f a man who believed that he should never die. This subject
was a charming one for Hawthorne's peculiar genius, but the story,
with another, _The Dolliver Romance_, was interrupted by the death of
Hawthorne in 1864.

In point of literary art the romances of Hawthorne are the finest work
yet done in America, and their author was a man of high imagination,
lofty morality, and pure ideals; an artist in the noblest meaning of
the word.

CHAPTER IX

GEORGE BANCROFT

1800-1891

Seventy years ago the Round Hill School at Northampton, Mass., was
perhaps the most famous school in New England. The founder, George
Bancroft, had modelled it upon a celebrated school in Switzerland, in
the hope that it would prove a starting-point for a broader system of
elementary training than had yet existed in America, and everything
was done to develop the physical and moral, as well as the mental,
traits of the pupils. The school was beautifully situated, commanding
a superb view, and had, besides the school-rooms, a gymnasium and
play-rooms that were kept warm in cold weather and furnished with
tools for carpentering. Here the boys could make bows and arrows,
squirrel-traps, kites, sleds, and whatever their fancy dictated. There
were large play-grounds on the slopes of the hill, and here was the
village of "Cronyville," every house, hut, or shanty in which had been
built and was owned by the boys themselves. There were many varieties
of architecture in "Cronyville," but each dwelling had at least a
large chimney and a small store-room. After school hours each shanty
was its owner's castle, where entertainments were held, and the guests
feasted with roasted corn, nuts, or apples, which the entire company
had helped to prepare on the hearth of the wide chimney. Sometimes
the feast was enlivened by recitations, poems, and addresses by the
pupils, among whom was at one time the future historian, John Lothrop
Motley, and very often the festivities would end in one of those
earnest talks that boys fall into sometimes when tired out with play.
Bancroft's assistant and partner in the school was Dr. Cogswell, who
superintended the course of study, which was carried out by the best
teachers procurable in America, England, and France. The boys were in
the main good students, some of them brilliant ones, and they enjoyed
so much freedom that their spirits gained them sometimes an unenviable
reputation. The solemn keeper of a certain inn on