2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



Two or three times every year he goes back to these 

 hills to renew his youth among the familiar scenes of 

 his boyhood. 



" Johnnv " Burroughs, as he was known to his home 

 folks and the neighbors, was very like the other young- 

 sters of the region in his interests, his ways, and his 

 work. Yet as compared with them he undoubtedly had 

 a livelier imagination, and things made a keener im- 

 pression on his mind. In some cases his sensitiveness 

 was more disturbing than gratifying. When his grand- 

 father told "spook" stories to the children gathered 

 around the evening blaze of the kitchen fireplace, 

 John's hair would almost stand on end and he w^as 

 afraid of every shadow. 



He went to school in the little red schoolhouse across 

 the valley, and as he grew older he aspired to attend 

 an academy. But he had to make the opportunity for 

 himself, and only succeeded in doing so at the age of 

 seventeen, w-hen he raised the needful money by six 

 months of teaching. This enabled him in the autumn 

 of 1854 to enter the Heading Literary Institute at 

 Ashland. He found the life there enjoyable, but his 

 funds ran low^ by spring and he was obliged to return 

 to the farm. Until September he labored among his 

 native fields, then took up teaching again. When pay 

 day came he set off for a seminary of some note at 

 Cooperstown, w^here a single term brought his student 

 days forever to a close, and after another period of farm 

 work at home he borrowed a small sum of money and 

 journeyed to Illinois. Near Freeport he secured a 

 school at forty dollars a month, w hich was much more 

 than he could have earned in the East. Yet he gave up 

 his position at the end of six months. " I came back.'* 



