"I told him that I felt their kindness and liberality very deeply; that I should certainly thank them in the best manner I was able; but that, I should go up to Salisbury so soon, I hardly thought it was necessary to write. He looked at me as if he was greatly surprised. 'Why,' said he, 'you don't mean to accept it, surely!' The bare idea of not accepting it so astounded me that I should have been glad to have found any hole to have hid myself in.... 'Well,' said he, 'you must decide for yourself; but come, sit down, and let us talk it over. The office is worth fifteen hundred a year, you say. Well, it never will be any more. Ten to one, if they find out it is so much, the fees will be reduced. You are appointed now by friends; others may fill their places who are of different opinions, and who have friends of their own to provide for. You will lose your place; or, supposing you to retain it, what are you but a clerk for life? And your prospects as a lawyer are good enough to encourage you to go on. Go on, and finish your studies; you are poor enough, but there are greater evils than poverty: live on no man's favor; what bread you do eat, let it be the bread of independence; pursue your profession, make yourself useful to your friends and a little formidable to your enemies, and you have nothing to fear.'" Young Webster went home and passed another sleepless night. Then he borrowed some money, hired a sleigh, and started for Salisbury. When he reached his father's house, the pale old man said to him, "Well, Daniel, we have got that office for you." "Yes, father," was the reply, "the gentlemen were very kind; I must go and thank them." "They gave it to you without my saying a word about it." "I must go and see Judge Farrar, and tell him I am much obliged to him." "Daniel, Daniel," said he, at last, with a searching look, "don't you mean to take that office?" "No, indeed, father," was the response, "I hope I can do much better than that. I mean to use my tongue in the courts, not my pen; to be an actor, not a register of other men's acts. I hope yet, sir, to astonish your honor in your own court by my professional attainments." He looked half proud, half sorrowful, and said slowly, "Well, my son, your mother has always said you would come to something or nothing. She was not sure which; I think you are now about settling that doubt for her." He never spoke a word more upon the subject. The fifteen-hundred-dollar clerkship was gone forever, but Daniel had chosen the right road to fame and prosperity.