name as Esaias Hausman. He had built for himself a small rude house
on this lot and lived alone in it for years. The secrets of his former
life, his wide learning (once found teaching a college president
Hebrew), and disappearance at times, were never solved. Only his death
revealed a purse of gold worn between his shoulder-blades. There was no
will, so to public sale went the little hut and its lake-shore lot. This
man of mystery made a deep impression on Cooper's boy-mind, and later,
in 1838, was the subject of several pages of the author's "Chronicles of
Cooperstown." Then there was James Allen,--a Scotch master-mason,--who
came his way from the "Land o' Cakes" in 1801, and found, as an
employee of Judge Cooper, an opening for his trade, and soon became a
great favorite with the Cooper boys. This master-mason took great pride
in exact work, with which no trifling was permitted. No stone could be
moved but his true eye would detect it in a flash, and wild was the fury
with which his fiery trowel flew for the culprit, and with such
convincing force that it was wise to avoid further meddling with the
"gude mon's" work. Of "Jamie Allen," master-mason and staunch _auld
kirke mon_, many an amusing story is told in Fenimore Cooper's
"Wyandotte, or the Hutted Knoll," written in 1843. These men among
others marked the unusual in Cooper's vacations from Dr. Ellison's
school-rule at Albany. Later in life he wrote a lively memory-sketch of
his tutor, the rector of St. Peter's Church. But the death in 1802 of
this accomplished gentleman sent his pupil--then a stripling of
thirteen--to Yale. He entered the freshman 1802-3 January-term class,
and, "excepting the poet Hillhouse, two weeks his junior, James Cooper
was the youngest student in college." There "his progress in his studies
is said to have been honorable to his talents." And "in the ancient
languages he had no superior in his class."

[Illustration: "NEAR SHORES" OF NEW HAVEN.]

Cooper owned to having learned little at college. When left to his own
bent, his early love for out-of-door life drew him to roam the hills and
explore near shores, and to his first view of the grand old ocean, which
later claimed his tribute of service. For a boyish frolic in his junior
year the lad left Yale, and this incident ended his college career. It
is of record that Judge Co