In the summer of 1801, Daniel graduated.  But he took no honors.  He was not even present at the Commencement.

His friends were grieved that he had not been chosen to deliver the valedictory address.  Perhaps he also was disappointed.  But the professors had thought best to give that honor to another student.

* * * * *

VIII.—­HOW DANIEL TAUGHT SCHOOL.

While Daniel Webster was taking his course in college, there was one thing that troubled him very much.  It was the thought of his brother Ezekiel toiling at home on the farm.

He knew that Ezekiel had great abilities.  He knew that he was not fond of the farm, but that he was anxious to become a lawyer.

This brother had given up all his dearest plans in order that Daniel might be favored; and Daniel knew that this was so.

Once, when Daniel was at home on a vacation, he said, “Zeke, this thing is all wrong.  Father has mortgaged the farm for money to pay my expenses at school, and you are making a slave of yourself to pay off the mortgage.  It isn’t right for me to let you do this.”

Ezekiel said, “Daniel, I am stronger than you are, and if one of us has to stay on the farm, of course I am the one.”

“But I want you to go to college,” said Daniel.  “An education will do you as much good as me.”

“I doubt it,” said Ezekiel; “and yet, if father was only able to send us both.  I think that we might pay him back some time.”

“I will see father about it this very day,” said Daniel.

He did see him.

“I told my father,” said Daniel, afterwards, “that I was unhappy at my brother’s prospects.  For myself, I saw my way to knowledge, respectability, and self-protection.  But as to Ezekiel, all looked the other way.  I said that I would keep school, and get along as well as I could, be more than four years in getting through college, if necessary, provided he also could be sent to study.”

The matter was referred to Daniel’s mother, and she and his father talked it over together.  They knew that it would take all the property they had to educate both the boys.  They knew that they would have to do without many comforts, and that they would have a hard struggle to make a living while the boys were studying.

But the mother said, “I will trust the boys.”  And it was settled that Ezekiel, too, should have a chance to make his mark in the world.

He was now a grown-up man.  He was tall and strong and ambitious.  He entered college the very year that Daniel graduated.

As for Daniel, he was now ready to choose a profession.  What should it be?

His father wanted him to become a lawyer.  And so, to please his parents, he went home and began to read law in the office of a Mr. Thompson, in the little village of Salisbury, which adjoined his father’s farm.

The summer passed by.  It was very pleasant to have nothing to do but to read.  And when the young man grew tired of reading, he could go out fishing, or could spend a day in hunting among the New Hampshire hills.