Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/194

150 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS did not justify him or them in aspiring to any pro fession, he wished them to learn trades, and accord ingly Millard, then a sturdy youth of fourteen, was apprenticed for a few months on trial to the busi ness of carding wool and dressing cloth. During his apprenticeship he was, as the youngest, treated with great injustice, and on one occasion his em ployer, for some expression of righteous resent ment, threatened to chastise him, when the young woodsman, burning with indignation, raised the axe with which he was at work, and told him the attempt would cost him his life. Most fortunate for both, the attempt was not made, and at the close of his term he shouldered his knapsack, con taining a few clothes and a supply of bread and dried venison, and set out on foot and alone for his father s house, a distance of something more than a hundred miles through the primeval forests. Mr. Fillmore in his autobiography remarks : "I think that this injustice which was no more than other apprentices have suffered and will suffer had a marked effect on my character. It made me feel for the weak and unprotected, and to hate the in solent tyrant in every station of life." In 1815 the youth again began the business of carding and cloth-dressing, which was carried on from June to December of each year. The first book that he purchased or owned was a small Eng lish dictionary, which he diligently studied while