This was the sign that our young lawyer attached to his office, in the town of Boscawan. The office was humble enough. It was on the second floor of a store, painted red, and the staircase leading to it was on the outside. His office rent was fifteen dollars a year, which certainly could not have been considered an extravagant sum.

Here it was that the future great lawyer commenced practice. Though his fees amounted to but six or seven hundred dollars a year, his practice extended over three counties, Hillsborough, Rockingham and Grafton. We infer from his meager income, though it was ample for his needs in a place where living was so inexpensive, that his clients had no occasion to complain of immoderate charges.

Judge Webster had the satisfaction of hearing his son make one speech in court, but he was so near the end of his earthly pilgrimage that he never heard another, being for the last few months confined within doors. The father listened with satisfaction, and regarded his son’s effort as a very creditable one.

Daniel’s sole object in establishing himself in an obscure country place was to be near his father, who he knew could not live many years. The end was nearer than he supposed, for he died little more than a year later. It may have been a sacrifice, but probably he lost nothing by it. The quiet seclusion gave him more time for study, and he was laying a broad groundwork for his future fame to rest upon.

It was while he was at Boscawan that he first encountered Mr. Jeremiah Mason, the acknowledged head of the New Hampshire bar. From a foot-note in Curtis’s Life, I quote the circumstances as told by Mr. Mason himself.

“I had heard,” said Mr. Mason,” that there was a young lawyer up there who was reputed to be a wonderfully able fellow, and was said by the country people to be as black as the ace of spades, but I had never seen him. When they told me that he had prepared evidence for this prosecution (it was a case of forgery, the defendant being a man of respectable position), I thought it well to be careful, especially as the trial was to be conducted by the attorney-general. But when the trial came on the attorney-general was ill, and the prosecutors asked that Webster should be allowed to conduct the case. I assented to this readily, thinking I ought to have an easy time of it, and we were introduced to each other.

“We went at it, and I soon found that I had no light work on my hands. He examined his witnesses and shaped his case with so much skill that I had to exert every faculty I possessed. I got the man off, but it was as hard a day’s work as I ever did in my life. There were other transactions behind this one which looked quite as awkward. When the verdict was announced I went up to the dock and whispered to the prisoner, as the sheriff let him out, to be off for Canada, and never to put himself within the reach of that young Webster again. From that time forth I never lost sight of Mr. Webster, and never had but one opinion of his powers.”

This is remarkable testimony from the head of the bar to a practitioner so young, who was a mere novice in the profession.

After the death of his father Daniel was still compelled for a time to remain in his country office. His practice was now worth something, and he had it in view to surrender it to his brother Ezekiel, who was now studying law, but had not been admitted to the bar. His father had left some debts, which Daniel voluntarily assumed. In the autumn of 1807 Ezekiel succeeded to the double office of managing the home farm, and carrying on the law business of his younger brother. Then Daniel, feeling that he might safely do so, took down his “shingle,” and removed to Portsmouth, where he found a larger field for the exercise of his abilities, where he could gain a higher and more conspicuous position.

His appearance at this time has been thus described by a member of Rev. Dr. Buckminster’s family. “Slender, and apparently of delicate organization, his large eyes and narrow brow seemed very predominant above the other features, which were sharply cut, refined and delicate. The paleness of his complexion was heightened by hair as black as the raven’s wing.”

Daniel soon became intimate with the family of Dr. Buckminster, and from members of this family we learn much that is interesting concerning him. He developed, according to Mr. Lee, a “genial and exceedingly rich humor,” which did more to make him popular in society than any of his other diversified gifts. “We young people saw him only rarely in friendly visits. I well remember one afternoon that he came in, when the elders of the family were absent. He sat down by the window, and as now and then an inhabitant of the small town passed through the street, his fancy was caught by their appeara............