klin, rather
drily. "If God does anything for him, he will do it in his own time
and way. I shall be satisfied to see him qualified for usefulness in
the service of the Church."

Within a few months after Benjamin entered school, he had advanced
from the middle to the head of his class. He was so apt to learn, and
gave so close attention to his lessons, that his teacher spoke of him
as a boy of uncommon promise. He did not stand at the head of his
class long, however, before he was transferred to a higher one. He so
far outstripped his companions that the teacher was obliged to advance
him thus, otherwise his mental progress would have been injuriously
retarded. His parents were highly gratified with his diligent
improvement of time and opportunities, and other relatives and friends
began to prophesy his future eminence.

It is generally the case that such early attention to studies, in
connection with the advancement that follows, awakens high hopes of
the young in the hearts of all observers. Such things foreshadow the
future character, so that people think they can tell what the man will
be from what the boy is. So it was with young Benjamin Franklin. So it
was with Daniel Webster,--his mother inferred from his close attention
to reading, and his remarkable progress in learning, that he would
become a distinguished man, and so expressed herself to others. She
lived to see him rise in his profession, until he became a member of
Congress, though she died before he reached the zenith of his renown.
The same was true of David Rittenhouse, the famous mathematician. When
he was but eight years old he constructed various articles, such as a
miniature water-wheel, and at seventeen years of age he made a clock.
His younger brother relates that he was accustomed to stop when he was
ploughing in the field, and solve problems on the fence, and sometimes
cover the plough-handles over with figures. The highest expectations
of his friends were more than realized in his after life. The peculiar
genius which he exhibited in his boyhood gave him fame at last. Again,
George Stephenson, the great engineer, the son of a very poor man, who
fired the engine at the Wylam Colliery, began his life labour when a
mere boy. Besides watching the cows, and barring the gates at night
after the coal waggons had passed, at twopence a day, he amused
himself during his leisure moments in making clay engines, in
imitation of that which his father tend