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Show LONGFELLOW AS A LAD. 3oyhood Friendship With Chum Continued Con-tinued Through Life. The bojhood friendship between i.ongfellow and Kdnnrd Deerlng Pre-blo Pre-blo has received scant attention from 'he former's biographers, yet tho two ?rew 1111 together." writes Peter Pre 'ie.i In the Delineator. "Hand In ..and. they said 'Good morning, mls- rcss.' to the prim ma'am who kept the damo's school in Portland. Later, At the academy on Congress street, thi-j wielded gooscqullls under tho watchful eyes or Jacob Abbot, a pedagogue peda-gogue famed In his dny. The same flying fly-ing wagon, or stage coach, that bore Longfellow off to Bowdoln college In Brunswick, took young Preble. Damon Longfellow and Pythias Preble! It was a happy pair of boys that sat beneath be-neath the Longfellow elms reading Washington Irvlng's 'Sketch Hook' and other delightful tnles At an early ugo thpy both began to scribble verses. When Longfellow was thirteen thir-teen years old he published a poem In the Portland Gazette entitled tho 'Rattle 'Rat-tle of Iovell's Pond, about which an amusing and half-pathetic story Is told. On the day of its appearance tho lad read and reread It with Increasing Increas-ing satisfaction. In tho evening, feeling feel-ing nlmost vainglorious, ho went, to visit at the house of Judge .Mellon, whose son Frederick was n fellow-classmate. fellow-classmate. There, conversation drifted drift-ed to poetry, and the Judge Indignantly Indignant-ly seized tho morning's Gazette, and, unconscious of tho wounds Inflicted, called 'Tho Rattle of Lovell's Pond' 'a remnrkably stiff and unoriginal composition.' compo-sition.' Thero were tears on Longfellow's Long-fellow's pillow that night, and In the morning he. no iioubt, confided his Borrow to his friend." |
