BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



capital at the time was fifty dollars, a sum 

 which was reduced one fifth by the wedding 

 expenses. For several years he continued 

 to teach, and at the age of twenty-five we 

 find him in charge of a school near West 

 Point. Up to this time his interest in 

 nature and his aptitude for observation 

 lay dormant. But now it was awakened 

 by reading a volume of Audubon which 

 chanced to fall into his hands. That was 

 a revelation, and he went to the woods 

 with entirely new interest and enthusiasm. 

 He began at once to get acquainted with 

 the birds, his vision grew keen and alert, 

 and birds he had passed by before, he now 

 saw at once. 



Meanwhile the Civil War was going on, 

 and it aroused in Burroughs a strong desire 

 to enlist. He visited Washington to get 

 a closer view of army life, but what he saw 

 of it rather damped his military ardor. It 

 seemed to him that the men were driven 

 about and herded like cattle ; and when a 

 peaceful position in the Treasury Depart- 

 ment was offered him he accepted it, and 

 for nine years was a Government clerk. 



At the Treasury he guarded a vault and 

 kept a record of the money that went in 



X 



