He was noted at the academy for the same personal and intellectual qualities which distinguished him in after life. Anecdotes, illustrative of his wit and biting sarcasm, as also of his physical daring, are still rife among his old scoolfellows.

On one occasion some dozen boys were called up and punished by the assistant, for a certain trick, whose author could not be detected. The next morning a sharp reproof in doggerel rhyme was posted about the village, of which a friend recalls the following:

"Mr. Blank, I must confess

You have well proved your foolishness

By whipping us poor fellows so,
To find out what we didn't know.
No doubt you very oft have read
What God to Abraham once said,
That for the righteousness of ten
He'd save two cities, full of men.
But you the contrawise have done
And flogged a dozen to punish one!"

A lady, now resident in one of the Middle States, writes:

It was a rule at the Academy that each student should once a week declaim a piece selected for the occasion. Seargent, then but twelve or thirteen years old, had been for some time behindhand. Mr. Nason at length told him that he would take no excuse; the declamation must be made on the spot. Whereupon the little fellow started out upon the rostrum, and delivered a most ludicrous original poem, full of wit and humor, apologizing for his previous remissness. Mr. Nason who, as you know, was a very nervous man, was so convulsed with laughter that he was obliged to hide his face in his handkerchief, until the fun was over. But he first looked round the school-room to see that everybody else was participating in his delight. How well I recall the whole scene.

I reco.lect an incident which occurred about this time, illus

trative of his bold, impulsive nature. He was at our house during one of those terrible northeast snow-storms, which none but a New-Englander can appreciate. Towards its close he remarked to my mother, that upon a certain condition he would jump froin the top of the house (it was a pretty high one), into a snow-bank towering in front of the window near which she sat sewing. "Do so by all means!" she replied jestingly, at the same time promising to partially comply with the condition; but she did not for an instant suppose him in earnest, and continued her sewing. Presently, however, he disappeared from the room; in a few minutes the window was suddenly darkened, and there lay Seargent buried in the huge snow-bank! My mother rushed out almost beside herself with fright, but he was uninjured.

On another occasion there was an immense spring freshet, which swept away most of the bridges in the town. Α large crowd had collected near one of them to witness the catastrophe, Seargent among the rest. Already the body of the bridge was gone, leaving, however, a fragment, which projected far over the raging flood. Lost in the excitement of the scene, he crawled out and perched himself upon this extreme verge. There he sat for some time, perfectly heedless of his peril and of the remonstrances of the crowd. He had scarcely abandoned the spot, when the whole fell in with a crash, and in a moment was seen dashing furiously down the current.

For the following reminiscences of him during this period, the reader is indebted to his fellow townsman and classmate in college, Wm. T. Hilliard, Esq., of Bangor, Me.

The perusal of your letter tore asunder the veil that years had woven, and my childhood and youth, with all their varied associations, and the dear and cherished companions of the way, were once more spread out before me. In that young and joyous company I still see my early, and always, friend,

S. S. Prentiss. Our intercourse commenced at Gorham Academy under the tuition of the venerable Mr. Nason. At this period, no one could be with your brother, for any length of time, without remarking a peculiar maturity of intellect. Once interest him, and, boy as he was, easy and indifferent too, as he frequently seemed, he would surprise you with his promptness and brilliancy, and perhaps make you angry by his sallies of caustic wit. He loved sport, and engaged with zest in all our amusements; but, even when a play, his mind seemed at work, so to express it, on its own account. I do not mean to say that he was absent-minded; but his mind was thinking, active, philosophical. He had, at this early period, an inexhaustible fund of anecdote, and a most happy mode of telling a story, being peculiarly effective in his embellishments. He was, at times, terribly sarcastic; but he would cut and heal at one and the same moment. A better, more feeling, and generous heart never beat. Miscellaneous reading was his delight: he devoured history, fiction, biography, &c., with perfect avidity. I never knew one so young, who would read so rapidly, retain so thoroughly, or so readily reproduce, when occasion called. The language he never reproduced,—it was the pith and sentiment which he had made his own property. A boy in his feelings and habits, and a modest boy too, he could, in the company of men, as if by magic, become a man in all save stature and years. When no one was present but myself, or perhaps one or two other intimate friends, he would often suddenly start up, and with some flourish, and as if addressing a jury, or an audience, repeat passages from speeches and poems, not infrequently extemporizing withal.* He had a wonderful command of his mother-tongue, and always used the most apt and appropriate words to express the ideas he intended to convey. In reading

* On visiting, not long since, an old Gorham neighbor, he remarked, "I'll wage that I heard the first stump speech Seargent ever made. It was over yonder, in your grandfather Lewis's old orchard. It was at an apple-gathering; there was quite a company of us, men and boys, your father among the rest. Of a sudden, Seargent mounted a stump, previous to the shaking of a tree, and said he would address us. We were all attention, of course, to hear what the little fellow had to offer. He began thus, My friends, you must, in the

the dead languages, which he did with much fluency, he never troubled himself about a literal translation, but would read off a sentence in the original, and then clothe it in an ample, graceful, yet correct English drapery, seeming all the while, as if by intuition, to seize the intent and meaning of his author. There was about him, withal, an atmosphere of easy and brilliant joyousness I speak now generally, because I never knew, and probably there never was, a mind moulded like his but had its dark and bitter hours, full of gloom and despondency. This was sometimes the case with him; but his strong common sense, and indomitable will, soon dispersed the clouds. Thero was another trait of his character, as a boy, which I may have hinted at before I mean his coolness and self-possession. One could scarcely find him unprepared for a reply, prompt and to the purpose.

In the autumn of 1824, at the age of fifteen, he entered Bowdoin College, then under the presidency of the Rev. Wm. Allen, D.D. From motives of economy, he joined the junior class, having gone through the studies of the first and second years at the Academy; a wretched practice, which nothing but stern necessity can ever justify. He always regretted it, as also that he went to College so young.

Professor Packard has kindly furnished the following interesting reminiscence :

I remember, with perfect distinctness, the examination of your brother for the junior standing. He was very youthful in his appearance, and feeling mach sympathy with him on account

first place, set your faces like a flint towards the butt of the tree,' He then went on, as fast as his tongue could move, for half an hour, or more, in a speech which astonished us; I never heard a boy talk as he did that afternoon, before or since. Your father was perfectly delighted." His son, who

was one of the boys at the apple-gathering, gave the same account of the speech.

of his physical infirmity, as also on account of his youth and the severe examination required for one to enter two years in advance, I was disposed to be very gentle with him in my opening, lest he might become embarrassed. But I found, at the outset, that he did not need any forbearance at the hands of his examiners. With entire composure, and almost as if in a playful mood, with remarkable readiness, clearness, precision, and fullness, he passed the trial in languages, and in mathematics; for in the condition of the College, at that time, it fell to my lot to have a hand in both branches. The testimony of all the examiners to the high promise shown by that examination, was full, and I cannot recall an instance of an examination, which, considering the extent of it-embracing a dozen separate authors and subjects-has, during the many years of my concern in such scenes, been so successful and triumphant. That scene is so indelibly fixed on my memory, that, were I-a painter, I could give a drawing of the fixtures, and the persons, at the time in the apparatus-room of the Medical College. Your brother's collegiate course was a brilliant one, and I often said, that it was one of the few instances, in College life, of decided indications of future success and eminence. He exhibited talents, which we used to think would ensure him all he might aspire after, in a Western or Southern career. His remarkable facility in debate, and his wit and humor, were manifested in College scenes.

His letters home, written while in College, give few details respecting his studies; but they are replete with expressions of filial love, and also of the eager restlessness with which he was already looking forward to the battle of life. In the winter of 1825-6 both these feelings were greatly increased by the death of his father; an event which made an indelible impression upon the whole household, and excited in Seargent a sentiment of filial and fraternal responsibility, which waxed in strength and tenderness to the day of his own death.