his first loves do not seem to have been very deep or lasting.  Wherever he went, he produced an impression on all who saw him.  In Fryeburg it was his eyes which people seem to have remembered best.  He was still very thin in face and figure, and he tells us himself that he was known in the village as “All-eyes;” and one of the boys, a friend of later years, refers to Mr. Webster’s “full, steady, large, and searching eyes.”  There never was a time in his life when those who saw him did not afterwards speak of his looks, generally either of the wonderful eyes or the imposing presence.

There was a circulating library in Fryeburg, and this he read through in his usual rapacious and retentive fashion.  Here, too, he was called on for a Fourth of July oration.  This speech, which has been recently printed, dwells much on the Constitution and the need of adhering to it in its entirety.  There is a distinct improvement in his style in the direction of simplicity, but there is no marked advance in thought or power of expression over the Hanover oration.  Two months after delivering this address he returned to Salisbury and resumed the study of the law in Mr. Thompson’s office.  He now plunged more deeply into law books, and began to work at the law with zeal, while at the same time he read much and thoroughly in the best Latin authors.  In the months which ensued his mind expanded, and ambition began to rise within him.  His horizon was a limited one; the practice of his profession, as he saw it carried on about him, was small and petty; but his mind could not be shackled.  He saw the lions in the path plainly, but he also perceived the great opportunities which the law was to offer in the United States, and he prophesied that we, too, should soon have our Mansfields and Kenyons.  The hand of poverty was heavy upon him, and he was chafing and beating his wings against the iron bars with which circumstances had imprisoned him.  He longed for a wider field, and eagerly desired to finish his studies in Boston, but saw no way to get there, except by a “miracle.”

This miracle came through Ezekiel, who had been doing more for himself and his family than any one else, but who, after three years in college, was at the end of his resources, and had taken, in his turn, to keeping school.  Daniel went to Boston, and there obtained a good private school for his brother.  The salary thus earned by Ezekiel was not only sufficient for himself, but enabled Daniel to gratify the cherished wish of his heart, and come to the New England capital to conclude his professional studies.

The first thing to be done was to gain admittance to some good office.  Mr. Webster was lucky enough to obtain an introduction to Mr. Gore, with whom, as with the rest of the world, that wonderful look and manner, apparent even then, through boyishness and rusticity, stood him in good stead.  Mr. Gore questioned him, trusted him, and told him to hang up his hat, begin work as clerk at once, and write to