MEMOIR. XV 



by fancying him quite as they knew him, less twenty or 

 twenty-five years. One by one, the boys went from the 

 academy to college, or into business, and when Andrew 

 was sixteen years old, he also left the academy and return- 

 ed home. 



He, too, had been hoping to go to college; but the 

 family means forbade. His mother, anxious to see him 

 early settled, urged him, as his elder brothers were 

 both doing well in business the one as a nurseryman, 

 and the other, who had left the comb factory,- practis- 

 ing ably and prosperously as a physician to enter as 

 a clerk into a drygoods store. That request explains 

 the want of delight with which he remembered his 

 childhood : because it shows that his good, kind mother, 

 in the midst of her baking, and boiling, and darning the 

 children's stockings, made no allowance as how should 

 she, not being able to perceive them for the possibly 

 very positive tastes of her boy. Besides, the first duty of 

 each member of the poor household was, as she justly con- 

 ceived, to get a living ; and as Andrew was a delicate 

 child, and could not lift and carry much, nor brave the 

 chances of an out-door occupation, it was better that he 

 should be in the shelter of a store. He, however, a youth 

 of sixteen years, fresh from the studies, and dreams, and 

 hopes of the Montgomery Academy, found his first duty to 

 be the gentle withstanding of his mother's wish ; and quite 

 willing to " settle," if he could do it in his own way, 

 joined his brother in the management of the nursery. 

 He had no doubt of his vocation. Since it was clear that 

 he must directly do something, his fine taste and exquisite 

 appreciation of natural beauty, his love of natural forms, 

 and the processes and phenomena of natural life, im- 

 mediately determined his choice. Not in vain had his 



