HIS PIPE 421 



natural world, a subject ever uppermost in his mind, taught 

 him at last a sort of belated patience as well as tolerance in 

 others of less strenuous efforts than his own. 



The best antidote to nervousness he found lay in his long- 

 stemmed pipe with its small bowl, holding scarcely a thimble- 

 ful of the lightest and most delicately scented tobacco a 

 mixture of his own, its aroma too faint for the nicotine-steeped 

 senses of most smokers. His friends often complained that in- 

 stead of smoking tobacco he smoked matches, so frequently did 

 he light the dying ashes. However this may have been, he 

 pulled at his pipe pretty steadily. With his pipe in his mouth 

 and his pencil in hand, he soon became lost in the large mental 

 territory he owned, where he ranged at will oblivious of all 

 vexing cares. This world of his thoughts grew to be more and 

 more sufficient, and therefore forced marches into remote geo- 

 graphical realms, instead of being recreative, were even thought 

 of with positive aversion. All he asked of life, in these last years, 

 was to be left alone by his fireside to do what he pleased, not to 

 labor necessitously, but only to draw his pension and to rest 

 that is, to work in his own way. In fact, he was now willing to 

 let the struggle pass on to others, "holding himself in reserve 

 for an occasional onslaught if necessary." 



Mr. Shaler's work-table was a heaped-up mass of papers an 

 epitome of the world's interests. There were blue-books, theses, 

 manuscripts of his own and others, social letters, business let- 

 ters, maps, mining-reports, newspapers, and books of reference. 

 How he found his way through this chaos it was difficult to un- 

 derstand, but if his table was left unmolested, neither straight- 

 ened nor dusted, he got on very well ; a foreign touch, however, 

 produced distressing consequences, making him lose the thread 

 that guided him through the tangle. For many years during the 

 early growth of the Lawrence Scientific School, and even after, 

 he answered personally every inquiry, thus putting a severe 

 tax upon himself; but it was just these personal communica- 

 tions that made all the difference between failure and success. 



