It was not till he espied a Daboll’s Arithmetic in Hal’s studio that he became interested in the belongings of that house, albeit Hal and Mary had shown him the statuary they so much prized.  He looked at the statuettes and remarked to Hal: 

“You do that better than I do, but what after all does it amount to?  It never will save a man from sin; never break a fetter, or dash away a wine-cup.  But what do you know about figures?  Do you think you know very much?”

“Not as much as I wish,” Ben answered, as Hal smiled at the plain question.

“I thought so,” said Mr. Dayton; “and the very best thing you can do, young man, is to come down to my house, or perhaps I can come up here, and gather some really useful and necessary information about figures.  It will make a man of you.  I guess you’re a pretty good boy, and you only need brightening up a little.”

Hal replied:  “I wish you would, Uncle Dayton; that is just what I should like.”

“Well,” said he, “it wouldn’t do you any hurt to come with him.”

“I should come, too,” said Mary.

“Come right along,” was the reply.  At supper time he said he preferred a simple dish of bread and milk, which he seemed to enjoy greatly, and all the niceties Mary had prepared were set aside unnoticed.

“Do you know what day you were born on, Ben?” he said.

“I know the day of the month, sir, but not the day of the week.”

“Tell me the day of the month and year and I will tell you the day of the week.”

“September 6, 1828.”

“Let’s see,” said the philosopher, turning his eyes to the ceiling; “that came on Saturday.”

We all asked the solving of this problem, and the instantaneous result seemed wonderful.  After supper, at our request, he told us his history, and when we realized that this man had gained for himself all his knowledge, we looked on him as one coming from wonderland.  It was hardly credible that he should have power to solve the most difficult mathematical problems, calculate eclipses, as well as do all that could be required in civil or hydraulic engineering, and that he had accomplished this by his own will, which, pushing aside all obstacles, fought for the supremacy of his brain life.  His father desired him to have no book knowledge, and he told us that when a young boy he would wait for sleep to close his father’s eyes, and would then, by the light of pitch-pine knots and birch-bark in the fireplace, pursue his studies.  This was pursuing knowledge under difficulties which would have proved insurmountable to many.  But not so to Mr. Dayton, for he steadily gained; and though to an utter disregard for his unquenchable thirst for knowledge was added the daily fight for bread, he rose triumphantly above these difficulties, and mastered the most intricate mathematical calculation with the ease which is born only of a superior development of brain.  Matthias had told us truly, and when he left us for his home we felt that in him we found new strength for much that was good and true, and for abhorrence of evil.