The child was neither pale nor prematurely thoughtful; he was rosy-
cheeked, laughing, and chubby. He liked to ramble in the woods, or play
on the banks of the river, and could repeat the songs of the boatmen ere
he was five years old. Still he was fond of building little roads with
planks, and scooping out canals or caverns in the sand.
An amusing anecdote is imputed to his sister, Mrs. Homer Page, of Milan.
Having been told one day that a goose hatches her goslings by the warmth
of her body, the child was missed, and subsequently found in the barn
curled up in a nest beside a quantity of eggs!
The Lake Shore Railway having injured the trade of Milan, the family
removed to Port Huron, in Michigan, when Edison was about seven years
old. Here they lived in an old-fashioned white frame-house, surrounded
by a grove, and commanding a fine view of the broad river, with the
Canadian hills beyond. His mother undertook his education, and with the
exception of two months he never went to school. She directed his
opening mind to the acquisition of knowledge, and often read aloud to
the family in the evening. She and her son were a loving pair, and it
is pleasant to know that although she died on April 9, 1871, before he
finally emerged from his difficulties, her end was brightened by the
first rays of his coming glory.
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