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Title: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

Author: John Muir

Release date: May 9, 2006 [eBook #18359]
Most recently updated: July 15, 2022

Language: English

Credits: Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF MY BOYHOOD AND YOUTH ***

Transcriber’s Note:


A number of words have been inconsistently hyphenated in this text.
For a complete list, please see the end of this document.



THE STORY OF MY BOYHOOD AND YOUTH

BY

John Muir

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES
BY THE AUTHOR

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1912 AND 1913, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY JOHN MUIR


Published March 1913


FOURTEENTH IMPRESSION


The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
John Muir

John Muir


Contents

I. A BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND
  Earliest Recollections—The “Dandy Doctor” Terror—Deeds of Daring—The Savagery of Boys—School and Fighting—Birds’-nesting.  
II. A NEW WORLD
  Stories of America—Glorious News—Crossing the Atlantic—The New Home—A Baptism in Nature—New Birds—The Adventures of Watch—Scotch Correction—Marauding Indians.  
III. LIFE ON A WISCONSIN FARM
  Humanity in Oxen—Jack, the Pony—Learning to Ride—Nob and Nell—Snakes—Mosquitoes and their Kin—Fish and Fishing—Considering the Lilies—Learning to Swim—A Narrow Escape from Drowning and a Victory—Accidents to Animals.  
IV. A PARADISE OF BIRDS
  Bird Favorites—The Prairie Chickens—Water-Fowl—A Loon on the Defensive—Passenger Pigeons.  
V. YOUNG HUNTERS
  American Head-Hunters—Deer—A Resurrected Woodpecker—Muskrats—Foxes and Badgers—A Pet Coon—Bathing—Squirrels—Gophers—A Burglarious Shrike.  
VI. THE PLOUGHBOY
  The Crops—Doing Chores—The Sights and Sounds of Winter—Road-making—The Spirit-rapping Craze—Tuberculosis among the Settlers—A Cruel Brother—The Rights of the Indians—Put to the Plough at the Age of Twelve—In the Harvest-Field—Over-Industry among the Settlers—Running the Breaking-Plough—Digging a Well—Choke-Damp—Lining Bees.  
VII. KNOWLEDGE AND INVENTIONS
  Hungry for Knowledge—Borrowing Books—Paternal Opposition—Snatched Moments—Early Rising proves a Way out of Difficulties—The Cellar Workshop—Inventions—An Early-Rising Machine—Novel Clocks—Hygrometers, etc.—A Neighbor’s Advice.  
VIII. THE WORLD AND THE UNIVERSITY
  Leaving Home—Creating a Sensation in Pardeeville—A Ride on a Locomotive—At the State Fair in Madison—Employment in a Machine-Shop at Prairie du Chien—Back to Madison—Entering the University—Teaching School—First Lesson in Botany—More Inventions—The University of the Wilderness.  
INDEX


Illustrations

John Muir Frontispiece
Muir’s Lake (Fountain Lake) and the Garden Meadow 62
Our First Wisconsin Home 100
Clock with Hand rising and setting with the Sun, invented by the Author in his Boyhood 132
Barometer invented by the Author in his Boyhood 164
Combined Thermometer, Hygrometer, Barometer, and Pyrometer, invented by the Author in his Boyhood 196
The Hickory Hill House, built in 1857 230
Thermometer invented by the Author in his Boyhood 258
Self-Setting Sawmill. Model built in Cellar. Invented by the Author in his Boyhood 258
My Desk, made and used at the Wisconsin State University 284