The meat, unless fried, was always cooked too much; bread and
vegetables insufficiently. Like many another young hero he believed in
facing these obstacles, and overcoming them by main force. A strain
which he received in a wrestling match during the celebrated Tippecanoe
campaign may have done him harm; but a more serious injury was incurred
while on a trip to Bangor in one of his father's schooners the summer
after he was suspended from college. The captain of the schooner appears
to have been a sea-faring brute who had a secret grudge, a sort of
town-and-gown feeling, against the scholar, and was ready to do him any
mischief he could. They were to take on a cargo of lumber at Bangor and
the captain requested Wasson, who was not actually under his orders, to
stow it away in the hold while two men on deck handed the boards to him
as fast as possible. Wasson felt that something was wrong and might have
protested against it, but his youthful pride, and perhaps a feeling of
indifference in regard to his fate, prevented him. I believe he finally
fainted from over-exertion and the close air, and was never a well man
again. The trouble was not very bad at first, and might easily have been
cured by suitable treatment, and a quiet, methodical life: but there was
no doctor in that part of Maine who could prescribe properly for him. He
tried some short sea-voyages, but these did him little good.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141