it was to require more work of him.  When only a little over sixteen years old, this boy was able to do the work of a full-grown man, and a man’s work was rigorously exacted of him.  When sent to work at a distance from his employer’s home, he invariably had to make the entire journey on foot, with his tools on his back, sometimes being required to go as far as thirty miles in one day in this way.  His mother was living at some distance from the place where his master resided, and whenever he visited her, he had to walk all night in order to avoid using his master’s time, not one hour of which was allowed him.

In 1811, he informed his master that he was willing to undertake to clothe himself if he could have the five months of the cold season to himself.  As this part of the year was always a dull period, and apprentices were little more than an expense to their masters, young Jerome’s employer promptly consented to the proposed arrangement.  Jerome, now eighteen years old, had never relinquished his old desire to become a clock-maker.  He had watched the market closely, and questioned the persons engaged in the business, and he found that, so far from the market being over-stocked, there was a ready sale for every clock made.  Greatly encouraged by this, he resolved to devote the five months of his freedom to learning the business, and to apply himself entirely to it at the expiration of his apprenticeship.  As soon as he had concluded his bargain with his master, he set out for Waterbury on foot, and upon arriving there, sought and obtained work from a man who made clock-dials for the manufacturers of clocks.

He worked with his new employer awhile, and then formed an arrangement with two journeymen clock-makers.  Having perfected their plans, the three set out for New Jersey in a lumber wagon, carrying their provisions with them.  The two clock-makers were to make and set up the works, and Jerome was to make the cases whenever they should succeed in selling a clock on their journey.  Clock-making was then considered almost perfect.  It had been reduced to a regular system, and the cost of construction had been very greatly lessened.  A good clock, with a case seven feet high, could now be made for forty dollars, at which price it yielded a fair profit to the maker.  The three young men were tolerably successful in their venture.  Jerome worked fifteen hours a day at case-making, and by living economically, managed to carry some money with him when he went back to his master’s shop in the spring.  For the remaining three years of his apprenticeship he employed his winters in learning the various branches of clock-making, and not only earned enough money to clothe himself, but laid by a modest sum besides.