CHAPTER THREE 



As I have said, the accident at Warsaw changed my winning a 

 previous plans. Up to that time I had been prepar- Comeii 

 ing, though somewhat vaguely, to enter Yale College ^'^ ° '^^^ '^ 

 (as it was then known) at New Haven. Meanwhile, 

 however, Cornell had been founded, free scholar- 

 ships were offered, — one in each of the Assembly 

 districts of the state, — and a competitive exami- 

 nation for the Wyoming County scholarship was 

 accordingly held at Warsaw. Leaving one of the 

 older boys temporarily in charge of my now subdued 

 school, I went and took the test. Three other 

 candidates appeared, two of them already in college 

 — one a Cornell senior, in fact. I was successful, 

 however, and having duly received my appointment,^ 

 in March, 1869, I entered the new university with 

 only seventy-five dollars in my pocket, but rich in 

 hope and ambitions. Those prerogatives of youth 

 were not to betray me, for I was able to pay practi- 

 cally all my way through college — mainly by 

 botanical work and by instruction in botany — and 

 at graduation I again faced the world with seventy- 

 five dollars. Meanwhile I had made a point of 

 asking my parents for little except apples and the 

 like, for with the end of the war father had lost 

 considerable money carrying over sheep and some 



* With youthful naivete, writing ahead to the registrar to make the necessary 

 arrangements for entrance, I explained that I was eighteen years old, six feet 

 tall, and weighed i8o pounds! At that time I was a strong, muscular, though 

 sparely built and somewhat round-shouldered, young fellow, a good athlete, 

 as I have elsewhere said, especially in sprinting and high jumping. 



n 51 3 



