Providence had made his rare and
inestimable endowment.

It was at about this period of his life, that is to say, when he was of
the age of thirteen, or we may perhaps say fourteen years, for we do
not wish to overstate his precocity, that he experienced a sensation so
entirely novel, that, to the best of his belief, it was such as no other
young person had ever known, at least in anything like the same degree.
This extraordinary emotion was brought on by the sight of Myrtle Hazard,
with whom he had never before had any near relations, as they had been
at different schools, and Myrtle was too reserved to be very generally
known among the young people of his age.

Then it was that he broke forth in his virgin effort, "Lines to M----e,"
which were published in the village paper, and were claimed by all
possible girls but the right one; namely, by two Mary Annes, one
Minnie, one Mehitable, and one Marthie, as she saw fit to spell the name
borrowed from her who was troubled about many things.

The success of these lines, which were in that form of verse known to
the hymn-books as "common metre," was such as to convince the youth
that, whatever occupation he might be compelled to follow for a time to
obtain a livelihood or to assist his worthy parent, his true destiny was
the glorious career of a poet. It was a most pleasing circumstance,
that his mother, while she fully recognized the propriety of his being
diligent in the prosaic line of business to which circumstances had
called him, was yet as much convinced as he himself that he was destined
to achieve literary fame. She had read Watts and Select Hymns all
through, she said, and she did n't see but what Gifted could make the
verses come out jest as slick, and the sound of the rhymes jest as
pooty, as Izik Watts or the Selectmen, whoever they was,--she was sure
they couldn't be the selectmen of this town, wherever they belonged.
It is pleasant to say that the young man, though favored by nature with
this rarest of talents, did not forget the humbler duties that Heaven,
which dresses few singing-birds in the golden plumes of fortune, had
laid upon him. After having received a moderate amount of instruction
at one of the less ambitious educational institutions of the town,
supplemented, it is true, by the judicious and gratuitous hints of
Master Gridley, the young poet, in obedience to a feeling which did him
the highest credit, relinquished, at least for the time, the G