s was not willing, though, to be any one's boy but his own parents',
and so the matter was dropped.

The boys did not have much spending money, and it took, oh, such a long
time to save enough to buy even one book! So they often went to a
library, or borrowed a book from a teacher, then copied every word of it
with pen and ink, so as to own it. You can see from this that they were
very much in earnest.

When not studying or copying, the brothers were busy outdoors, watching
animals. In this way they learned just what kinds of fishes could be
found in certain lakes, and almost the exact day when different birds
would come or go from the woods. In their rooms the cupboards and
shelves were crammed with shells, stuffed fishes, plants, and odd
specimens. On the ledges of the windows hovered often as many as fifty
kinds of birds who had become tamed and who made their home there.

At seventeen Louis was bending over his desk a good many hours of the
day. He learned French, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, and English. But
he was wise enough to keep himself well and strong by walking, swimming,
and fencing.

Because Louis's parents and his uncle wanted him to be a doctor, he
studied medicine. He carried home his diploma when he was twenty-three
and earned a degree in philosophy, too. But in his own heart he knew he
would not be happy unless he could hunt the world over for strange
creatures and try to find out the secrets of the old, old mountains.

Louis traveled all he could and became so excited over the different
things he discovered that he sometimes stopped in cities and towns and
talked to the people, in their public halls, about them. He had a happy
way of telling his news, and crowds went to listen to the young Swiss.

The King of Prussia thought that any one who used his eyes in such good
fashion ought to visit many places. He said to Louis: "Here is money
for you to travel with, so that you may find out more of these strange
things. You are a clever young man and can do much for the world!"

In the course of his travels, Louis Agassiz came to America. At that
time he could not speak English very well, but all his stories were so
charming that the halls were never large enough to hold the men and
women who wanted to hear him.

Louis Agassiz loved America so well that he made up his mind to spend
the rest of his life here. As time passed, he decided, also, to give
this country the benefit of all that he discove