nquired how
much he would ask to make the boy a sculptor. But there is no evidence
to show that that aspiring youth ever produced an Aphrodite or a
Discobolus.

WASHINGTON IRVING

During the course of the revolution that changed the British colonies in
America into the United States, there was born in the city of New York
the first great writer of this new nation, Washington Irving. The
parents of Irving had been in America but twenty years, the father being
Scotch and the mother English, yet they sympathized so fully with the
colonists that they spent much of their time and means in caring for the
soldiers held as prisoners by the British.

The mother was unusually warm-hearted and charitable, but the father,
though a kind and conscientious man, was very strict, especially in
dealing with his children. He seemed to feel that nearly every kind of
amusement that young people delighted in was sinful, and he held up
before his children such sober ways of living that Washington at least
came to think that everything pleasant was wicked. No amount of
sternness, however, could keep the five boys of the family and their
three sisters wholly out of mischief, nor hinder them from having many a
harmless good time.

[Illustration: Washington Irving 1783-1859]

After spending two years in a primary school, Washington was sent when
six years old to a school kept by a soldier who had fought in the
Revolution, a man who dealt most harshly with disorderly pupils. Though
Washington was always breaking rules, he was so honest in admitting
the wrong done that the teacher had a particular liking for him, and
would call him by the envied title of "General." To bear this title, as
well as the name of the foremost American of that time, and to have
received a blessing from the great Washington himself, was honor enough
for one boy.

Though it was not till several years later that he first went to the
theater, yet when he was about ten he was fond of acting the part of
some warrior knight of whom he had read, and would challenge one of his
companions to a duel in the yard, where they would fight desperately
with wooden swords. About this time, too, he came upon _Robinson Crusoe_
and _Sindbad the Sailor_, and thus was awakened a great delight in books
of travel and adventure. Most pleasing of all was _The World Displayed_,
a series of volumes in which one could read of voyages to the most
distant parts of the world. How exciting