The big uncle and the little nephew.--Exchange of ideas between the eccentric Henry Glazier and young Willard.--Inseparable companions.---Willard's early reading.--Favorite authors.-- Hero-worship of the first Napoleon and Charles XII. of Sweden.-- The genius of good and of evil.--Allen Wight.--A born teacher.-- Reverses of fortune.--The shadow on the home.--Willard's resolve to seek his fortune and what came of it.--The sleep under the trees.--The prodigal's return.--"All's well that ends well" 58 CHAPTER VII. WILLARD GLAZIER AT HOME. Out of boyhood.--Days of adolescence.--True family pride.--Schemes for the future.--Willard as a temperance advocate.--Watering his grandfather's whiskey.--The pump behind the hill.--The sleigh-ride by night.--The "shakedown" at Edward's.--Intoxicated by tobacco fumes.--The return ride.--Landed in a snow-bank.--Good-bye horses and sleigh!--Plodding through the snow 68 CHAPTER VIII. ADVENTURES--EQUINE AND BOVINE. Ward Glazier moves to the Davis Place.--"Far in the lane a lonely house he found."--Who was Davis?--Description of the place.--A wild spot for a home.--Willard at work.--Adventure with an ox-team.--The road, the bridge and the stream.--"As an ox thirsteth for the water."--Dashed from a precipice!--Willard as a horse-tamer.-- "Chestnut Bess," the blooded mare.--The start for home.--"Bess" on the rampage.--A lightning dash.--The stooping arch.--Bruised and unconscious 75 CHAPTER IX. THE YOUNG TRAPPER OF THE OSWEGATCHIE. A plan of life.--Determination to procure an education.--A substitute at the plow.--His father acquiesces in his determination to become a trapper.--Life in the wild woods along the Oswegatchie.--The six "dead falls."--First success.--A fallacious calculation.--The goal attained.--Seventy-five dollars in hard cash!--Four terms of academic life.--The youthful rivals.--Lessons in elocution.--A fight with hair-brushes and chairs!--"The walking ghost of a kitchen fire."--Renewed friendship.--Teaching to obtain means for an education 87 CHAPTER X. THE SOLDIER SCHOOL-MASTER.