I read my Johnson and Locke that winter and tried to write a little
in the Johnsonese buckram style. The young man to-day, under the
same conditions, would probably spend his evenings reading novels
or the magazines. I spent mine poring over "The Rambler."
In April I closed the school and went home, again taking a young
fellow with me. I was then practically engaged to Ursula North,
and I wrote her a poem on reaching home. About the middle of
April I left home for Cooperstown Seminary. I rode to Moresville
with Jim Bouton, and as the road between there and Stamford was
so blocked with snowdrifts that the stage could not run, I was
compelled to walk the eight miles, leaving my trunk behind. From
Stamford I reached Cooperstown after an all-night ride by stage.
My summer at Cooperstown was an enjoyable and a profitable one.
I studied Latin, French, English literature, algebra, and geometry.
If I remember correctly, I stood first in composition over the
whole school. I joined the Websterian Society and frequently
debated, and was one of the three or four orators chosen by the
school to "orate" in a grove on the shore of the lake, on the
Fourth of July. I held forth in the true spread-eagle style.
I entered into the sports of the school, ball-playing and rowing
on the lake, with the zest of youth.
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