BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 3 



he says, " because of ' the girl I left behind me; ' and it 

 was pretty hard to stay even as long as I did." 



Soon afterward he married. His total 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 Department 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 monev that went in or out. The duties were not 

 arduous, and in his long intervals of leisure his mind 

 wandered far afield. It dwelt on the charm of flitting 

 wnngs and bird melodies, on the pleasures of rambling 

 along country roads and into the woodlands; and, sit- 

 ting before the Treasury vault, at a high desk and facing 

 an iron wall he began to write. There was no need for 

 notes. His memory was all-sufficient, and the result was 

 the essays which make " W^ake-Robin," — his first book. 



