254 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



One preliminary difficulty was found in securing a cook who 

 could do his work by an open fire. The throng who applied in 

 answer to an advertisement was composed, as he described 

 them, of "broken-down actors, decayed gentlemen, ruffianly- 

 looking foreigners of mixed nationalities, and sickly Irish boys." 

 Since none of these could prove their efficiency, it was necessary 

 to send to Virginia. " George proved to be as worthy a fel- 

 low as ever turned a flapjack and fed our eager appetites with 

 commendable patience." For some time before the departure, 

 a number of horses bought by Mr. Shaler for the occasion (he 

 had a true eye for the points of a horse, and could make an 

 instantaneous decision as to an animal's merits a few tricks 

 more or less, and the ingredient known as "ginger," were to 

 him unobjectionable features) were mustered in his yard on 

 Bow Street, now the site of Westmorly Hall, where, having full 

 range, their horseplay attracted all the small boys in the neigh- 

 borhood as well as many adults, who hung like a fringe about 

 the fence stimulating in every possible way the circus-like 

 antics of the animals, soon to be brought down to hard work. 



The experiences and results of this journey are given in a 

 series of articles published in the Atlantic Monthly. This was 

 Mr. Shaler's first literary venture of any importance and at 

 once the felicity of his style was recognized. From this time 

 on, writing upon one subject or another was an almost daily 

 occupation with him, becoming at last, so to speak, a second 

 nature. 



