Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-12

| hkhllls anu Will leave one NI the SEnOOI=
house for YOU"
"But have no money"
Never mind; you can pay me when you
get to Congress"
Thank you, " said Tom. 81 won't for
get it. sir"
The gentleman looked down at him with
a quizzieal smile, and the two rode on in
silence, until they reached the school
house.
"Please don't forget the grammar, :"
suggested Tom, as he lifted the old cap
again.
mot I, " returned the gentleman. "a
man who cannot keep a promise should
not make one-hey, my ladY"
Nell tossed her head, and the boy soon
| lost sight Of the rider. Then he looked
| down at his shoes, at his coat, and his old
cap as he hung it on the peg in the entry,
and silently cOntIasted them all with the
| fur-trimmed overcoat and outfit of the
stranger.
Never mind, said Tom to himself, 81
will have them all, too, when lam a mem
Der Of Congress-"
At the end Of two weeks a bundle of
books was left at the schoo-house. There
was not only Latin grammar, but well
worn copy Of Virgil, Hsop Fables, and
sundry other volumes such as Tom had
never seen.
Pine knots were plentiful where Tom
lived, and he sat up until midnight all the
rest Of the winter pondenng over the mys-
teries of those books.
As good luck would have it, the school
master, who boarded around with his pu-
pills, had not eaten the rations due him at
Toms fathers. When he arrived, he en-
tered warmly into the lads ambitions pro-
jacts, and as he had smattering OF Latin
himself, was qualified to aid his pupil.
Although the school-master was allowed
| to use tallow candle, he vastly preferred
the more brilliant light of Toms pitch
knot; so that, as often as the long winter
evenings set in, the master and the pupil
might be seen-and were seen-sitting be-
fore the large fireplace, with their heads
buried in the pages of the books, along
which they plodded slowly, but to such
| purpose that at the end of the winter Tom
could read his fable and solve his problem
in manner very creditable to himself and
master.
1t was uphill work with poor Tom, but
he never lost what little he gained, and
managed to make what little he accom-
plished to tell on the future.
One day his father brought home a
stranger, and told Tom that he was ap-
prentieed, during his minority, to this man
who would make him blacksmith.
But lam not going to be blacksmith p
cried Tom, in passion, "Pm going to
Congressp
''The more need that you shonld learn to
shoe the horse that carries you there" re-
piled his father, with a shrug.
Tom packed up his worldly goods, not
forgetting his books, and:trudged away to
distant village, where he pared horses
hoofs by day. and studied and read at
night by stealth, for he was allowed neith-
er knot nor candle.
Six months the poor fellow tried to be
faithful to his duty, but one night when
the master had thrown his grammar into
the fire, and lathed him for his disobe-
dience, Tom took leave of the workshop.
He made his way, barefooted as he was,
over bogs and briars, until be ventured in
to the main road, and by dint of begging
a ride now and then, reached the city,
where, as Ben Franklin had done before
him, with his roll under his arm, he sought
and obtained employment. ..
Perhaps the happiest day of Toms life
was when he found himself in the anti
quarian book store with plenty of leisure,
plenty Of books, and nothing to fear from
friend or foe.
1t is wonderful how he read-and read
and read. The parohed earth does not
more greedily take in the summer ram.
When his intellectual thirst was partial
ly satisfied he began 10 work. He saw the
ladder up which he must climb, and seiz.
ing the lowest round, he made his way
steadily upward.
We all know by what steps an ambi-
tious man makes progress-by patient toll,
by selt-denial, by courteous department,
by the constant acquisition Of knowledge.
Years passed by, during all of which
Tom had looked in vain for his early
friend, the stranger. In his timid awk-
wardness, he had not thought to ask the
name of his benefaetor, and the only op-
portunity to do so had been lost.
Well, years slid away, and Tom was
elected member Of Congress from the very
county where he spent his struggling boy
hood.
He went to Washington, not in cowhide
shoes and buttenut colored homespuu,
but dressed something as Imagination had
pictured, as he looked after his benefaetor
on the eVentful day Of the sleighride.
A nObler looking man, the ladies in the
galleries said, never had appeared upon
the floor, than this Yankee member, who,
il he spoke through his nose, always drove
his arrows home to the mark.
One day there Rppaaaed in the House
the venerable form Of an ex member, whom
i all delighted to honor II needed but one
glance at the genial face for Tom TO recOg
nize in him the giver Of the Latin gram.
mar, ,I.
''He had come, be said, ITO listen to
the gentleman who had so manfully de-
Tended the right, and to wish him God
speedg"