experience in his eyes, and he looked up to some even in his own class with a real veneration. He accepted implicitly the lead of these, transferring to them the faith which he had reposed in his superiors at home. Yet every new experience added to his self-reliance, and, after the novelty of college-life had worn off a little, he began quite unconsciously to live less instinctively, and to bring some reflection to bear upon his position. One can hardly speak too positively of the absence hitherto of any exercise of thought as directed toward himself; he lived freely and outwardly as a child. The new atmosphere of college, however, where he found his fellows engaged upon subjects of thought quite beyond his wondering mind, and the stimulus which a community of students supplies, did awaken thought in him. The separation from home, too, brought an old influence in new shape, his father's counsel, which would now be given through letters more systematically, and with the weight both of fatherly affection and of remoteness. There began a kind of intercourse which was impossible in earlier days. The entrance of the son upon a regular educational course, away from home, elevated him to a more independent position, and it was easy and natural for the father to address him not in the tone of parental authority, but in that of a wise man talking familiarly with his junior whom he takes into his counsels, treating him as almost. an equal. How happily his father could use this tone is instanced by the following extract from a letter written at this time: ROXBURY, Oct. 6, 1851. MY DEAR SON DAVID: You made us all very happy by so long and so nice a letter, and particularly because we found by it that you were happy and contented at Williamstown, both in respect to your college duties and your boarding-place. I have no doubt that the more you think of the duties that now devolve upon you, the more you will think of the responsibility that attaches to those duties. We have placed you in college from the conviction, after much thought and prayer, that your ultimate happiness and success in life would be promoted by it. I have long felt that I never would consent, if I could avoid it, to place any more of my sons in the commercial life, because my own experience is decidedly averse to it; and as to any mechanical business, unless there is a predilection that way, or a bent of mind decidedly in favor of such pursuits, I have not thought it desirable to have any of my sons go to a mechanical trade; but it has been the height of my ambition to give to all my dear boys a good education, because I have seen, in the experience of many years, that boys, when well educated, make men, and men that can make their way in the world somehow; that is, if they do not abuse their privileges by neglecting them, and giving themselves over to the Evil One. Now if you would continue to make me happy, you will persevere in your studies, conquer all the obstacles that come in your way, and if you do not gain the eminence you aim at, be careful to deserve it by your diligence and good conduct in all respects, so as to gain the love and good-will of your teachers and your fellow-students. Your affectionate father, CHARLES SCudder. While he was in the full tide of his hearty enjoy ment, engaging with zest in all his pursuits, setting rabbit-traps on Stone Hill and exploring the country about, there came news to him of severe losses in business which his father had suffered, involving the necessity of greater economy in the mode of life at home, and possibly the removal from the country place to which all had become so attached. In the simplicity of his heart, he went straightway to the Professor of Mathematics, as the authority most competent to explain to him the true nature of a failure in business, and one also of whose good feeling and sympathy he felt assured. After getting all the light he could, he made up his mind promptly as to his duty. He wrote home begging to be permitted to stay only through the rest of the term, and then to resume his old and cherished pursuit as a laborer upon some farm, where he could at least relieve his father of expense, and support himself. "You know," he says, "that it has long been my wish to be a farmer, and it has not in the least abated." Meanwhile, since, at the best, this was a measure of economy which could not be put into execution for several weeks, he immediately made arrangements for cutting down his already moderate expenses. He was rooming out of the colleges, as most Freshmen did who preferred the increased cost to the perils and discomforts of life in the buildings. Almost before he could get an answer to his proposition, he had vacated his rooms and gone into West College, taking a great barn-like room at the top of the building; besides, he applied for and obtained the position of janitor to the recitation-room, a position taken by one of the poorest of each class, requiring most vexatious attention, and standing him in some trivial sum or : freedom from certain college taxes. All this was unnecessary it was not recommended by his father; but it was just what he could not help doing. He did not trouble himself to reason much about it; he only considered that there must be retrenchment in the household, and that it was his business to cut down his own expenses immediately to the very lowest point. This occasion, so characteristically met, was important for the impulse which it gave to his thought. At the bottom of his letter home concerning the failure, he writes with a Freshman's ardor and confidence: "I am studying hard for the first place." He was aware of the little likelihood there was that his father would listen to his proposal, though he had made it in good faith; since he must stay, he applied himself with zeal to the task of making as much of college as he could. He gave as an object of study the one which was prominent in college, not that he cared particularly for it, but because he could not easily give a proper reason. Really he had an excellent reason, namely, that it was his business just now to study hard: but then he had hardly begun to state to himself reasons for doing anything. He did things for reasons, but not much for stated reasons. The present His usual life went on much as ever. and the visible were too engrossing with him to admit of much reflection, in his untutored mind, on the uncomprehended difficulties of his father's position, or much anticipation as to what he himself meant to do. He continued to set his traps and to write home directions about his old pets and small stock, entering with animation into all measures talked of at home. His letters contained messages to every soul about the house. This college-life was not near so much to him as his home; it was more remote from his sympathy, and he would sit for hours with some friend, telling of his little world with the most simple enthusiasm. His studies gave him no great trouble, since they were chiefly in the classics, where he was best qualified and where the majority of the class were most deficient. Mathematics caused him to groan inwardly, but he found most delight in his manifold out-door occupations; then his labors in the recitation-room kept him busy. He was up early on the cold mornings, sweeping the room, kindling the fire, and lighting the lamps for the barbarous dawn recitations. It was Freshman recitation-room, and he found a horrible state of things in it on some days. His class will recollect the scene one afternoon in February, when, in the middle of the recitation, a log of wood, flung through the window of the adjoining wood-closet, burst the door open, and let into the room a bewildered sheep, which David, as janitor, proceeded to eject by catching his hind-legs and walking him out wheelbarrow-fashion. It was on his return to college, at the close of the long winter vacation, that the thought which had been working in his mind took a more fixed character, and he began to feel within himself the stirring of conscience, demanding that he should decide the question of personal religious duty. Ever since his connection with the college, in accordance with his home education, he had been a frequent attendant upon the optional as well as upon the prescribed religious services of the college. He had an unquestioning conviction of the truth of religious doctrines, as set forth in the Orthodox creed, without ever making any systematic |