YALE AND EUROPE-1850-1857 25 



the neighboring woods, shooting squirrels and pigeons, 

 with excellent effect on my health. Meantime I kept up 

 my correspondence with all the members of the family, 

 save my father; from him there was no sign. But at last 

 came a piece of good news. He was very fond of music, 

 and on the arrival of Jenny Lind in the United States he 

 went to New York to attend her concerts. During one of 

 these my mother turned suddenly toward him and said: 

 ' l What a pity that the boy cannot hear this ; how he would 

 enjoy it!' 7 My father answered, "Tell him to come 

 home and see us. ' ' My mother, of course, was not slow in 

 writing me, and a few days later my father cordially 

 greeted my home-coming, and all difficulties seemed over. 

 Shortly after Christmas he started with me for Yale ; but 

 there soon appeared a lion in the path. Our route lay 

 through Hartford, the seat of Trinity College, and to my 

 consternation I found at the last moment that he had 

 letters from our rector and others to the president and 

 professors of that institution. Still more alarming, we 

 had hardly entered the train when my father discovered 

 a Trinity student on board. Of course, the youth spoke 

 in the highest terms of his college and of his faculty, and 

 more and more my father was pleased with the idea of 

 staying a day or two at Hartford, taking a look at Trinity, 

 and presenting our letters of introduction. During a con- 

 siderably extended career in the diplomatic service I have 

 had various occasions to exercise tact, care, and discre- 

 tion, but I do not think that my efforts on all these together 

 equaled those which I then put forth to avoid stopping 

 at Hartford. At last my father asked me, rather severely, 

 why I cared so much about going to New Haven, and I 

 framed an answer offhand to meet the case, saying that 

 Yale had an infinitely finer library than Trinity. There- 

 upon he said, "My boy, if you will go to Trinity College 

 I will give you the best private library in the United 

 States. ' ' I said, ' ' No, I am going to New Haven ; I started 

 for New Haven, and I will go there. ' ' I had never braved 

 him before. He said not a word. We passed quietly 



