Unquestionably, there is somewhere in the land a regularly organized biographical bureau, by which every man, President or private, has his lot apportioned him,--one mulcted in a folio, the other in a paragraph. If we examine somewhat closely the features of this peculiar institution, we shall learn that a distinguishing characteristic of the new school of biography is the astonishing familiarity shown by the narrator with the circumstances, the conversations, and the very thoughts of remarkable boys in their early life. The incidents of childhood are usually forgotten before the man's renown has given them any importance; the few anecdotes which tradition has preserved are seized upon with the utmost avidity and placed in the most conspicuous position; but in these later books we have illustrious children portrayed with a Pre-Raphaelitic and most prodigal pencil. Take the opening scene in a garden where "Nat"--we must protest against this irreverent abbreviation of the name of that honored Governor whose life in little we are about to behold--and his father are at work. "'There, Nat, if you plant and hoe your squashes with care, you will raise a nice parcel of them on this piece of ground. It is good soil for squashes.' "'How many seeds shall I put into a hill?' inquired Nat. "'Seven or eight. It is well to put in enough, as some of them may not come up, and when they get to growing well, pull up all but four in a hill. You must not have your hills too near together,--they should be five feet apart, and then the vines will cover the ground all over. I should think there would be room for fifty hills on this patch of ground.' "'How many squashes do you think I shall raise, father?' "'Well,' said his father, smiling, 'that is hard telling. We won't count the chickens before they are hatched. But if you are industrious, and take very good care indeed of your vines, stir the ground often and keep out all the weeds and kill the bugs, I have little doubt that you will get well paid for your labor.' "'If I have fifty hills,' said Nat, 'and four vines in each hill, I shall have two hundred vines in all; and if there is one squash on each vine, there will be two hundred squashes.' "'Yes; but there are so many _ifs_ about it, that you may be disappointed after all. Perhaps the bugs will destroy half your vines.' "'I can kill the bugs,' said Nat. "'Perhaps dry weather will wither them all up.' "'I can water them every day, if they need it.' "'That is certainly having good courage, Nat,' added his father; 'but if you conquer the bugs, and get around the dry weather, it may be too wet and blast your vines,--or there may be such a hail-storm as I have known several times in my life, and cut them to pieces.' "'I don't think there will be such a hail-storm this year; there never was one like it since I can remember.'