But scientific farming was supplanting old
methods, and he had taken the course at the Agricultural College and
received his diploma.
Young Quincy wished a college education. To obtain admission it was
necessary for him to attend a preparatory school, and, relying upon
Mr. Gay's description of its advantages, Andover was selected.
While at the Cottonton High School, Quincy's chum had been a boy two
years older than himself, named Thomas Chripp. He was the son of a
weaver at Cottonton. Like Quincy, he had been born in England, but
his father had been drawn to America by the lure of higher wages,
nothing having been said to him, however, about the increased cost of
living.
Thomas's father would not let him become a back-boy in the mill.
"I've breathed cotton all my life," said Mr. Chripp to Ezekiel, "and
I think too much of my only boy to condemn him to a life in a hot
room, where the only music is the whizzing shuttles. No, my boy Tom
shall breathe God's fresh air and become a big, strong man instead of
a wizened-up little fellow like me. Why, would you believe it, Mr.
Pettingill, I began work in a cotton mill when I was eight years old,
and I've lived in one ever since--forty years! Sundays when I walk
out in the fields I can't get the din out of my ears, and I told
Susan, my old wife, the other day, that if I died before she did to
have the lid screwed down extra tight so I could be sure of a little
quiet.
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