194 LUTHER BURBANK 



prepared to approach the subjects by successive 

 steps more natural and reasonable. These 

 studies were never a pleasure to him until he was 

 much older; but geography, word analysis, and 

 later geometry, pencil and crayon drawing, and 

 the languages were an unceasing delight. 



At the Lancaster Academy, a high-grade 

 preparatory school, there were usually about 

 seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five 

 pupils, local, and from all over New England 

 and many Western and Southern States. Here, 

 as at the district school, Luther was a favorite 

 with teachers and schoolmates. As was the cus- 

 tom on Friday afternoons, the students were re- 

 quired to declaim, but owing to nervous timidity 

 he could not by any possibility do himself jus- 

 tice in this trying ordeal. And not until recent 

 years has he been able, with any degree of com- 

 posure, to address an audience. In order to 

 avoid these Friday afternoon ordeals, though 

 standing unusually high in all other studies, he 

 remained at home on the day for his turn in this 

 exercise, notwithstanding the fact that it caused 

 him no little regret to do so. The principal, 

 though severe in government, was kindly, and 

 after a time granted him the privilege of writing 

 a composition each week instead of declaiming 

 once a fortnight. 



