"
Some time after this Mrs. Fulton, in conversation with the teacher,
expressed her solicitude lest her son should "turn out nothing," since
he neglected his books so entirely. The teacher frankly confessed that
he had done all in his power for the boy, but that he was discouraged,
and added: "Only yesterday, madam, Robert pertinaciously declared to me
that his head was so full of original notions that there was no vacant
chamber to store away the contents of any dusty books." The lad was only
ten years of age at the time, and, as may be supposed, the good Quaker
who directed his education was not a little dismayed by such a remark.
The boyhood of Fulton was passed during the stormy period of the
Revolution, and in a section so close to the theater of war that he was
in the midst of all the excitement engendered by the conflict. He was an
ardent patriot from the first, and used his pencil freely to caricature
all who showed the slightest leaning to the cause of the enemy.
In 1778 the supply of candles was so low in Lancaster that the town
authorities advised the people to refrain from illuminating their houses
on the 4th of July of that year, in order to save their candles.
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