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He was as true to his nature when in the church as when in the school-room or the playground. His religious training, both at home and abroad, was of that kind which looks to firm foundations of religious belief. It was taught him that nothing short of a radical change of heart would answer the requirements of God's word. All the ordinances of religion acknowledged the necessity, and there was no room left for the satisfaction of conscience short of this complete change. David's naturalness and love of truth would have revolted at any suggestion of assuming a concern which he did not feel, while his Puritan instinct and education made him accept without question the religious observances which were required of him. He had no liking for these, but he kept to them with particular obstinacy when they happened to be rather disagreeable or unpopular, and was wholly indifferent to ridicule. remember how, when he saw one coming whom he disliked and whom he knew to be seeking him for the sake of giving advice upon matters of religion, he jumped behind a stone wall and mischievously watched him through the chinks as he went by, looking about in astonishment at the sudden disappearance of the boy; and I remember also how, wishing to complete a reading of the Bible within some appointed time, and finding himself in arrears, he read the book at every spare moment with a ludicrous energy, — in the barn, on the school-house steps in recess-time, or wherever opportunity occurred, quite regardless of quip or remonstrance. The missionary zeal which had possessed the child found in the boy no outward expression at least, for he understood very well that missionary life was condi

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tioned on a religious character which he did not pretend to have.

He regarded going to college as a matter which he could not very well avoid, and he did not therefore worry himself much about it, though he thought it rather an unnecessary measure for one who was to be a farmer. It was the height of his ambition now to emigrate West in a covered wagon, containing his goods and chattels, while he walked beside in a smock, and a dog ran beneath the wagon with that studied precision of gait which always astonished him. The summer before he entered college he spent upon the large farm of a relation in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he was thoroughly in his element, working with a zeal and steadiness which won the praises of the farmer himself, generally incredulous of the agricultural fever of city-boys. "To-day," he writes, after recounting the glories of his life there, "I am going to study, although I do hate to. I do not want to go to college, but should like to stay here all the time. If I stay here much longer I shall be a decided farmer." His father, always ready to humor the taste of his sons, knew that he was too young to decide for himself, so he required at least a year or two of college-life before letting him have his way in this. David's habit of obe dience had more force than his mere inclination, and he entered on college-life with his customary heartiness, which never permitted any "might have beens" to interfere with the business at hand. His parents, solicitous first of all for his spiritual welfare, indicated a preference for Williams College, where education was under guard of Orthodox principles, and where a man was the head

whose name, besides its renown in philosophic inquiry, was a security for the maintenance of those principles in their integrity. David joined the Freshman Class of the college in September, 1851, just before the close of his sixteenth year.

CHAPTER II.

COLLEGE LIFE- FRESHMAN YEAR.

[1851-1852.]

"My earliest recollections of Dave," writes one of his classmates, “is of seeing a white-haired boy in short jacket dart out of the house next above mine, at recitation-time, and move up the street on a keen run. That was his usual street-gait; indeed I cannot seem to associate him with a sober walk at all." His boyishness at the first marked him, for though there were some in the class younger in years, these were every one more mature, and at any rate concealed much of their youth under the cloak of college dignity. David was a boy in mind and in manner, wholly unconventional in his habits, with an instinct of freedom which at home sent him roaming over the fields, and showed itself also in a determined will, a capricious impatience of restraint. The change in his outward life brought influences which acted upon his growth with great force, and produced a more rapid development than would have seemed possible under other circumstances. At home his love for nature, which was one manifestation of his instinct of freedom, had fed upon the decorous forms of suburban beauty; now he came suddenly upon the mountains and rushing streams and untamed tracts of northern Berkshire. He knew not why, but he knew how much this wildness and unshorn strength responded to his instinctive desires, and at once threw himself

eagerly into out-door life, without a thought of anything beyond a natural liking for it, and yet surely receiving in return the fullest reward.

. To those unfamiliar with this district, it would be hard to convey a notion of its impressive character. The town itself rests upon the uneven surface of a valley surrounded by hills, which rise in several instances to the dignity of mountains as regards height, and in almost all cases have the gullied declivities characteristic of the mountain formation. The valley through which the Hoosac River flows is cultivated, and contains many spots of tender beauty; especially is this tenderness discovered when looked at from East Mountain which banks the river, but the prevailing impres sion made by the scenery is of a ruder, wilder force. The roads which lead in various directions, connecting the town with North Adams, with Pittsfield, with Bennington, and with Troy, either follow the winding course of streams or climb and descend successive hills, so that by no one of the travelled ways can one fail to find variety of scenery, sudden surprises, and often pretty rough passage. But the roads do not reveal the chief wonders of the country. Only one who climbs the mountain-paths, and strikes off from the rocky roads to follow a brook or reach some remote patch of wood or pasture land, learns the secrets of this wild and glorious spot.

The tops of the surrounding mountains were the goals which my brother, with his restless eagerness, from the first desired to reach. He seized the opportunity of every holiday to climb Greylock or West or East Mountain, and cast his straining look to the horizon, sweeping an arc which embraced, sometimes the scarred

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