seeking to repress them, for to this extent there was little of the
Puritan in his nature, and as he believed that happiness comes largely
from within, so he felt that it is not un-Christian philosophy to avoid
as far as possible whatever may cloud and render less acceptable one's
own existence.

The literary talent of my brother is not easily traceable to either
branch of the family. In fact it was tacitly accepted that he would be a
lawyer as his father and grandfather had been before him, but the
futility of this arrangement was soon manifest, and surely no man less
temperamentally equipped for the law ever lived. It has been said of the
Fields, speaking generally of the New England division, that they were
well adapted to be either musicians or actors, though the talent for
music or mimicry has been in no case carried out of private life save in
my brother's public readings. Eugene had more than a boy's share of
musical talent, but he never cultivated it, preferring to use the fine
voice with which he was endowed for recitation, of which he was always
fond. Acting was his strongest boyish passion. Even as a child he was a
wonderful mimic and thereby the delight of his playmates and the terror
of his teachers. He organized a stock company among the small boys of
the village and gave performances in the barn of one of the less
scrupulous neighbors, but whether for pins or pennies memory does not
suggest. He assigned the parts and always reserved for himself the
eccentric character and the low comedy, caring nothing for the heroic or
the sentimental. One of the plays performed was Lester Wallack's
"Rosedale" with Eugene in the dual role of the low comedian and the
heavy villain. At this time also he delighted in monologues, imitations
of eccentric types, or what Mr. Sol. Smith Russell calls "comics," a
word which always amused Eugene and which he frequently used. This
fondness for parlor readings and private theatricals he carried through