Part 1

Transcriber’s Note:

A number of words have been inconsistently hyphenated in this text. For a complete list, please see the end of this document.

cover

THE STORY OF MY BOYHOOD AND YOUTH

John Muir

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES

BY THE AUTHOR

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1912 AND 1913, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY JOHN MUIR

Published March 1913

FOURTEENTH IMPRESSION

The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

John Muir

John MuirToList

Contents

I. A BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND Earliest Recollections—The “Dandy Doctor” Terror—Deeds of Daring—The Savagery of Boys—School and Fighting—Birds’-nesting. II. A NEW WORLD Stories of America—Glorious News—Crossing the Atlantic—The New Home—A Baptism in Nature—New Birds—The Adventures of Watch—Scotch Correction—Marauding Indians. III. LIFE ON A WISCONSIN FARM 90 Humanity in Oxen—Jack, the Pony—Learning to Ride—Nob and Nell—Snakes—Mosquitoes and their Kin—Fish and Fishing—Considering the Lilies—Learning to Swim—A Narrow Escape from Drowning and a Victory—Accidents to Animals. IV. A PARADISE OF BIRDS Bird Favorites—The Prairie Chickens—Water-Fowl—A Loon on the Defensive—Passenger Pigeons. V. YOUNG HUNTERS American Head-Hunters—Deer—A Resurrected Woodpecker—Muskrats—Foxes and Badgers—A Pet Coon—Bathing—Squirrels—Gophers—A Burglarious Shrike. VI. THE PLOUGHBOY The Crops—Doing Chores—The Sights and Sounds of Winter—Road-making—The Spirit-rapping Craze—Tuberculosis among the Settlers—A Cruel Brother—The Rights of the Indians—Put to the Plough at the Age of Twelve—In the Harvest-Field—Over-Industry among the Settlers—Running the Breaking-Plough—Digging a Well—Choke-Damp—Lining Bees. VII. KNOWLEDGE AND INVENTIONS Hungry for Knowledge—Borrowing Books—Paternal Opposition—Snatched Moments—Early Rising proves a Way out of Difficulties—The Cellar Workshop—Inventions—An Early-Rising Machine—Novel Clocks—Hygrometers, etc.—A Neighbor’s Advice. VIII. THE WORLD AND THE UNIVERSITY Leaving Home—Creating a Sensation in Pardeeville—A Ride on a Locomotive—At the State Fair in Madison—Employment in a Machine-Shop at Prairie du Chien—Back to Madison—Entering the University—Teaching School—First Lesson in Botany—More Inventions—The University of the Wilderness. INDEX

Illustrations

John Muir Frontispiece Muir’s Lake (Fountain Lake) and the Garden Meadow 62 Our First Wisconsin Home 100 Clock with Hand rising and setting with the Sun, invented by the Author in his Boyhood 132 Barometer invented by the Author in his Boyhood 164 Combined Thermometer, Hygrometer, Barometer, and Pyrometer, invented by the Author in his Boyhood 196 The Hickory Hill House, built in 1857 230 Thermometer invented by the Author in his Boyhood 258 Self-Setting Sawmill. Model built in Cellar. Invented by the Author in his Boyhood 258 My Desk, made and used at the Wisconsin State University 284

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

IToC

A BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND

Earliest Recollections—The “Dandy Doctor” Terror—Deeds of Daring—The Savagery of Boys—School and Fighting—Birds’-nesting.

When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures. Fortunately around my native town of Dunbar, by the stormy North Sea, there was no lack of wildness, though most of the land lay in smooth cultivation. With red-blooded playmates, wild as myself, I loved to wander in the fields to hear the birds sing, and along the seashore to gaze and wonder at the shells and seaweeds, eels and crabs in the pools among the rocks when the tide was low; and best of all to watch the waves in awful storms thundering on the black headlands and craggy ruins of the old Dunbar Castle when the sea and the sky, the waves and the clouds, were mingled together as one. We never thought of playing truant, but after I was five or six years old I ran away to the seashore or the fields almost every Saturday, and every day in the school vacations except Sundays, though solemnly warned that I must play at home in the garden and back yard, lest I should learn to think bad thoughts and say bad words. All in vain. In spite of the sure sore punishments that followed like shadows, the natural inherited wildness in our blood ran true on its glorious course as invincible and unstoppable as stars.