ter, New
Hampshire, and named it Phillips Exeter Academy.

The little academy in Andover did not long hold its sessions in a
carpenter's shop. It was soon provided with a good building by its
wealthy founder; and, with an energetic principal and a fine set of
boys, many of whom afterwards became famous men, the school flourished
at once, and became widely known.

The location of the school has been shifted about on Andover Hill, for
its buildings were several times burned down. One of them, the Science
Building, is said to have been set on fire by a boy in revenge for
having been severely disciplined. Tradition says that he is still
living. If he should risk coming to Andover now, and could see the fine
new Science Building which replaces the one he destroyed, I venture to
say that his conscience would be immensely relieved.

[Illustration: THE PRESENT GYMNASIUM.

Where Oliver Wendell Holmes went to school.]

The present Gymnasium is the old school-house which Oliver Wendell
Holmes attended in his boyhood, and which he has immortalized in his
poem read at the centennial celebration in 1878:

"The morning came. I reached the classic hall.
A clock face eyed me, staring from the wall.
Beneath its hands a printed line I read--
Youth is Life's Seed Time;' so the clock face said.
Some took its counsel, as the sequel showed,
Sowed their wild oats, and reaped as they had sowed.
How all comes back--the upward slanting floor.
The masters' thrones that flanked the master's door,
The long outstretching alleys that divide
The row of desks that stands on either side,
The staring boys, a face to every desk,
Bright, dull, pale, blooming, common, picturesque."

The life at Andover is more like college life than at most schools. The
boys have their rooms in private boarding-houses, or small dormitories
on and near the Hill. Here they do all their studying during day study
hours, and here they must be at eight o'clock in the evening, for at a
quarter before eight the academy bell begins to toll warningly until
five minutes before the hour, when it rings rapidly. This means that
every boy not within walking distance of his home must run, and woe to
him who is discovered lingering on the street after eight!

Of course many of the teachers acquire great reputations as eagle-eyed
detectives or lightning sprinters, and traditions are not dead yet of
the hot races that have taken place between belated youths