It  was  about  this  time  that  Jeremiah  first  under-
took the  office  of  a  teacher  in  a  remote  corner  of  his
native  town.  The  fashion  was  for  the  master  to  board
round  from  house  to  house,  with  the  parents  of  the
children.  Once,  he  used  to  say,  while  he  was  sitting
at  table,  a  hand  from  behind  pounced  upon  his  plate,
and  carried  off  all  its  contents.  It  was  the  hand  of
one  of  the  hungry  children,  and  the  father  of  the
family  laughed  heartily,  as  if  what  had  been  done
showed  that  he  might  be  a  promising  boy.1

In  1777,  Jeremiah  Smith  was  entered  at  Harvard
College,  and  about  the  same  time  enlisted  for  two
months  in  the  army.  News  had  just  come  of  Bur-
goyne's  invasion.  One  afternoon,  a  young  man,2  ap-
parently about  sixteen,  called  on  Capt.  Stephen  Park-
er, of  New  Ipswich,  and  offered  to  enlist.  The  cap-
tain inquired  who  he  was,  and  if  his  father  had  given


1  One  of  the  most  distinguished  merchants  in  Boston,  Samuel  Apple-
ton,  Esq.,  was,  a  few  years  later,  engaged  as  a  teacher  in  the  same
neighborhood,  though  in  an  adjoining  town.     He,  however,  instead  of
going  round  with  the  scholars,  was  let  out  at  auction,  as  paupers  used  to
be,  to  board  with  the  lowest  bidder.     He  did  not  much  like  the  place
where  he  was  to  go,  and  a  kind  woman,  a  Mrs.  Perry,  who  recently
died  at  the  age  of  ninety -two,  had  compassion  on  him;  and,  for  the  four-
and-six-pence  or  five  shillings  a  week,  which  her  neighbor  had  thought
a  reasonable  compensation,  took  him  into  her  family.
