CAMBRIDGE 33 



country home at Concord, was a little more with- 

 drawn, his influence was powerful in the intellectual 

 life of the whole community, and acquaintance readily 

 grew to friendship between him and Agassiz. Such 

 was the pleasant and cultivated circle into which Agas- 

 siz was welcomed in the two cities, which became 

 almost equally his home, and where the friendships 

 he made gradually transformed exile into household 

 life and ties. 



In Cambridge he soon took his share in giving 

 as well as receiving hospitalities, and his Saturday 

 evenings were not the less attractive because of the 

 foreign character and somewhat unwonted combina- 

 tion of the household. Over its domestic comforts now 

 presided an old Swiss clergyman, Monsieur Christinat. 

 He had been attached to Agassiz from childhood, had 

 taken the deepest interest in his whole career, and . . . 

 had assisted him to complete his earlier studies. Now 

 under the disturbed condition of things he had thrown 

 in his lot with him in America. . . . To Agassiz his 

 presence in the house was a benediction. He looked 

 after the expenses, and acted as commissary in chief 

 to the colony. ... In short, so far as an old man 

 could, "Papa Christinat," as he was universally 

 called in this miscellaneous family strove to make 

 good to him the absence of wife and children. 



The make-up of the settlement was somewhat 

 anomalous. The house though not large was suffi- 

 ciently roomy, and soon after Agassiz was established 

 there he had the pleasure of receiving under his roof 

 certain friends and former colleagues, driven from 



