160 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



And he wandered away and away 



With Nature, the dear old nurse, 

 Who sang to him night and day 



The rhymes of the universe. 



And wherever the way seemed long, 



Or his heart began to fail, 

 She would sing a more wonderful song, 



Or tell a more marvellous tale. 



So she keeps him still a child, 



And will not let him go, 

 Though at times his heart beats wild 



For the beautiful Pays de Vaud; 



Though at times he hears in his dreams 



The Ranz des Vaches of old, 

 And the rush of mountain streams, 



From glaciers clear and cold. 



And the mother at home says, "Hark! 



For his voice I listen and yearn; 

 It is growing late and dark, 



And my boy does not return." 

 May 28, 1857. 



The Saturday Club had a warm place in the affections of 

 Agassiz here he met the friends of his choice. 

 Dr. Wendell Holmes in referring to it said: 



"At one end of the table sat Longfellow, placid, quiet, benig- 

 nant, soft-voiced, a most agreeable rather than a brilliant talker, 

 but a man upon whom it was always pleasant to look, whose 

 silence was better than many another man's conversation. At 

 the other end sat Agassiz, robust, sanguine, animated, full of talk, 

 boy-like in his laughter. The stranger who should have asked 

 who were the men arranged along the sides of the table would 

 have heard in answer the names of Hawthorne, Motley, Dana, 

 Lowell, Whipple, Peirce, the distinguished mathematician, Judge 

 Hoar, eminent at the bar and in the cabinet, Dwight the lead- 



