34 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



fairly well to do, besides being well-mannered but this 

 last is universal in Sweden. The old grammar school bears 

 a family likeness to the cathedral, having a frontage of 

 five gables in a row, and a large playing-field before it 

 fringed with fine avenues of plane trees. An obelisk 

 to H. Siogren, on a grassy mound, faces the school. It 

 bears the motto Aliis, non Sibi. Lasnerius, the rector of 

 the school, was a botanist; the two rectors talked of 

 botany and looked round the garden together. Now the 

 father could jog home rejoicing : this brother botanist 

 would be kind to his boy. 



The Linnaei next went to call on Dr. Eothman, the 

 successor of their relative John Lindelius as the physician 

 in highest repute at Wexio, to bespeak his interest in 

 the lad. While the elders were holding a long chat 

 over botany, a subject of interest in common with both, 

 we may suppose young Carl eagerly listened to their 

 talk, and when it turned on medical topics for it is 

 more than probable that the rector took the opportunity 

 of speaking with the doctor about his own ailments, as 

 we know that he afterwards consulted Dr. Rothrnan 

 on a malady to which he was subject the observing 

 Carl found objects of interest in the room to occupy 

 his attention and a country child's natural weakness of 

 wonder. They were pressed to stay to supper, but the 

 hospitality was declined. Father and son spent their 

 last evening together. They sat by the delicious 

 lake talking in the sunlight, now at eight o'clock 

 (May 28), glancing on the little rowboats out a-fishing: 



