in his class, learned easily, was fond of books, never wearied of study,
and never forgot what he acquired. At the start he was blest with a most
marvelous and retentive memory, and a keen sense of the practical side
of life. "It was thus," as one of his friends has remarked, "that his
school days were profitable to him to a degree not common, and it was
thus that his rapidly-growing literary attainments became the
astonishment of strangers and the never failing delight and surprise of
his friends."

Mr. Shepard's father was a sea-faring man, who, however, took good care
to check every inclination towards that sort of life that existed in the
mind of his son, at a very tender age. At his business start, therefore,
the boy was forced into a channel that was not of his own choosing. At
the age of fifteen, after having previously tried his skill as a boy of
all work in the grocery business, he entered the store of John P.
Jewett, a bookseller at Salem. He remained with Mr. Jewett eleven years,
during which time he forgot all about the details of the West India
trade and instead acquired a perfect knowledge of those of the making
and selling of books. When, in 1846, Mr. Jewett removed to Boston and
opened a store on Cornhill, Mr. Shepard accompanied him, and by his
untiring energy, his close application to business and his intelligent
way of conducting the affairs of the house in general, very largely
contributed to the success which, in those days, was accounted so
remarkable. He was even then looked upon as the "hardest worker" in the
trade. He was the first to enter the store in the morning, and the last
to leave at night. To many, it seemed as if his hours were only hours
of toil; and yet, few young men of his age took life so easily as did
he, or got more enjoyment out of it. It was during Mr. Shepard's
connection with the house of John P. Jewett that "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
first saw the light. The story of its publication has so often been told