22 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



One vacation was passed in New Hampshire on 

 the edge of the White Mountains, and that fall I 

 stayed for a short season at Northampton, Massa- 

 chusetts, with some friends, and worked for a 

 little while in an office to see if my taste lay in 

 mercantile directions. Thus far, though my bent 

 was apparent, it was not very definite or decided. 

 After a few weeks here — not more than five — I 

 was suddenly called home, as my mother had 

 determined that my brother and I should go to 

 an institution which was about to be inaugurated. 

 A wise and far-seeing man in New York had 

 planned and endowed a seat of learning, and his 

 memorable words have become its motto : " I 

 would found an institution where any person can 

 find instruction in any study." 



This was Ezra Cornell, the founder of the great 

 university which bears his name. 



So my brother and I started, almost at once, 

 for Ithaca, and, passing an easy examination, were 

 admitted as freshmen to the first class of Cornell 

 University. 



I hardly realized myself what it all meant ; but 

 I soon began to know that here an effort was 

 being made to develop the great idea laid down 

 by the founder. The buildings at Cornell Uni- 

 versity in the beginning were four in number. 

 There was a dormitory on Cascadilla Creek, 

 known as The Cascadilla, and then crossing on 



