sband and ten times as much practical ability. There were
twelve boys in the school, for each of whom the Quirks received
the modest sum of two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year. In
exchange for this they gave board, lodging, and tuition. Each of
us received separate instruction--or as Quirk expressed it "individual
attention"--and excellent instruction it was. We arose at six,
breakfasted at six-thirty, and helped around the house until eight,
when our studies began. These continued until twelve, at which
time we had dinner. After that we were free until two-thirty, when
we resumed our labors until four.

Quirk was a tall, lank, loose-jointed man, with long black hair
that lay well over his Byronic collar. He had a humorous eye and
a cavernous mouth that was always twisting itself into grimaces,
alternately side-splitting and terrifying. On occasions he would
use the birch--and very thoroughly, too, as I have reason to remember
--but he ruled us by fear of authority. For though he dressed like
a clergyman, he always smelled strongly of stale cigar smoke, and
his language at times was more forcible than is generally expected
of a wearer of the cloth.

I dwelt with the Quirks, winter and summer, until I was able to
pass my examinations for Harvard, which I did in the summer of
1871. My allowance had been gradually increased to meet my new
expenses, and I entered the freshman class with an income sufficient
to permit me to dress suitably and enjoy myself in such simple ways
as were in vogue among the collegians. But coming as I did, alone,
from a small boarding-school, proved to be a great disadvantage,
for I had all my friends to make after my arrival and I had neither
the means nor the address to acquire ready-made social distinction.
Thus it happened that I was very lonely during my first years in
Cambridge; missed the genial companionship of my old friends, the
Quirks, and seized every opportunity that offered for going back
to Methuen.

I had grown into a tall, narrow-shouldered youth, with a high-arched
nose between rather pale cheeks, and prominent ears. Though I
could hardly flatter myself into the belief that I was handsome,
I felt that my appearance had something of distinction and that I
looked like a gentleman. I affected coats with long tails and a
somewhat dandified style of waistcoat and neck-cloth, as well as
a white beaver, much in favor among the "bloods" of those days.
But this t