Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/177

Rh wall to keep it nice; but I soon found out its purpose, and thought it a great improvement on my old hearthstone at home. I took a back seat, and soon the benches were filled. A silver-headed venerable gentleman came and took his seat on the platform. He took a roll, and called a name, and gave a problem to be solved. A young man went forward and made sad work. Another came, and did better, but the most of them signally failed. After all had been examined, the gentleman called out to me, ‘What is your name?’ I told him. He looked at the list, and said, ‘Your turn is to-morrow, but it may spare your feelings if I give you something to do now.’ He gave me one problem, and then another, and I quickly worked them out, and then he asked me, ‘What school did you attend?’ ‘I never went to school, sir,’ I said. ‘Who taught you?’ ‘I never was taught, sir. ‘Where did you learn what you have been doing just now?’ ‘I learned lying on the hearth by a wood fire in Ohio.’ ‘You may come to-morrow.’ I went through my course there with credit and profit.

“But I must pass over many years. I became a Professor in a Western college, had a wife and six children, had a good library, a fine apparatus, and was a very happy man. One day I was seated in church, when I heard a footfall approaching the door, which stood open. I looked out and saw a friend making signs that I was wanted. I slipped quietly out, and, behold, the college building was in flames. My furniture, books. apparatus, were burned up. I had recently imported some apparatus, from Europe, and owed four hundred dollars. In sore perplexity, I applied to a friend at Cincinnati for a loan of two hundred dollars to take me to Boston, where I