LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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CHAPTER II. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. HAVING decided, not without some hesitation, to undertake Neesima's education, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy accompanied him to Andover, Mass., late in Septem­ber, 1865. Plans for his future study were necessa­rily vague, but the mastery of English was clearly in­dispensable to all progress, and he was therefore placed in the English department of Phillips Academy. Fearing that as a foreigner he might be subjected to annoyance, Mr. Hardy consulted Dr. Samuel H. Tay­lor, the principal of the academy, with reference to his location in some private family, and was recommended to Mr. and Miss Hidden, who lived in a pleasant house on a small farm in the outskirts of the village. Mr. Hardy called at once upon Miss Hidden, whore­ceived his proposition with surprise. Her brother was in delicate health, they lived quietly without servants, had never taken boarders, and could not for a mo­ment entertain the idea of receiving a Japanese unac­customed to American ways of living and unable to speak the English language. Neesima's manuscript account of the circumstances under which he left ,Japan was, however, left with Miss Hidden. As be­fore, this simple narrative opened the hearts of its readers, and on the following day Mr. Hardy was notified that the Hiddens would receive Neesima. One half of their large house waH oceupied by Mr.

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