HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



the mob had spent its rage; but he kept on. 

 I told him further that he risked spoiling his 

 good chance, and finally that he would have 

 his head punched; but he trotted on. I went 

 with him, in the hope that I might protect 

 him from the consequences of his curiosity. 

 When we reached the spot, there came about a 

 marvel; in a moment he had all those raging 

 men at his command. He went at once to 

 work with the horses which had been hurt, 

 but were savable. His intense sympathy with 

 the creatures, his knowledge of the remedies to 

 be applied, his immediate appropriation of the 

 whole situation, of which he was at once the 

 master, made those rude folk at once his 

 friends. Nobody asked who he was, for the 

 good reason that he was heart and soul of them. 

 When the task of helping was done, then 

 Agassiz skilfully came to the point of his 

 business — the skeletons — and this so dexter- 

 ously and sympathetically, that the men were, 

 it seemed, ready to turn over the living as 

 well as the dead beasts for his service. I have 

 seen a lot of human doing, much of it critically 

 as actor or near observer, but this was in many 



[17] 



