CHAPTER XXIV 



COUNTRY LIVING 



IN 1888 Mr. Shaler bought a tract of land on the northern shore 

 of Martha's Vineyard, and then he bought another and another 

 old farmstead, in order, as he said, to keep undesirable people 

 on the farther side of the hedge, until he owned no inconsider- 

 able portion of that part of the island. And here for many years 

 he made his summer home, the idea gaining upon him that to 

 cultivate a farm was a large share of the duty of man ; in his 

 own case it undoubtedly became a large share of his pleasure. 

 The farm was a refuge from the life that cost so much in wear 

 and tear that life which to the casual observer seemed far re- 

 moved from the feverish stir of the great world. Many a tired 

 man of business, coming to Cambridge to look after his son, 

 while sitting at the window in Mr. Shaler 's library overlooking 

 the college green, has commented upon the scene of beauty and 

 repose and upon the professor's freedom from care. He knew 

 little of the unending solicitude to make the education of his 

 boy a pursuit of knowledge and not merely a rush for the degree. 

 It was sequestered, but not restful. 



Mr. Shaler was first conscious of the charm of the island of 

 Martha's Vineyard when as a boy he made a geological excur- 

 sion to it. Again, while doing some work for the Coast Survey 

 he travelled from one end to the other, gaining refreshment, as 

 he phrases it, "from the soft air, the broad, smooth fields, the 

 rounded domes of foliage, and the unusual green, together with 

 the drowse in which all is steeped." He learned to regard the 

 island as "an oasis of salubrity in our New England bad cli- 

 mate/' its average warmth being two degrees above Boston. 

 He was also pleased to regard it as a natural asylum to be 

 shared with worn-out sea-captains "looking like the ani- 



