Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-02-27

writer is in the letter to his father
which was penned just before he
reached his seventh birthday in the
year 1914. 1t reads as follows:
| Dear Papa-Ann wants little Bible
like Betsey's. Will you please buy
her one. if you can find any in Boston?
! l have been to school all the week, and
! got only seven marks. l shall have a
| billet on Monday. l wish you to buy
NE 4 drum.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
| IT is pleasant to know that Henry s
wishes, both as to himself and as to
lis sister AIMS, We're sratified. This
sister Ann became Mrs. Pierce, the
| lady who gave the Longfellow House
| to the Maine Historical Society.
Longfcllow has been called "the
poet of children" and accounts of his
| own childhood, given by his brother
| and biographer, Samuel Lonsfellow,
| are entertaining to both young and old.
| When Henry was only eight months
old. his mother wrote of him: Il think
you would like my little Henry w. He
| is an active rogue, and wishes for
nothing so much as singing and dane
| ing
were talking about an invasion Of
Canada. and his aunt wrote: "Our
little Henry is ready to march. He
had his tin gun prepared and his head
powdered q week ago.
His brother Samuel wrote of mir
in his childhood: Henry is remen-
hered as a lively boy. With brown or
chestnut hair. blue eyes a delicate
complexion. and rosy cheeks; sensible.
impressionable, active, eager, i'm
petuous. often impatient; quick tenn
rerod, bat as quickly appcased; kind
hearted and affectionate-tlie sunlight
of the house. He had great neatncss
and love Of Orler. He was always
extremely Remarkably
solicitous always to d. right his
mother wrote, true, high-minGed, and
noble; never a mean thought or act;
injustice in any shape he could not
brook"
1t is remembered of him that as
boy ne always disliked rough play
and loud noises; and he is said TO
have begged that cotton might be
put into his ears to deaden the SOUND
of the Fourth of July cannon. But
he was as fond Of play as any other
boy, and he liked out of door eXer-
else. His brother mentions particu-
larly as his favorite diversions kite
flying, ball playing, and swimming In
summer. and snow balling. skating
and coasting in winter; which shows
him to have been, in spite of his great
sensitiveness, very much like ordinary
boys as to his predictions in this
direction. But his love Of play did
not include the love of what is called
sport in proof of which it is told
that he grieved so much over the first
and last robin that he shot that he
never even attempted to fire gun
again.
The school life of this precocous
child began at the age of years. AT
the age of he was sent regularly 20
the Portland Academy, and was conf
mended by his teacher in q billet
which praised him as being one of the
best boys IN the school, and added,
He spells and reads very we'll. tie
also can add and multiply numbers.
Hi: conduct last quarter was very cor
rect and amiable." BY the next Spring
he had gone half through his Latin
grammar; and when he was 10 he was
reported as ambitious and well-behaV-
ed, occasional levity excepted" This
frank exception shows plainly that
young Longfellow. in spite of his schol-
astic requirements. was neither priS
nor a muff, but was a natural, human
and likable boy, indeed.
In vacation time. in Summer, he was
accustomed to visit his GRANDPA Their
on the old Longfellow farm in Cor
ham, in this State, where ne played at
ploughing and hay-making and other
farm work, as city boys are prone 10
do when they visit the country, and
look upon such employments as fun in
stead of labor. He occasionally varied
this program by visiting his maternal
grandfather, General Peleg Wads-
worth, Of Hiram, oxford County. who
told him many exciting tales of war
times, for General WadswOrth had
been captured by the British in the
War of the Revolution. and made a
daring escape from prison. To Henry's
imaginative and peculiarly receptive
mind these many more than twice
told tales had a particularly fascinat-
ing charm, and he never wearied of
hearing them repeated.
When the boy was Is years old he
made his first venture into print with
poem, The Battle of IovelrS Pond
which was published in the Portland
Gazette in the year 1890. This poem
WAS based on the fight between the
early white settlers of the District of
Maine. ana the red Indians, the alb
original lords of the soil. The fight
took place in what is now called Frye ,
burg, but which was then known as
Pequaket. and Longfellows poem COM
memorated the killing of the Indian |
Sachem Paugus by the white frontiers |
man, John Chamberlain. 1t was pretty |
poor stuff, and gave very little. il any. |
promise. Of the eminence in poetry that |
its author was destined to attain in flu
ture years.
Probably everyone who Is at all IA |
miliar with the life of Longfellow re- |
calls the story of how this poem was |
received in the family circle. 1t is |
said that his father. quite irgnorant Of |
the authorship of the lines, read them |
aloud With many a sarcastic comment |
on their puerility and general lack of |