w anxious his father was that he should be near him. He
wanted to do all that he could to cheer and comfort the declining years
of the noble man who had sacrificed everything for him. And so, in the
spring of 1805, he settled in the town of Boscawen, six miles from home,
and put up at his office door this sign:

D. WEBSTER, ATTORNEY.

* * * * *

X.--LAWYER AND CONGRESSMAN.

When Daniel Webster had been in Boscawen nearly two years, his father
died. It was then decided that Ezekiel should come and take charge of
the home farm, and care for their mother.

Ezekiel had not yet graduated from college, but he had read law and was
hoping to be admitted to the bar. He was a man of much natural ability,
and many people believed that he would some day become a very famous
lawyer.

And so, in the autumn of 1807, Daniel gave up to his brother the law
business which he had in Boscawen, and removed to the city of
Portsmouth.

He was now twenty-five years old. In Portsmouth he would find plenty of
work to do; it would be the very kind of work that he liked. He was now
well started on the road towards greatness.

The very next year, he was married to Miss Grace Fletcher, the daughter
of a minister in Hopkinton. The happy couple began housekeeping in a
small, modest, wooden house, in Portsmouth; and there they lived, very
plainly and without pretension, for several years.

Mr. Webster's office was "a common, ordinary-looking room, with less
furniture and more books than common. He had a small inner room, opening
from the larger, rather an unusual thing."

It was not long until the name of Daniel Webster was known all over New
Hampshire. Those who were acquainted with him said that he was the
smartest young lawyer in Portsmouth. They said that if he kept on in
the way that he had started, there were great things in store for him.

The country people told wonderful stories about him. They said that he
was as black as a coal--but of course they had never seen him. They
believed that he could gain any case in court that he chose to
manage--and in this they were about right.

There was another great lawyer in Portsmouth. His name was Jeremiah
Mason, and he was much older than Mr. Webster. Indeed, he was already a
famous man when Daniel first began the practice of law.

The young lawyer and the older one soon became warm friends; and yet
they were often opposed to each other in the courts. Dani