greatly interested in the conversion of the Indians, he early offered to bring up the children of his squaw kinswoman. Always, however, his offers had been refused. His surprise was therefore quite as great as his delight when, in 1800, Thomas Williams, Eunice's grandson, brought to him his two boys, Eleazer and John, to be educated.

It has come down to us in local tradition that from the first the Longmeadow folk noted the curious difference both in appearance and in mental aptitude between these lads. John, the younger, only seven, was every whit an Indian. He stayed in Longmeadow a few years, and then went back to his own people scarcely changed at all by his contact with civilization. Eleazer, however, exhibited no Indian characteristics. Neither in form, feature, nor bearing, was he in the least

a red man. He was eager for study, and by 1810, in spite of repeated illnesses, had read six books of the Eneid, several orations of Cicero, was going through the New Testament in Greek, and was anxious to begin Hebrew. This precocity may be held to indicate previous culture. Indeed, Mr. Ely, as well as others in the village, seems to have been early informed that Eleazer was an adopted and not a real son of his Indian parents. People generally believed the boy to be the son of some French Canadian family of standing. Always the deacon used to say, however, that Eleazer Williams was born to be a great man, and that he intended to give him an education to prepare him for his rightful station.

It was in 1800, as we have said, that Eleazer Williams arrived at Longmeadow; in 1803 he began to follow the

example of Deacon Ely and to keep a journal. This practice he continued with occasional short interruptions for the rest of his life, and from the resulting journal it is that we get the most interesting light obtainable upon the development of his character. This record shows that from the outset civilized life was natural to him. There is every token that education came to him as a recovery.

The religious strain in the lad was, however, marked from the first; as early as the year 1802 he was greatly affected by a sermon preached in the old meetinghouse by Mr. Storrs in the course of a great revival. His conversion at this time was hailed by his friends with great rejoicing, as the object of his education was to prepare him for missionary work. In pursuance of this high end Mr. Ely began the next year to beg money in Eleazer's