with mankind of all times and places by the one great thought he
inherits as his national birthright; free to form and express his
opinions on almost every subject, and assured that he will soon acquire
the last franchise which men withhold from man,--that of stating the
laws of his spiritual being and the beliefs he accepts without
hindrance except from clearer views of truth,--he seems to want nothing
for a large, wholesome, noble, beneficent life. In fact, the chief
danger is that he will think the whole planet is made for him, and
forget that there are some possibilities left in the _debris_ of the
old-world civilization which deserve a certain respectful consideration
at his hands.

The combing and clipping of this shaggy wild continent are in some
measure done for him by those who have gone before. Society has
subdivided itself enough to have a place for every form of talent.
Thus, if a man show the least sign of ability as a sculptor or a
painter, for instance, he finds the means of education and a demand for
his services. Even a man who knows nothing but science will be provided
for, if he does not think it necessary to hang about his birthplace all
his days,--which is a most un-American weakness. The apron-strings of
an American mother are made of India-rubber. Her boy belongs where he
is wanted; and that young Marylander of ours spoke for all our young
men, when he said that his home was wherever the stars and stripes blew
over his head.

And that leads me to say a few words of this young gentleman, who made
that audacious movement lately which I chronicled in my last
record,--jumping over the seats of I don't know how many boarders to
put himself in the place which the Little Gentleman's absence had left
vacant at the side of Iris. When a young man is found habitually at the