his work and was really interested in his studies may be safely inferred not only from his lifelong characteristics, but from the fact that he continued them by taking private lessons from Palmer after leaving school and while he was a clerk.
Presumably three years at the Fallsington School carried our diligent, conscientious lad as far as his teachers could. He was now between fifteen and sixteen years old, and on the question of whether he should become a farmer or not, his parents no doubt had much to say. Any such boy who makes a confidant of his mother, as he did, and who had been brought up as members of the Society of Friends train their children, would not make a decision except with his parents' consent and approval.
The fact that Isaiah's brothers were well grown and able helpers on the farm made it possible for him to choose some other employment. More than that, the brisk, bright, energetic lad, careful, accurate and trustworthy in all his habits, who took the lead in doing the store errands, showed a developing
