2 LOUTS AGASSIZ 



quence of his going fishing in an unsafe 

 boat. Apparently nothing followed on 

 the day when he led his little brother 

 to skate across the Lake of Mor&t, on ice 

 which was anything but safe, and when 

 Mme. Agassiz, looking anxiously from 

 the parsonage window to see what had 

 become of the children, caught sight of 

 them through her telescope at the criti- 

 cal moment when Louis was bridging a 

 fissure with his own body, in order that 

 Auguste might creep across a crack too 

 wide for him to jump. This exploit, 

 and the expedition in the unsafe boat, 

 reassure a reader who might be fright- 

 ened by the eager plans for extra lessons 

 which the school-boy at Bienne laid be- 

 fore his parents, and which are accom- 

 panied by prayers for money to buy 

 grammars and geographies. He ends 

 his petition with : " I should like to stay 

 at Bienne till the month of July, and 

 afterward serve my apprenticeship in 

 commerce at Neueh&tel for a year and a 



