s on my liberty of action, although meant for my good,
were irksome, and felt as fetters that galled my spirit and gave it
pain. After-years, if their pleasures had not the same zest, were
passed in more contentment, and the more freedom of choice I had,
the better, on the whole, I enjoyed life."

Among the prayers of his childhood he mentions that he often prayed that
he might be endowed with poetic genius, and write verses which should
endure. And he began at a very early age to make attempts in this
direction, which seem somewhat less crude than the mass of such
productions. He was taught Latin by the Rev. Thomas Snell, his uncle,
and Greek by the Rev. Moses Hallock, a neighboring minister, who boarded
and instructed him for a dollar a week. He continued his studies at
Williams College, although he never was graduated, being taken from
college from motives of economy.

The town of Cummington, where he was born, is a little hamlet among the
hills in Hampshire County in western Massachusetts. The country around
is mountainous, and the valleys very beautiful. The poet was always much
attached to the region, and when he had become an old man bought the old
family home and fitted it up as a summer residence, where he used to
gather together the remaining members of the family, and enjoy himself
highly in exploring the country round about as he had done in the days
of his boyhood. Many stories are told of his pedestrian feats, even
after he was seventy-five years old; and he sometimes walked ten or
twelve miles when in his eightieth year. He retained his boyish love for
plants and flowers, and was as enthusiastic as in youth over a rare
specimen or a beautiful bit of landscape. He further evinced his
interest in the old home by presenting the town with a fine library of
six thousand volumes, and building a suitable house for its
accommodation upon a beautiful site which he purchased for that purpose.

Upon leaving school Mr. Bryant pursued the study of law, and entered
upon its practice, first in Plainfield, and afterward in Great
Barrington, a pleasant village in Berkshire County, on the banks of the
Housatonic. While studying at Worthington, a distinguished friend of his
father came from Rhode Island upon a visit, bringing with him a
beautiful and accomplished daughter, to whom the young poet at once
lost his heart. The passion seems to have been reciprocated, if we can
judge by the assiduity with w