very early,
as I do not remember when I could not read), and the opinion of all his
friends, that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in
this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and
proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as
a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued,
however, at the grammar-school not quite one year, though in that time
I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be
the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it,
in order to go with that into the third at the end of the year. But my
father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college
education, which having so large a family he could not well afford, and
the mean living many so educated were afterwards able to
obtain--reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing--altered his
first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a
school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr.
George Brownell, very successful in his profession generally, and that
by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty
soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it. At
ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business,
which was that of a tallow-chandler and sope-boiler; a business he was
not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on
finding his dying trade would not maintain his family, being in little
request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles,
filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the
shop, going of errands, etc.

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my
father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much
in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage boats; and
when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to
govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions
I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into
scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early
projecting public spirit, tho' not then justly conducted.

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge
of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much
trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to buil