He engaged board, washing, fuel, and light of a carpenter at one dollar and six cents a week, with the privilege of working at night and on Saturdays all the time he could spare.

He had arrived on a Saturday and planed fifty-one boards that day, for which he received one dollar and two cents.

When the term closed, he had paid all expenses and had three dollars over.

The following winter he taught school at twelve dollars a month and "board around." In the spring he had forty-eight dollars, and when he returned to school he boarded himself at an expense of thirty-one cents a week.
Soon we find him in Williams College, where in two years he is graduated with honors.

He reaches the State Senate at twenty-six and Congress at thirty-three.