CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 39 
In those days the use of firearms was an accomplish- 
ment acquired early by boys with access to the woods 
and fields. There is no record of the date at which he 
first was permitted to use a gun, but in the earliest por- 
tion of his journal in 1838, he records lists of birds shot 
on his daily walks, and from their number it is evident 
that he was even then proficient and accurate in his use of 
the shotgun. In these excursions he was usually accom- 
panied by his brother, William, or his cousin, William 
Penrose, and occasionally by one or more of his uncles. 
In 1836, at the age of thirteen, he entered Dickinson 
College, of which his father, Samuel Baird, had been a 
member of the Academic Senate, where his brother 
William was then in the senior class, and his brother 
Samuel a sophomore. 
The origin and establishment of this institution of 
learning have already been referred to. Owing doubtless 
to the youthfulness of many of their students, oversight 
and control of them was much more strict and paternal 
than would be considered endurable by most college 
students to-day. ‘The institution possessed no dormi- 
tories; the students boarded in approved houses when 
they did not live at home in the town; prayers were at 
six A.M., necessitating early rising, as students were 
required to be present; each student, not a resident of 
Carlisle, was required to select a patron ffom among the 
members of the Faculty who supervised his deportment, 
received and disbursed all his funds, rendering monthly 
statements of expenditures to the parents; and without 
his permission no bills might be contracted, “‘ provided, 
that no bills shall be paid for horse or carriage hire, 
confectionery, fruit, eatables of any kind, or other articles 
unnecessary fora student.” However, a moderate sum of 
