" At
twenty-eight he was called to the bar, and had every step in life
yet to make. His means were straitened, and he lived upon the
contributions of his friends. For years he studied and waited.
Still no business came. He stinted himself in recreation, in
clothes, and even in the necessaries of life; struggling on
indefatigably through all. Writing home, he "confessed that he
hardly knew how he should be able to struggle on till he had fair
time and opportunity to establish himself." After three years'
waiting, still without success, he wrote to his friends that rather
than be a burden upon them longer, he was willing to give the
matter up and return to Cambridge, "where he was sure of support
and some profit." The friends at home sent him another small
remittance, and he persevered. Business gradually came in.
Acquitting himself creditably in small matters, he was at length
entrusted with cases of greater importance. He was a man who never
missed an opportunity, nor allowed a legitimate chance of
improvement to escape him. His unflinching industry soon began to
tell upon his fortunes; a few more years and he was not only
enabled to do without assistance from home, but he was in a
position to pay back with interest the debts which he had incurred.
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