consolation he recalled and for which he craved.

When Nekrassov was eleven years of age his father one day drove him to
the town nearest their estate and placed him in the local
grammar-school. Here he remained for six years, gradually, though
without distinction, passing upwards from one class to another, devoting
a moderate amount of time to school studies and much energy to the
writing of poetry, mostly of a satirical nature, in which his teachers
figured with unfortunate conspicuity.

One day a copy-book containing the most biting of these productions fell
into the hands of the headmaster, and young Nekrassov was summarily
ejected from the school.

His angry father, deciding in his own mind that the boy was good for
nothing, despatched him to St. Petersburg to embark upon a military
career. The seventeen-year-old boy arrived in the capital with a
copy-book of his poems and a few roubles in his pocket, and with a
letter of introduction to an influential general. He was filled with
good intentions and fully prepared to obey his father's orders, but
before he had taken the final step of entering the nobleman's regiment
he met a young student, a former school-mate, who captivated his
imagination by glowing descriptions of the marvellous sciences to be
studied in the university, and the surpassing interest of student life.
The impressionable boy decided to abandon the idea of his military
career, and to prepare for his matriculation in the university. He wrote
to his father to this effect, and received the stern and laconic reply:

"If you disobey me, not another farthing shall you receive from me."