lage where he was, or into its neighborhood, he was inevitably "on hand." If the ring-master called out for some boy in the audience to try and ride the pony, little Ulysses would present himself, eager to seize the opportunity, "and," says his father in the "New York Ledger," "whatever he undertook to ride he rode." This practice he kept up, until he got to be so large that he was ashamed to ride a pony.

"Once, when he was a boy, a show came along in which there was a mischievous pony, trained to go round the ring like lightning, and which was expected to throw any boy that at tempted to ride him.

"Will any boy come forward and ride this pony?'" shouted the ring-master.

The

"Ulysses stepped forward, and mounted the pony. performance began. Round and round the ring went the pony, faster and faster, making the greatest effort to dismount his rider. But Ulysses sat as steady as if he had grown to the pony's back. Presently out came a large monkey and sprang up behind Ulysses. The people set up a great shout of laughter, and on the pony ran; but it all produced no effect on the rider. Then the ring-master made the monkey jump up upon Ulysses' shoulders, standing with his feet on his shoulders, and with his hands holding on to his hair. At this there was another and a still louder shout, but not a muscle of Ulysses' face moved. There was not a tremor of his nerves. A few more rounds, and the ring-master gave up; he had come across a boy that the pony and the monkey both could not dismount.

it

“Ulysses had the habit of riding our horses to water, standing up on their bare backs. He began this practice when about five years old. At eight or nine he would ride them at the top of their speed, standing upon one foot and balancing himself by the bridle reins. The ground over which he used to make these performances was a little descending towards the river; a near neighbor's boy who undertook to rival him in speed, although without standing up, was unfortunately thrown from his horse and killed."

He early acquired the habit of breaking horses to the harness, and developed a peculiar faculty for training them to pace. "It became known in the neighborhood," says his father, in the article from which we have already quoted, “and people used to apply to him to break their horses to pace; but he had an idea that it was degrading, and would never undertake it.

"One day a neighbor came to me and said, Ulysses has a remarkable faculty to teach a horse to pace. I have a fine young horse; now how can I get Ulysses to teach him to pace?'

"Said I: You must n't say a word to him about it, but send him on a mission to some place, and get him, while he is gone, to teach the horse to pace.'

"Said he, 'I will do it.' So he came over again and said to Ulysses, I want to send a letter, in a hurry, thirteen miles to Decatur, and I will give you two dollars to get on my horse and carry it.'

Ulysses was then nine or ten years old. He was fond of making money, and fond of that kind of business, and he answered, 'I will go.'

"Just as he was starting off the owner of the horse cried out after him, I want you to teach that horse to pace.'

"The horse had never paced a step before. But Ulysses accomplished the task. He returned the horse at night a perfect pacer. The letter was all a sham. Ulysses found out the trick, and nobody after that could ever get him to break a horse to pace."

When only ten or twelve years of age, the boy's energy and fertility of resource enabled him to render to his father assistance equal to that of a full-grown man. A remarkable feat, by which, with only the help of a large stout horse, he contrived to do the loading and hauling of a large quantity of fourteen-feet logs for a building which his father was erecting, is thus described in the father's own words: "A large sugar-tree had been felled, so that it lay aslant, one end rest

ing on the ground and the other elevated. He had hitched the horse Dave to the end of a hewn log, and hauled it upon this sugar-tree, the end projecting over far enough to back the wagon under it. Three made a load; and when he had got three hauled up in this way, he backed the hind end of the wagon up under them, and hitching the powerful horse in front by means of a long chain which extended over the whole length of the wagon-body, he pulled them, one at a time, into the wagon. This was much talked of in the neighborhood, as it was considered a great achievement for a boy of his size. He worked the whole seven months, and until the job was finished."

The lad, however, showed an evident disrelish for his father's business, and a decided preference for some active outof-door employment, or for a thorough education. These, Mr. Grant's somewhat straitened circumstances prevented him from attaining; but finally, through the kindness of Senator Thomas Morris, of Ohio, he heard that the Hon. Thos. L. Hamer, member of Congress from his own district, had an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point at his disposal. On application to him, Ulysses was appointed, and having passed the preliminary examinations, he entered the Academy on the 1st of July, 1839. There he manifested the same studious qualities which he had while in school, ranking No. 21 in his class, of which only thirty-nine out of nearly one hundred graduated in 1843, his standing being best in artillery and infantry tactics, mathematics, engineering, and horsemanship. Upon graduating he was, in consequence of there being no existing vacancy, made brevet Second Lieutenant of the Tenth Infantry Regiment, and performed duty as a private for a while after joining it at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. In 1844, his regiment removed to Red River in Louisiana; and in 1845, formed a part of the "army of occupation" on the Texan Border at the beginning of the war with Mexico. Meanwhile, he had declined the higher rank of First Lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry; preferring to share the fortunes

of his old regiment, where chance of service seemed more immediate. In May, 1846, he was distinguished for gallantry and courage at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma; received honorable mention for good conduct at the storming of Monterey; participated, in 1847, in the capture of Vera Cruz, and was made quartermaster of his regiment, serving in this capacity during the remainder of the campaign, but showing no disposition to avail himself of his privilege of remaining in his own department in time of battle. At the assault of Molino del Rey, and the storming of Chapultepec, his daring and skill elicited the highest commendations of his superiors, and he was made a first lieutenant on the spot. Indeed, the flanking maneuver by which, with a few men only, he turned and carried the first barrier at Chapultepec, seems to have been the germ of the celebrated flanking movements which he has so often since tried, and with such brilliant success, upon larger battle-fields. He was brevetted captain for this achievement, his commission dating from September 13, 1847. He participated in fourteen battles during the Mexican War, and soon after its close in August, 1848, was married to Miss Julia A. Dent, residing near St. Louis, and whose brother, now General Dent, was one of his West Point classmates. Shortly after this he was ordered with his regiment to Detroit, Mich., and subsequently to Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. In the autumn of 1851, his regiment was sent to Oregon, with head-quarters at Fort Dallas, and while on duty there, August, 1853, he received his full commission as captain. Seeing but little prospect, either of active employment or of further promotion, Grant now decided to return to civil life, and, on the 31st of July, 1854, resigned his commission in the army.

Retiring to a farm which his wife had received from her father, about nine miles from St. Louis, Mo., and which his own father had stocked completely, he entered upon his new life with his accustomed energy and fidelity, and no man ever worked harder. He built, in part with his own hands, a small house of hewn logs, for his family to live in;

and in all the departments of husbandry proved himself a thorough farmer. In winter he hired help to cut wood, and hauled it to St. Louis, and Carondelet, where he found a market; and there are many now living who distinctly remember the present General, as he then appeared, dressed in his blouse, with old felt hat, and pants tucked into the tops of his boots. In summer he turned an honest penny" by acting as collector of taxes in his county; but, though honest and persevering, he lacked the stern and unscrupulous character which is essential to success in that line of business; and the duties of an auctioneer, at which he occasionally tried his hand, were equally unsuited to his tastes. After four years of arduous farming, at the end of which he was not as well off as when he began, he quitted it and removed to St. Louis, where he entered the real estate business with a Mr. Boggs. Finding, after a few months' trial, that the profits were hardly sufficient to support two families, he gave up his interest to his partner, and next obtained a position in the Custom House, which, however, he held but two months. In 1859 he accepted an offer of partnership from his father, who with two other sons was conducting a well-established and profitable leather business at Galena, Illinois. He entered upon it, taking hold of the business with his accustomed industry, and speedily becoming an excellent salesman. Yet he took so little pains to extend his acquaintance in the place, that his father relates that "after he had joined the army and had begun to be distinguished, citizens of the town would stop in front of our store, within six feet of the windows, and look in to see which of the Grants it was that was absent and had suddenly become famous."

On the eventful morning when the telegraph flashed to every corner of this western continent, the news that Sumter had been fired upon by Southern guns, and with that news the President's proclamation calling for 75,000 troops, Grant was at his store, and his response was prompt and characteristic. Taking his coat from the counter where it lay, he drew it on, simply remarking, "Uncle Sam educated me for the