Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/289

 and if no lecture were immediately to follow, a spontaneous call of “Go on!” would often go up from the benches, where no seat was ever vacant.

Story’s interest in the school was wonderful. It was his pet and pride. He was continually devising new and delightful plans for its improvement. He doggedly refused any addition to his original salary of $1000 a year, insisting instead that whatever more was offered him should be expended in increasing the law library, improving Dane Hall, or accumulating the fund which now forms the foundation for the Story Professorship. It is estimated that his gifts to the school, in this way alone, amounted to $32,000. His lectures were periodically interrupted by attendance on the court at Washington, but he always returned at the earliest moment, and with the greatest enthusiasm. After each absence he would enter the library and hold a regular reception, shaking hands with each student, and making affectionate inquiries about his success. His personal interest in every pupil was as genuine as it was unflagging, and created the most intimate and confidential relationships. He lived in the old brick house on the corner of Brattle and