With a part of my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin", and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward, with unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between the hours of eight and ten.

The dictionary part of my labors was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands.

I had to be back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night.

I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace better at sixteen than I do now.

Our schoolmaster--happily still alive--was supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind, and so moderate in his charges that all who wished for education might have obtained it.