60 
LINNAEUS 
so managed matters as to make Rudbeck’s wife take a 
dislike to Linnaeus for not keeping his pupils neat. 
For this reason he considered himself obliged to 
provide himself with another situation.” In another 
place he says, that the person who made the mischief 
was the unfaithful wife of the librarian Norrelius, 
whose conduct gave rise to much scandal: separated 
from her husband she went to Copenhagen, lived a 
loose life and afterwards died there. 
On the 18th December he left Rudbeck’s house 
and betook himself to Sm&land to his parents, whom 
he had not seen for nearly three and a half years. He 
longed to meet them, and they him, specially this 
being so with his ailing mother. She had formerly 
the belief that he could not become anything above a 
veterinary surgeon, but her previously cooled sense 
had now changed, and she looked forward with joy 
to the hour when the home should receive her first¬ 
born, who had had the honour of lecturing as a pro¬ 
fessor, though a student for only two years. 
This journey had besides another object, he 
wanted to consult his parents about a daring and 
important project. How these plans shaped them¬ 
selves, therefore, will be narrated in the next chapter. 
