Page 100 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

encouraged me a thousand times when prospects seemed rather gloomy. It
ran thus:

'O, why should we seek to anticipate sorrow By throwing the flowers of the

present away, And gathering the dark-rolling, cloudy to-morrow To darken
the generous sun of to-day?'

Thou seest I have good reason to remember those old times, and to be
grateful to thee for encouraging instead of checking the first developments

of my mind."

You may easily guess from this letter that Bayard's school life was very

sedate and Quakerish. Nearly all the people in Kennett Square were
Quakers, and though Bayard's father and mother were not, they had all the

Quaker habits. Among other things, he was taught the wickedness of all
kinds of swearing. His mother "talked so earnestly on this point that his
mind became full of it; his observation and imagination were centered upon

oaths, until at last he was so fascinated that he became filled with an
uncontrollable desire to swear. So he went out into a field, beyond hearing,

and there delivered himself of all the oaths he had ever heard or could
invent, and in as loud a voice as possible." After this he felt quite satisfied
to swear no more.

When Bayard was about twelve years old, his father was elected sheriff of

the county and went to live at West Chester for three years. The young lad
was sent to Bolmar's Academy at that place; and when the family went
back to the farm he was sent to the academy at Unionville, three or four

miles from his home. Here, at the age of sixteen, he finished his regular
schooling. During the last two years he studied Latin and French, and

during the last year Spanish. His Latin and French he continued by private
study for three years longer.

He now went back to work on the farm for a season, and, as he says, "first
felt the delight and refreshment of labor in the open air. I was then able to

take the plow handle, and I still remember the pride I felt when my furrows
were pronounced even and well turned. Although it was already decided