The Somerset reporter., 1890-05-29
SELECTED.
ONE SOY WHO FOUND HIS
VOCATION.
BY Mrs. Fanny d. Bergen.

The first time | ever saw Bert Thorn
dyke he was driving milk-wagon
through the main street of the college
town of Is. The empty tin cans were
dancing Jig to their own rafting music,
often Druising one anothers' heads and
sides SO seriously as to leave lasting scars.
The old sorrel horse trotted along brisk
ly, scarcely guided 10y the loosely held
reins. A dog of some neutrality-suspicious.
breed followed, yelping desultory &C
con paniment 10 the jangling tin cans and
rafting gate OF the wagon; while
the driver gazed intently upon flock OF
scolding crows that now flew short
distance, then half settled upon the
ground and the fence of n wide field, on
the outskirts of the village. Bert was
wondering If the birds were not prepar-
ing to hold council as he had often
i.e-;;. :y1- zcc.t;;sS;. 70 DC
determined he would keep an eye ON them
and watch all their motions, even II he
could not understand their discordant
talk.
As noticed the boys eager face. up
turned to watch the mansuvres of the
crows, my first thought was, What an
honest face! !" He was raw-boned, over
grown lad, of fourteen, perhaps, With
frank blue eyes, large, pleasant mouth,
and about his well shaped head and fore
head a clustering mass of rumpled lair
hair. Perhaps no one would have said,
What handsome boy!' But | think
every observer must have been struck
with the unusually open, honest express
sion of his countenance. This so attract
ed me that | made the same determine
tion concerning Bert that he did about
the flock of crows ,-namely, to keep an
eye upon him; and | have always been
glad of my resolve.
Bert's father was farmer and dairy
man who supplied the boarding-hall of
the college with milk, eggs, poultry, etc
Bert was up at sunrise, giving cheerful
help about the barn until the milk cans
were filled, when he daily drove oil TIC
deliver these at the "Ilall' as well as at
sundry residences. Then home to break
fast, and to prepare for school; for he
was a regular student in the preparatory
school of the college, where he spent the
forenoon. After dinner, If not needed
for any special farm work, Bert was gen
orally of tn the woods OF fields "for an
hour or two" as he said; but the after
noon very often slipped away before he
found his way home to his Latin and
Greek lessons. These he faithfully tried
to learn; but early in the evening he
usually grew so sleepy that coDJugatlons
and declensions got dreadfnlly mixed,
and these by no means Strengthened them
selves out during recitation next day.
Alas for the poor Greek. For three sue
cessive years did Bert good-naturedly en-
tel beginning class in Greek and struggle
on until the md-year examination, In
| which he regularly stood so low that he
| had to drop out of the class Tor that year,
and take up instead some study In the
English course. In mathematics and
history, he did fairly well. He ranked
usually high in physical geography, and
managed just to keep place in his class
in Latin, but no more.
People said what pity the Thorn
dykes will persist In sending That strong,
good natured boy to school lie Is eter-
nally prowling about the country, looking
after birds eggs and gathering up horrid
skulls of dogs and cats. It's plain he
don't care for study. He never can go
through college. Why don't they set
him to farmlns?" Then the new pro-
fessor came to the college, TO take the
chair of natural science. The boy that
had gone dinnerltss to climb discoura-
aipg tree in order to secure an owls or
hawks egg drifted into preparatory
zoology class, under the charge of Prof,
W.
can't stop here to tell you much about
the new professor. Enough To say that
he was teacher in the best sense OF the
word and, before long, delightful el-
thusiasm pr, AIDED the class, which was
very miscellaneous in Its composition,
being made up of students from prepar-
atory and college classes. There were
frequent collecting excursions, when
Prof. W. accompanied his zoology class,
and suggested topics for out-of-door
study; but soon every chance walk put
some specimen into u pupifs hands.
This feldwork was the open s.3ame to
Bert Thorndyke's mind. Wha. Greek
roots and Latin declensions had failed to
do the zoology work did. Bert walked
up, and not student from the Juni)r
or Senior Glass was such help to the
professor as was this boy.
One day | entered the recitation room,
and saw on the rostrum an immense AL
wonderful mass of fine japers conglors
crate.
Where upon earth did that come
from?'
"Oh, that's one OF Bert Thorndy ke's
finds.
Where did he discover It,!
"Out in the Blake meadow
"Why we've all trampled that over
and over"
Eyes but that boy is seer; natural
seer"
| And this was true. He not only saw
things that the average student passed
by unnoticed, but he seemed instinctively
TO know just where to look for what he
wished to find.
When the end Of the college year came,
and In the natural history room there
were arranged the labelled specimens
collected by the various members Of the
zoology class, no one exhibited so many
objects or SO valuable material as Bert
Thorndyke. Why, most Of Us had never
seen humming birds nest till we saw
the exquisitely delicate bit OF lichen
covered architecture, with its tiny treas
ures, that Bert Thorndyke had found. Hill
collection Of birds eggs, accompanied
by several wellstuffed birds, was tn
admiration Of all. There were two o.
thres we'll cleaned SKI lis Of dogs, will
bones oil neatly labelled, and SO on
Then, too, there was hardly pupil il
the class who had not prohted either B.!
odd speciusus that Bert had picked up