I could not quite get a glimpse of the
world as it appeared to me in those callow days. It was here that
I saw my first live author (spoken of in my 'Egotistical Chapter')
and first dipped into Emerson."
After leaving the Seminary at Cooperstown in July of 1856, the
young student worked on the home farm in the Catskills until fall,
when he began teaching school at Buffalo Grove, Illinois, where he
taught until the following spring, returning East to marry, as he
says, "the girl I left behind me."
He then taught in various schools in New York and New Jersey, until
the fall of 1863. As a rule, in the summer he worked on the home
farm.
During this period he was reading much, and trying his hand at
writing. There was a short intermission in his teaching, when he
invested his earnings in a patent buckle, and for a brief period he
had dreams of wealth. But the buckle project failed, the dreams
vanished, and he began to read medicine, and resumed his teaching.
From 1859 to 1862 he was writing much, on philosophical subjects
mainly. It was in 1863 that he first became interested in the
birds.--C. B.]
Ever since the time when in my boyhood I saw the strange bird
in the woods of which I have told you, the thought had frequently
occurred to me, "I shall know the birds some day.
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