e the wooden spoon which did me good service when
I was _in limbo_. It cost me over two weeks' labor in shaping it with
half a knife-blade and pieces of broken glass. For the little block of
wood I paid the sentry one "rebel dollar!"

[13] Many years after the war he rendered financial aid to fellow
prisoners, his chum, artist Vander Weyde, and General Hayes. Author of
several valuable works, he is now head of the publishing house of G. P.
Putnam's Sons.

[14] It was a special pleasure after the lapse of fifty years to meet
Estabrooks at the Massachusetts Commandery of the Loyal Legion, where,
without knowing of his presence, I had just made honorable mention of
him in an address on prison life.

[15] In my own case the prison experience was peculiar: it changed the
course of my whole subsequent life. I had studied law, been admitted to
the bar in two states, and "practiced" with fair success, "though," as a
friend was accustomed to remark, "not enough to do much harm!" Many
times one of the best men I ever knew, my father, had said to me at
parting, "Do all the good you can." Much meditating while in the army
and especially while in prison, I finally resolved to pursue an
educational career. Of course I felt sadly the loss of years of study
that might have better equipped me; but it seemed a duty. I had had some
experience which, I thought, proved me not wholly unqualified. While a
student in college and while reading law I had partly supported myself
by giving instruction to private pupils and in the schools of General
Russell and Mayor Skinner. Afterwards, before the war, I had taught
Greek in the Worcester (Mass.) Academy; and English literature, Greek,
and Latin for more than three years as principal of the Worcester public
high school. I knew the vocation would be congenial. So I became
principal of a state normal school, of two high schools, of a large
academy; house chairman of a (Conn.) legislative committee securing the
enactment of three school measures of importance; later, president of a
college, professor in a theological seminary and in Cornell University;
founder and for three years first president of the earliest and long the
largest of the world's general _summer_ schools (which now in the United
States number nearly 700); lecturer in many Chautauqua assemblies,
colleges, vacation schools, and university extension centres; President
of the State University of North Dakota; editor, with biographic
sk