MKMOia, XT 



by fancying Mm 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., .1 ' . 



.. He, too, had been homing -to go to college ; but the 

 lamily, means fdrbade. 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^-tp 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, p,nd boiling, and darning the 

 children'^ stockings, made no allowance^ — as how should 

 she, hot being able to perceive them-^-fori 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 oiit-door occupation, it was better that he 

 should be in the shelter o'f a stoi;e. 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 I " 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 

 1 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 9hoice. Not in vain had his 



