"
I had parted with my bottom dollar, was also in debt, and therefore
in the best position for getting along; but I could not all at once
think of anything to patent, and had to earn my daily bread some way
or other. I began to do it by hammering sheets of iron into the
proper curves for an undershot water-wheel. After I had worked two
days my boss suggested that I should seek other employment--in a
school, for instance; a new teacher was wanted in the common school
of West Joliet.
I said I should prefer something higher; a teacher was of no more
earthly account than a tailor.
The boss said: "That might be so in benighted Britain, but in the
Great United States our prominent citizens begin life as teachers in
the common schools, and gradually rise to the highest positions in
the Republic."
I concluded to rise, but a certificate of competency was required,
and I presented myself for examination to the proper official, the
editor and proprietor of 'The True Democrat' whose office was across
the bridge, nearly opposite Matheson's woollen factory. I found the
editor and his compositor labouring over the next edition of the
paper.
The editor began the examination with the alphabet. I said in
England we used twenty-six letters, and I named all of them correctly
except the last. I called it "zed," but the editor said it was
"zee," and I did not argue the point.
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