"
Hal replied: "I wish you would, Uncle Dayton; that is just what I should
like."
"Well," said he, "it wouldn't do you any hurt to come with him."
"I should come, too," said Mary.
"Come right along," was the reply. At supper time he said he preferred a
simple dish of bread and milk, which he seemed to enjoy greatly, and all
the niceties Mary had prepared were set aside unnoticed.
"Do you know what day you were born on, Ben?" he said.
"I know the day of the month, sir, but not the day of the week."
"Tell me the day of the month and year and I will tell you the day of
the week."
"September 6, 1828."
"Let's see," said the philosopher, turning his eyes to the ceiling;
"that came on Saturday."
We all asked the solving of this problem, and the instantaneous result
seemed wonderful. After supper, at our request, he told us his history,
and when we realized that this man had gained for himself all his
knowledge, we looked on him as one coming from wonderland. It was hardly
credible that he should have power to solve the most difficult
mathematical problems, calculate eclipses, as well as do all that could
be required in civil or hydraulic engineering, and that he had
accomplished this by his own will, which, pushing aside all obstacles,
fought for the supremacy of his brain life. His father desired him to
have no book knowledge, and he told us that when a young boy he would
wait for sleep to close his father's eyes, and would then, by the light
of pitch-pine knots and birch-bark in the fireplace, pursue his studies.
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