For lands not yet laid down on any chart."

--LONGFELLOW.


School days began for Louis in 1859, but were continually interrupted by
illness, travel, and change of school. His father did not believe in
forcing him to study; so he roamed through school according to his own
sweet will, attending classes where he cared to, interesting himself in
the subjects that appealed to him--Latin, French, and
mathematics--neglecting the others and bringing home no prizes, to
Cummie's distress.

Certain books were his prime favorites at this time. "Robinson Crusoe,"
he says, "and some of the books of Mayne Reid and a book called Paul
Blake--Swiss Family Robinson also. At these I played, conjured up their
scenes and delighted to hear them rehearsed to seventy times seven.

"My father's library was a spot of some austerity; the proceedings of
learned societies, cyclopædias, physical science and above all, optics
held the chief place upon the shelves, and it was only in holes and
corners that anything legible existed as if by accident. Parents'
Assistant, Rob Roy, Waverley and Guy Mannering, Pilgrim's Progress,
Voyages of Capt. Woods Rogers, Ainsworth's Tower of London and four old
volumes of Punch--these were among the chief exceptions.

"In these latter which made for years the chief of my diet, I very early
fell in love (almost as soon as I could spell) with the Snob Papers. I
knew them almost by heart ... and I remember my surprise when I found
long afterward that they were famous, and signed with a famous name; to