524 LOUIS AGASSTZ, 



personal friend, and from the beginning the 

 house adapted itself with a kindly readiness to 

 whatever plans developed under its roof. As 

 will be seen, these were not few, and were 

 sometimes of considerable moment. For his 

 work also the house was extremely convenient. 

 His habits in this respect were, however, sin- 

 gularly independent of place and circumstance. 

 Unlike most studious men, he had no fixed 

 spot in the house for writing. Although the 

 library, with the usual outfit of well -filled 

 shelves, maps, large tables, etc., held his ma- 

 terials, he brought what he needed for the 

 evening by preference to the drawing-room, 

 and there, with his paper on his knee, and his 

 books for reference on a chair beside him, he 

 wrote and read as busily as if he were quite 

 alone. Sometimes when dancing and music 

 were going on among the young people of the 

 family and their guests, he drew a little table 

 into the corner of the room, and continued 

 his occupations as undisturbed and engrossed 

 as if he had been in complete solitude, — only 

 looking up from time to time with a pleased 

 smile or an apt remark, which showed that he 

 did not lose but rather enjoyed what was go- 

 ing on about him. 



His children's friends were his friends. As 



