16 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



for the two children abroad, and made her house one 

 of the centres of the intellectual life of the day. From 

 the first she went straight to the heart of the mother- 

 less boy, and she stayed there for the rest of her life, 

 his devoted friend and companion. 



It is to this second mother that Louis Agassiz's three 

 children owe the happy home they found in the New 

 World, and the pleasant and interesting life that sprang 

 up about it. She was the wise spirit who guided the 

 family and presided over its varied interests with un- 

 failing cheerfulness and courage. Her constant concern 

 and sympathy in all that related to her adopted children 

 never failed. The place that she won in their lives in 

 the beginning, she held to the end. To their children 

 and grandchildren, superior beings in her loving eyes, 

 the wonderful influence of her tender solicitude is an 

 abiding memory. 



Cambridge was then the centre for a small group of 

 very distinguished men. Louis Agassiz's brother-in-law 

 Felton, Peirce the eminent mathematician, Child the 

 English scholar, Asa Gray and Jeffries Wyman the na- 

 turalists, Longfellow and Lowell, were at home in the 

 Agassiz house, and the talk that flew about was a liberal 

 education. 



Some member of the college staff was constantly drop- 

 ping in. It might be Professor Peirce to ask the young 

 people to come over to breakfast with his mother, or to 

 bring some mathematical puzzle, which Alex invariably 

 solved. Sometimes Professor Child would appear with 

 a college theme for the girls to try their hand at. 



The visit of an eminent foreign savant was no un- 

 usual event. Some of them must have furnished endless 

 amusement for the younger members of the household, 



