10 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



through the Black Forest. On these walking trips the 

 boys put up in farmyards, slept on hay, and lived on 

 bread, butter, cheese and milk, which cost only a few 

 cents. Those who could not stand the life were gradually 

 weeded out, till at the end of each outing the little band 

 consisted only of hardy boys who could easily walk then- 

 thirty to thirty-five miles a day. On the last day of one 

 of these expeditions they walked nearly fifty miles to 

 catch a train returning to Freiburg;. 



Mrs. Agassiz and her little family lived in most 

 straitened circumstances in a tiny apartment near the 

 Schwaben-Thor, one of the city gates. She greatly loved 

 the quaint old walled cathedral town, and its beautiful 

 surroundings. Although now an invalid, she was still 

 able to take short excursions into the country with her 

 children. Here she would establish herself with her 

 sketch-book, and draw the flowers that her little girls 

 brought her, or likenesses of the peasants, while Alex 

 was busy collecting butterflies or caterpillars, in whose 

 development he was already interested. 



The Freiburg winter, with its bracing and sunny air, 

 was an especially happy time for the children. Alexander 

 now became a proficient skater, an art in which as a 

 young man he excelled. Some of the meadows were 

 regularly flooded; and here the boy and his mother spent 

 many happy hours, while she sat in one of the high- 

 backed sleds of that region, which he skillfully guided 

 through the gay crowd of all ages who glided grace- 

 fully over the ice. 



At home Mrs. Agassiz superintended her children's 

 drawing, and accompanied them on the guitar, for music 

 and drawing were as much a part of the daily life as 

 reading and writing. In accordance with this custom 



