an appetite for the acquisition of knowledge which soon
became the controlling passion of his nature, and, "thoroughly absorbed
by this idea, he fixed upon the select school of his native town as the
institution best adapted to initiate him in the course suited to the
fulfilment of his laudable ambition."

But his determination to procure an education met with obstacles from
the outset. How to defray the necessary expenses which such a course
involved was the question which continually presented itself for his
ingenuity to solve. His father's reverses placed it quite beyond the
possibilities to hire help upon the farm, and Willard's services had
therefore come to be looked upon as something of vital importance.

In dragging from the hard soil of the Davis place the living which
necessity compelled, he performed the work of a man, and the perfect
trust which his father reposed in him gave his services additional
value.

This fact increased the difficulty of his position; but though he made
it a point to husband all his spare time for self-instruction, he was
far from satisfied with the existing state of affairs, and pondered long
and earnestly over the best means of securing the advantages of regular
instruction.

At that time the streams tributary to the St. Lawrence were supplied
with such fur-bearing animals as the mink, the musk-rat, the otter, and
the more humble rabbit, the skins of all of which were more or less
valuable and were sought by professional trappers. These men found the
business a reasonably lucrative one, and it commended itself especially
to Willard, as health and strength were the only capital required. The
grand difficulty was how to supply his place in the work of the farm.
His father was a man who always listened with patience and sympathy to
any scheme that promised to benefit his children. His son, therefore,
had no hesitation in laying the whole matter before him and seeking his
advice upon the subject. He felt, of course, that any proposal to
withdraw his personal labor from the common stock of exertion by which
the cultivation of the farm was rendered a possibility, was a direct
pecuniary tax upon his father's resources; but he believed he could to a
great extent neutralize the injury by supplying a substitute.

He also felt assured that although the step he proposed to take might be
a present loss to the family it would prove an ultimate gain. He was
thoroughly determined to make _his_