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38 crust; and no royal table has ever been so kingly as that where I presided alone over my own feast.

Of the succeeding years, six, seven and eight, I recall little of note beyond my studies, excepting a propensity I indulged for writing verses, many of which were preserved to amuse, others to tease me for many years. Colonel Stone had closed his series of common schools, and opened a special institution on "Oxford Plain," known as the "Oxford High School." Its fame had spread for miles around, and it was regarded as the Ultima Thule for teachers, and in a manner a stepping stone or opening door to Harvard and Yale.

My brother Stephen had succeeded Col. Stone in the winter terms of the