88 EARLY LIFE AND EXPERIENCES OF DR. COOK 



would depend upon no one where he felt that his own efforts would 

 result in his obtaining what he sought. 



So much was this the case that young Cook would not ride on 

 a "store bought" sled when his companions went out for sport on 

 the inclines covered with snow. Repeatedly, according to William 

 L. Cook, his brother, the present-day conqueror of the Arctic, went 

 off into the woods back of his home with an axe and cut down young 

 trees. After he had carted them into the open country, where the 

 homestead was situated, he went patiently to the labor of fashioning 

 them into a "bunker." When he had finished, he had a sled of such 

 quality that there was none in the country to equal it. He was in 

 those days by no means a person of exceptional physical develop- 

 ment. But what he lacked in strength was made up in courage that 

 was backed by a wonderful amount of determination. 



"I remember well how Fred and I engaged in boys' quarrels, 

 and even in punching matches," says William Cook. 



Yet all does not seem to have gone well with the family at 

 Calicoon. Misfortune appears to have descended upon them and 

 they were obliged to leave the homestead and seek a place elsewhere, 

 where life would be easier. The oldest son, then a grown man, seems 

 to have remained at the old home, but the mother, with her younger 

 children, sought a new home in Port Jervis, in the adjoining Orange 

 County. 



"We were pretty nearly down and out," said William Cook, 

 expressively, "when we went finally to our new home in Port Jervis/' 

 Those few words indicate a severe struggle against poverty. 



Yet Frederick did not give up his school studies. He was now 

 fourteen years of age, and did what work he could find to do before 

 and after school hours, but, with steady determination to win an 

 education, he succeeded in keeping up his studies at the Port Jervis 

 high school during the two years that he lived there, standing high 

 in his classes throughout. In 1880 a new move was made, this time 

 to Brooklyn, New York, where the family lived until the death of 



