The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-04-12
gflisGeIlaneons Selections.
SAM WINTHROP.


Mr.. Solomon Winthrop was plain |
old farmer-an austere, precise man,
who did everything by established
rules, and could see no reason why
people should grasp at anything be-
yond what had been reached by their
great-grandfather. He had three
children, two boys and a girl. There
was jeremiah, seventeen years old;
Samuel, fifteen; Fanny, fourteen.
1t was a cold winters day. Sam |
uel was in the kitchen, reading book
and so interested was he in it that
he did not notice the entrance of his
father. Jerry was in the opposite
corner, engaged in ciphering out a
sum he had found in his arithmetic.
"Sam," said his father, shave you
worked that sum out YETI"
''No, father" answered the boy,
hesitatingly.
Didn't 1 tell gou to stick to your
arithmetic till you had done itT"
said Mr.. Winthrop in severe tone.
Samuel hung down his head and
looked troubled.
"Why haven't yon done it," con-
tinued the father.
81 can't do it, father" tremblngly
replied Samuel.
"Can't do it! And why notP Look
at Jerry, there, with his slate and
pencil. He had ciphered further
than you have long before he was as
old as you are"
"Jerry was always fond of sums
and problems, father. The have no
interest at all for me-"
"That's because you don't try to
feel an interest in your studies.
What book is that you are reading?"
'Its a work on philosophy,
father"
"a work on fiddlesticks! Go put
lit away, this instant, and then get
your slate; and don't you let me see
tyou away from your arithmetic un-
til you can work out those roots
Do you understandp
Samuel made no answer, but 81
llently he put away his philosophy:
and then he got his slate and sat
down in the chimney>corner. His
lip trembled and his eyes moistened,
for he was very unhappy. His father
had been harsh toward him, and he
Ifelt that il was without cause.
"Sam," said Jerry, as soon as their
father had gone out of the room, "pH
do that sum for you"
"No, Jerry" replied the younger
brother, with a grateful look; shat
would be deeeiving father. will
TRY to do the sum, but 1 fear that ]
shall not succeed"
Samuel worked very hard, but to
no purpose. His mind was not on
the subject. The roots and squares,
the bases and perpendiculars, though
comparatively simple in themselves,
we're to him a mass of incompre-
hensible things; and the more he
tried, the more he became perplexed
and bothered.
The truth was, his father did not
understand him.
Samuel was bright boy, and un
commonly intelligent for one of his
age. Mr.. Winthrop was thorough
mathematician; he harly ever came
across a problem he could not solve,
and he desired that his boy should
be like him; he considered that the
acme of educational perfection lay
in the power of conquering Euclid;
and he often expressed the opinion
that, were Euclid living then he
could "give the old geometrician a
hard tussle."
He seemed not to understand that
different minds were made with diff
Iferent capacities, and what one mind
lgrasped with ease, another of equal
lpower would fail to comprehend.
Hence, because Jerry progressed
rapidly with his mathematical stud
lies, and could already survey piece
of land of many angles, he imagined
that as Samuel made no progress in
the same branch, he was idle and
careless, and SO treated him accord
Iingly. He never candldly convers-
ed with his younger son, with view
to ascertain the true bent of his mind,
but he had his own standard Of the
power of all minds, and he pertina-
ciously adhered to it.
There vas another thing that Mr..
| Winthrop could not see, and that
was that Samuel was continually
lpondering upon such profitable mat
ter as was interesting to him, and
that he was scarcely ever idle; nor
did his father see, either, that if he
ever wished his boy to become
mathematician, he was pursuing the
very course to prevent such result.
Instead of endeayoring to make the
study interesting to the child, he
was making it obnoxious.
The dinner hour came, and Sam
uel had not worked out the sum. His
father was angry, and obliged the
boy to go without bis dinner, at the
same time telling him that he was
an idle, lazy lad.
Poor Samuel left the kitchen for
his own room, and there he sat and
cried. At length his mind seemed
to pass from the wrong he had suf-
fered at the hands of his father, and
his face lighted up. There was a
fire in the room below his chamber,
so he was not very cold, and getting
up, he went to a closet and from
under lot of old clothes he took
forth some strips Of wood. He was
evidently fashioning some curious
affair from these pieces of wood.
He had bits of wire, scraps of tin
plate, pieces of twine and dozens OF
small wheels that he had made him
self, and he seemed to be working to