Records of An Active Life

ixed in my quarters with the family where I was to spend my first year. The name of this family was Ellsworth, and I am glad to record the name, for no persons could have been more considerate and kind than were Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth. They occupied a large, double house, and having no children, I had room enough and to spare. My sleeping apartment opened into a larger room which was my study, and this again opened into a wide hall, so that I had considerable variety in my quarters. I found my accommodations in every way exceedingly attractive, not to say luxurious. For all this I paid the enormous sum of seventy-five cents a week! As my home was about three-fourths of a mile from the academy, I had regular exercise each day. The number of pupils at the academy was about thirty, from fifteen to twenty-five years of age, and of both sexes. The branches taught were geography, mathematics, history, rhetoric, logic, the Latin and Greek languages, composition and declamation. Once a week all the pupils came together and engaged in the last two exercises. This was the great event of the week, and tried our courage to the utmost. I don't think I ever had so much blood in my face, or weakness in my knees, or such difficulty in getting words to come out of my throat and mouth, as when I stood up before all these eyes and attempted to read my first composition. My legs fairly shook, and threatened every moment to give way; my hands were seized with palsy, St. Vitus' dance, ...