PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 137 



yesterday. Think I will go down and make him a call 

 this afternoon. It being Sunday he might be at w T ork 

 with his eggs, stamps, etc., and I can keep his mind 

 away from such things Sunday." 



While compelled to go out to service at the early age 

 of thirteen years and being deprived of the advantages 

 of an education in early life, he was determined that his 

 sons should have a college education. Three were grad- 

 uated from Bowdoin in the years 1866, 1869 and 1873, 

 respectively, and the fourth, who preferred to go west, 

 attended the University of Minnesota. " I do not think, 

 however," says one of those who went to Bowdoin, "that 

 all of his sons combined, with the advantages he gave 

 them, ever acquired an education comparable with that 

 which he himself assimilated through his most extensive 

 reading and association with scientific and literary men." 

 He continues : ' ' Personally, about the only things of any 

 service in life which I ever learned came from my asso- 

 ciation with my father during our only too brief com- 

 munion. The love of nature, which came to all of us 

 boys from our father and mother, has been my chief 

 treasure. From them we learned to love the secrets of 

 the woods, the notes of the birds, the hiding places of 

 the arbutus, the murmur of the pines, the pool beneath 

 the alder shade where the trout lie hidden and to love 

 our dumb companions. Their love of the beautiful was 

 in contrast with many homes I can remember." 



Mr. Boardman's personal acquaintance with the lead- 

 ing naturalists of the country was very extensive. In 

 Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia and 

 throughout the south he knew all the ornithologists of 

 note, although he did not correspond with them as often 



