717 
“In his eighth year he suffered a severe course of lung 
fever, and for several weeks after the crisis was past seemed 
vacillating between life and death. After he began to con- 
valesce, it was almost impossible to keep his active mind 
quiet enough .to suffer the weakened frame to recover its 
tone. Pictures, books, toys, everything we could devise, 
were put into requisition to amuse him. His father saw 
one day in a store a curious piece of mechanism, a puzzle 
which he knew would delight the child, — but it was an ex- 
pensive article, and he hesitated if he ought to purchase it. 
But a second thought of the tired, weary boy decided the 
question. When he put it into Joseph’s hand, ‘as he sat 
bolstered up in bed, the child’s eyes fairly flashed with de- 
light. Seeing him so much amused at studying its intrica- 
cies, I left him, .... and. returning after a while found him 
utterly exhausted. He had taken the toy to pieces to ascer- 
tain its construction, and in trying to put it together again, 
had so used the little strength he had gained as to leave us 
for many days to fear a fatal result. That was ever one of 
his peculiarities, — not to rest till he understood the how 
and why of everything he saw, or at least had learned all 
that could be learned about it..... It was about his ninth 
year that he began especially to develop his peculiar taste 
for mathematical studies and mechanics. Though he loved 
play dearly, and enjoyed it with zest for a little while, he 
had far rather spend his hours out of school in trying experi- 
ments, endeavoring to make machines, &c. . . . One of his 
great efforts was to make a clock. He had been attracted 
by seeing his father wind up the time-piece, and had beg: 
to examine it. A day or two after I found him in his room, 
surrounded by a quaint collection of bits of board, paste- 
board, wire, lead, &c. To the question, ‘ What is the tinker 
about now?’ he replied: ‘Mother, I'm going to make a 
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