DESCENT AND BOYHOOD 13 



charge of the pathetic little household, kept the small 

 accounts, did the errands, went to market every day, 

 and strove like the true mite of a man that he was to 

 relieve his mother of anxiety. In the summer of 1818 

 she died and the children were taken to their Uncle 

 Alexander's. Soon letters arrived from the father in 

 America, directing that the girls should return to their 

 aunts in Switzerland, while it was arranged that Alex 

 should remain with his Uncle at Freiburg. 



After his mother's death, Agassiz passed his vaca- 

 tions with his Swiss relations. Not being able to pay 

 the stage fares, he trudged back and forth between 

 Freiburg and Neuchatel or Lausanne, passing his nights 

 under a haystack or in the house of some friendly peas- 

 ant, " and almost anybody would give such a tiny trav- 

 eler a piece of bread or bit of cheese " — he used to say. 



In the spring of 1849, after he had lived nearly a 

 year with his uncle, he was sent for by his father, 

 who was now settled as Professor of Natural History at 

 Harvard. Hearing that America was a land of freedom 

 where one could do what one chose, Alexander cele- 

 brated his departure from Freiburg by jumping on his 

 violin as he set out for the New World. 



