. Roundabout is a varied country
of heights, dales, woods and pastures, and cultivated fields. The
dwelling is in a wide upland hollow that falls away to the east and
south into a deep valley, beyond which rise line on line of great
mounding hills. These turn blue in the distance and look like immense
billows rolling in from a distant ocean.

There were nine children in the Burroughs family, and John was one of
the younger members of this numerous household. He was a true country
boy, acquainted with all the hard work and all the pleasures of an
old-fashioned farm life. His people were poor and he had his own way
to make in the world, but the environment was on the whole a salutary
one.

He has always had a marked affection for the place of his birth, and
he rejoices in the fact that from an eminence near his present home on
the Hudson he can see mountains that are visible from his native
hills. Two or three times every year he goes back to these hills to
renew his youth among the familiar scenes of his boyhood.

"Johnny" Burroughs, as he was known to his home folks and the
neighbors, was very like the other youngsters of the region in his
interests, his ways, and his work. Yet as compared with them he
undoubtedly had a livelier imagination, and things made a keener
impression on his mind. In some cases his sensitiveness was more
disturbing than gratifying. When his grandfather told "spook" stories
to the children gathered around the evening blaze of the kitchen
fireplace, John's hair would almost stand on end and he was afraid of
every shadow.

[Illustration: RIVERBY, MR. BURROUGHS'S HOME ON THE HUDSON]

He went to school in the little red schoolhouse across the valley, and
as he grew older he aspired to attend an academy. But he had to make
the opportunity for himself, and only succeeded in doing so at the age
of seventeen, when he raised the needful money by six months of
teaching. This enabled him in the autumn of 1854 to enter the Heading
Literary Institute at Ashland. He found the life there enjoyable, but
his funds ran low by spring and he was obliged to return to the farm.
Until September he labored among his native fields, then took up
teaching again. When pay day came he set off for a seminary of some
note at Cooperstown, where a single term brought his student days
forever to a close, and after another period of farm work at home he
borrowed a small sum of money and journeyed to Illinois. Near Freep