20 FIFTY TEARS AMONG THE BEES 



badly, and by some means I got it into my head that if I could 

 spend three months at the village acadeDiy I might be so good 

 a Latin scholar that my trouble would be overcome. Dr. Cum- 

 mins was very insistent that it was vital for my strength of 

 character that having begun to read medicine I should not 

 be weak enough to be dissuaded from my purpose by a little 

 thing like the lack of Latin, and if I must have the Latin I 

 could work half time at it, spending the other half in his office. 

 Possibly he needed an otBce boy. 



ATTENDS ACADEMY. 



But I was equally insistent that I must have one uninter- 

 rupted term at the academy, and at it I went, taking up othei- 

 studies as well as Latin. When the term was completed I felt 

 pretty certain that two or more terms were needed to make a 

 complete scholar of me, and by the time I had finished the two 

 more terms I had settled into the determination that I would 

 not stop short of a college course. A college course, however, 

 took money, little of which I had. At my father's death it was 

 supposed he had left a fair property, but it was in the hands 

 of others, and by some means it soon melted away. I kept oc 

 at the academy, taking part of my college course there. 



ENTERS COLLEGE. 



While yet in my teens I taught school at Shellsburg, and 

 afterward in Johnstown. I entered Jefferson College at Can- 

 onsburg. Pa., which college was afterward united with Wash- 

 ington College, and from there went to Union College, at 

 Schenectady, N. Y. This last undertaking was a bit reckless, 

 for when I arrived at Schenectady I had only about thirty 

 dollars, with nothing to rely on except what I might pick up by 

 the way to help me to finish up my last two years in college. 

 I had a horror of being in debt, and so was on the alert for 

 any work, no matter what its nature, so it was honest, by which 

 I could earn something to help carry me through. 



WORKS WAY THROUGH COLLEGE. 



I had learned just enough of ornamental penmanship to 

 be able to write German text, and so got $44.00 for fillino' in 



