AGASSIZ AND PENIKESE. 2 3 



accommodations; we who had been accustomed to the 

 best? If so, nobody complains now, when profes- 

 sor and pupils share alike. The Hall was crowded 

 that first day. As soon as one had finished, new 

 plates were laid and ano'ther occupied the place; but 

 our waiters were so well trained, that we scarcely 

 had occasion to remember this as a first meal. Al- 

 though taking some time to accomplish it, our party 

 were at length all well provided for; and the visitors, 

 after having given and taken most hearty and cordial 

 adieus, hastened on board the little steamer once 

 again, and were soon on the way to their respective 

 homes. The school had been advertised to begin 

 upon a certain day. Up to within a few weeks of its 

 commencement, almost nothing had been accomplised 

 saving the transfer of the island from Mr. Anderson 

 to its trustees. The friends of the institution were 

 despondent. The day for the opening arrived, every- 

 thing was ready. The enterprise was a grand suc- 

 cess. 



It was with a strange feeling that I watched the 

 "Helen Augusta" as she left the wharf, and steamed 

 far out into the bay. I had taken my station irr the 

 old fort, upon the highest part of the island, it 

 looked as if it might be centuries old, perhaps built 

 by the famous Bartholomew Gosnold himself, the 

 early discoverer of these regions; and from thence I 

 watched her as she grew farther and farther away, 

 then her hull and smoke stack became fainter and 

 fainter; then a long line of smoke, hanging heavily 

 along the horizen, with a small, dark speck just be- 

 yond it; these, too, soon disappeared. Then, for the 

 first time, I realized that school had begun. 



After considerable delay, our baggage was trans- 

 ferred from the wharf, in the most primitive manner 

 imaginable by a yoke of oxen, and an odd, old- 

 fashioned tip-cart, to the door of the dormitory; 

 then came the rush for claiming property. To have 

 seen the scrambling, one would hardly have believed 

 this to be part and parcel of the quiet orderly, assem- 



