38 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



plants. On holidays no pupil was so little found at 

 home as Linnaeus. How he admired the plants that 

 everybody keeps in his window in Sweden ! that is, 

 everybody but schoolboys; it is difficult for them to 

 have plants of their own. Dr. Rothman seems to have 

 been kind to him for his father's sake a little, and 

 more for the look of bright intelligence which flushed 

 his face when a word was spoken about botany ; but a 

 physician in full practice has not much time to spare 

 over a boy of ten or twelve ; if he ' tips ' him or asks him 

 now and then to tea with his children, it is the utmost 

 he can do for him. 



Carl had been a year at Wexio when his brother 

 Samuel was born, in 1718. The parents had thus been 

 absorbed in new joys and cares ; a tragedy, too, had 

 happened in the family; Abel Tiliander, rector of 

 Pietteryd, was accidentally drowned in a well. 1 



In 1719 Carl was put under the private tuition of 

 Gabriel Hok, who afterwards married his sister Anna 

 Maria. This man possessed a milder disposition and 

 much better talents for teaching than John Tiliander ; 

 but he could not overcome the distaste the boy had 

 contracted towards the ordinary studies of the school. 



Carl's progress was still slow. Not for three years 

 did he receive promotion to a higher form in the school, 

 called the ( circle ' ; 2 and this time must be unusually 

 prolonged or it would not be remarked upon. In the 

 circle he had more liberty and leisure, and devoted both 

 1 Diary. 2 Notes for Autobiography. 



