Page:Lives of the presidents in words of one syllable (1903).djvu/114

 Simp-son. In 1822 the first son was born. The next year Jes-se Grant set up tan works of his own at George-town, and did well.

At first the young pair did not know what to name the babe. At last the fa-ther, who had queer plans, said that a lot of names should be put in a hat, which one might shake, and then draw out for chance. The moth-er's fa-ther wrote on a slip the name of "Hi-ram." His wife, who had just read Fe-ne-lon's "Te-lem-a-chus," and had been proud of the U-lys-ses in it, wrote that word on a slip. When the first two slips were drawn out the names of Hi-ram and U-lys-ses came to light, so the child took the two names.

From the first the boy was the pride of his fa-ther's heart and he built his hopes on him. The child was well and strong. At eight the boy drove the team which went round and round to break the bark for the mill. It was his work, too, to break, with a maul, long strips of bark. He did not like this work as well as he did to drive the team from the woods when it brought in the logs, so, as soon as he could, he found out a way to earn sums to pay boys to do this work for him. He drove loads or folks back and forth to near-by towns and so could earn to pay boys who did his work at home.

The fa-ther thought this child was born for great things, so he sent him to a fine school that cost him a good deal. In the hours at home the same work went on with the teams and the bark, but some time was left for fun with the boy friends, and U-lys-ses went off to the woods to get grapes and nuts and paw-paws, and to swim in the streams in warm months, and skate and coast on the cold days.