TEACHING SCHOOL— STUDYING BOTANY 35 



and challenged the University to play a series of matches. I 

 shall mention how we played 60 years ago. One of the Professors 

 placed the ball in the centre of the ground and each party lined 

 up at the end of the ground and at the word started for the ball. 

 I was the best runner on our side (but a very poor kicker), and 

 reached the ball first and met head-on the son of Alexander Mac- 

 Kenzie (the rebel of 1837) and I, having more momentum, went 

 over him and took the ball. We were not allowed to touch the 

 ball nor put a hand on any player, but just use the shoulder. Late 

 in the season we met for a match and it began to rain and we dis- 

 cussed the probabilities and a University boy said, it would rain 

 all afternoon as it was coming from the East. I agreed with him 

 that it would but said that it was really coming from the west. 

 Someone said let us go to Professor Kingston, who had charge of 

 the Weather records. 



We were where the Parliament buildings stand now and the 

 Professor lived quite near. A few of us were admitted and the 

 Professor asked what he could do for us. The young man said 

 that he claimed the rain came from the east and another said 

 from the west and we wished to know who was right. He said 

 it appeared to come from the east, but this storm was coming 

 from the west as it was now raining from Detroit to Toronto. 

 He asked for the student who claimed the rain came from the 

 west, so 1 stood up and he asked me how I knew, I told him I 

 had Maurie's Geography of the sea, and he said, "that is the best 

 book on the subject of air circulation." I mention these instances 

 for the purpose of impressing upon any young person reading this 

 that anyone desiring earnestly to attain knowledge can attain it 

 without any teachers. Without any teacher I had succeeded so 

 well that I was now a marked man, both in the Normal and among 

 University students. My five months at the Normal School had 

 opened my eyes, and I saw that being self-taught gave one a great 

 advantage over those that had only studied what pupils are told, 

 especially in lectures. Many young men were so busy writing 

 they had no time to think. I could not write fast and only took 

 short notes. I had taught myself, in studying plants, to ask 

 why such things were so and applied the same test to the lectures 



