18733 ^ Tear at Lombard 



however, had real abiHty — among them my sister, 

 whom I had asked to join me for the year. 



Natural Science, I found, was an expansible Range of 

 subject. My "chair" demanded classes in Zoology, Natural 

 Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Chemistry, Physics, ^"^"^^ 

 Political Economy, Paley's "Evidences of Chris- 

 tianity," and, incidentally, German and Spanish! 

 I also had charge of the weekly "literary exercises," 

 consisting of orations and the reading of essays, — 

 a dreary and perfunctory performance, — with a 

 class in Sunday School for good measure. In off 

 hours, also, I served as pitcher of the student ball 

 team, taking part in regular contests with our neigh- 

 bor, Knox College, another Galesburg institution — 

 much better endowed and only a mile away. 



In Chemistry and Physics I had almost no appa- 

 ratus, and nothing that could be called a laboratory 

 except as I created it — electrical instruments being 

 the only articles of real value we possessed. For the 

 rest, we studied Botany in the field, and the rich 

 fossil deposits and geode beds along the banks of 

 the Mississippi River I utilized to the utmost in 

 Geology. Once when the board of trustees sent a 

 committee to inspect the work of the faculty, they 

 criticized my teaching solely on the ground that "I 

 allowed the students to go into the cabinet to handle 

 the apparatus and waste the chemicals." And one a "fossil 

 of their number felt a little hurt because I regarded ^^"^" 

 with undisguised scorn his present of a "fossil ham" 

 which was merely a water-worn boulder of unusual 

 shape. 



On the whole, however, I valued the growing 

 enthusiasm of my pupils more than I did the opinion 

 of the board of trustees. One matter, nevertheless, 



C 105 3 



