SAMUEL FIN LEY JiBEESE MORSE. 203 



At four years of age Finley was sent to a school 

 near the parsonage, kept by " Old Ma'am Rand." 

 Being an invalid, she governed with a long rattan 

 which reached from her chair across the school- 

 room. Finley, early developing artistic tastes, 

 sketched the teacher's face with a pin on a chest 

 of drawers. Probably the picture was not hand- 

 some, for the offender was punished by being 

 pinned to her dress. Breaking away, and carrying 

 part of the dress with him, the rattan did its ap- 

 propriate work ! 



At seven he was sent to a school at Andover, and 

 fitted for Phillips Academy. He received helpful 

 letters from his father. At ten, Dr. Morse writes 

 him : " Your natural disposition, my dear son, ren- 

 ders it proper for me earnestly to recommend to 

 you to attend to one thing at a time ; it is impossi- 

 ble that you can do two things well at the same 

 time, and I would therefore never have you attempt 

 it. Never undertake to do what ought not to be 

 done, and then, whatever you undertake, endeavor 

 to do it in the best manner. It is -said of DeWitt, 

 a celebrated statesman in Holland, who was torn 

 to pieces in the year 1672, that he did the whole 

 business of the republic, and yet had time left to 

 go to assemblies in the evening, and sup in com- 

 pany. 



" Being asked how he could possibly find time 

 to go through so much business, and yet amuse 

 himself in the evenings as he did, he answered : 

 1 There was nothing so easy, for that it was only 



