42 



or any want of perfection in the performance of lessons was distress- 

 ing to Mm, and his nerves needed the ease and relief of unstimulated 

 study. 



When, at this age, Horace and his brothers were violently seized 

 by the measles, to reconcile them to their confinement and to save 

 their eyes their mother read to them, and among other books the 

 narrative of Dr. Kane's Arctic Expedition. This work was then excit- 

 ing a pei'fect hero-worship in favor of its author. To the younger 

 brothers the tale of danger and exposure came as a glorious romantic 

 adventure, and in their childish emulation of Dr. Kane, chairs were 

 turned into sledges, the floor into an ice-field, and they played alter- 

 nately the parts of dogs and sailors. But to Horace, who usually 

 entered with spirit into such dramatic play, it was the labor of sci- 

 entific men for scientific truth, as well as the desperate eflbrt of 

 seekers for the long-lost, and subsequently a terrible struggle for 

 life, home and happiness. So intense was his appreciation of the 

 cost at which science and humanity were thus enriched that his 

 brothers' play seemed to him sacrilegious levity, and after enduring 

 it in sorrowful silence for a time he said to his mother, "I wonder 

 that you can let them do so, — I should as soon think of playing Jesus 

 Christ ! " 



This remark was made in no lack of reverence. It was simply a 

 measure of his sympathy with distress and self-sacrifice. He never 

 lost his interest in this exploration, but followed it up through all 

 subsequent narratives, and traced out the various attempts upon maps 

 of his OAvn drawing. It also inspired him with a strong desire to be 

 an explorer. 



Horace had been sent to visit some friends at the East, as a means 

 of benefiting his health after a college year of rather too hard appli- 

 cation, and was absent on the distressing occasion of his father's last 

 painful illness and death. When he retui'ned to his mother she put 

 herself and younger children, boy as he was, into his hands with the 

 expression that he must now take care of them all. He accepted the 

 duty with such convulsive energy of manner, that she afterwards 

 regretted throwing such a responsibilit}- upon him. He was never after 

 the gay, happy boy, but pi-ematurely a man in character and feeling. 



When his friend, Dr. Warrener, came to Cambridge, in 18G0, to 

 study Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Horace, who was then 

 living in Concord, begged very hard to join him. When urged to 

 defer it, he plead the possibility that Professors Agassiz and Wyman 

 might not live till he left College, for which he was then prepar- 

 ing, and finally, with the concurrence of his tutor, who said the boy's 

 mind was so intent upon his favorite pursuits that it might be best 

 to indulge the strong tendency ; for the moment the dull grammar 



