ll in the kitchen, and was as much a part of the
necessary furniture as the crane that hung in the fireplace or the
shovel and tongs.

Magistrate Snell was a disciplinarian of the stricter sort; and as he
and his wife resided with Dr. Bryant and his family, the latter stood in
awe of him, so much so that young William Cullen was prevented from
feeling anything like affection for him. It was an age of repression,
not to say oppression, for children, who had few rights that their
elders were bound to respect. To the terrors of the secular arm were
added the deeper terrors of the spiritual law, for the people of that
primitive period were nothing if not religious. The minister was the
great man, and his bodily presence was a restraint upon the unruly, and
the ruly too, for that matter. The lines of our ancestors did not fall
in pleasant places as far as recreations were concerned; for they were
few and far between, consisting, for the most part, of militia musters,
"raisings," corn-huskings, and singing-schools, diversified with the
making of maple sugar and cider. Education was confined to the three
R's, though the children of wealthy parents were sent to colleges as
they now are. It was not a genial social condition, it must be
confessed, to which William Cullen Bryant was born, though it might have
been worse but for his good father, who was in many respects superior to
his rustic neighbors. A broad-shouldered, muscular gentleman, proud of
his strength, his manners were gentle and reserved, his disposition was
serene, and he was fond of society. He was not without political
distinction, for he was elected to the Massachusetts House of
Representatives for several terms, and afterward to the State Senate,
and he associated with the cultivated circles of Boston both as a
legislator and a physician.

William Cullen Bryant was fortunate in his father, who, if he was
disappointed when he found that his son was born to be a follower of
Apollo and not of AEsculapius, kept his disappointment to himself, and
encouraged the lad in his poetical attempts. We have the authority of
the poet himself that his father taught his youth the art of verse, and
that he offered him to the Muses in the bud of life. His first efforts
were several clever "Enigmas," in imitation of the Latin writers, a
translation from Horace, and a copy of verses which were written in his
twelfth year, to be recited at the close of the winter school, "in the
pre