The boy, then scarcely nine years of age,,was employed by this neighbor to pile up in the woodshed a quantity of wood which had been sawed for the winter. He piled it neatly and smoothly, and when this was done, with that spirit of thoroughness and liking for good work with which, in middle age, he built railroads, he picked up all the chips in the wood-yard, and swept it clean with an old broom. His employer, returning home in the evening, was so well pleased with the way in which the boy had done his

WKSTCIIKSTKK.

81»

work, that he patted him on the head, praised hiui for his faithfulness, and gave him a dollar, saying: " You have done this so well that I shall be glad to have you pile my wood next fall again." Young Huntington showed himself greatly delighted with the praise and the dollar -- the first dollar he had ever earned or owned. " But," added the gentleman, who remembered this incident in the boy's life, " Collis said to me, with a bright laugh, ' You don't suppose I'm going to pile wood for a living the rest of my life?"" " ;

When he was fourteen years of age he left school, ' ajul asked his father to give him his time on condition that he should thenceforth support himself. It was the custom in those days in New England for boys to serve their parents until they were of age ; this service, of course, entitling them to maintenance. It is a curious proof of the confidence which the boy inspired in those who knew him, that not only did his father presently consent to his proposition, but when young Huntington went to New York, at the age of fifteen, he was able to obtain credit for a small purchase of goods, with which he began his career as a ' merchant, a country neighbor of his father's not only vouching for him, but saying : " You may send me all Huntington's notes ; he is sure to pay."