Turtle Eggs for Agassiz

Synopsis

Jonathan Jenks, a recent Brown University graduate, is a dedicated and inspired teacher at the Peirce Academy,in Middleborough, Mass., where he tutors twelve students. He hangs out with with Sarah Tucker, daughter of a wealthy merchant and herself a Peirce alum, who spends her days painting landscapes outside the academy. Swiss-born Louis Agassiz, who has blazed his way to fame in Europe through his brilliance and dynamic personality, is recruited by Harvard University to set up a new Natural Science program. He tackles the job with enormous energy, amusing students with humorous lectures, creating a much admired museum, and beginning an ambitious survey of North American Natural History, collecting specimens from all over America. His first volume is nearly complete- but he lacks one thing: a sectional drawing of the newly hatched turtle egg. It must be no more than three hours old, and turtles do not breed in captivity. Harvard mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Pierce, related to the Academy founder, who had given Jenks a telescope, recommends him to Agassiz who bursts in on a class unannounced, and captivates Jenk's students. In Jenks office he explains his predicament. Jenks is eager to help- but Cambridge is 40 miles away- how can he possibly get there with a fresh-laid egg in three hours? No problem, Agassiz insists- he has just done it himself: half hour to the train station, two hours train ride to Middleborough, and another half hour cab ride to Peirce Academy.

"I'll do it!" Jenks declared, and Agassiz replies, "Benjamin Peirce said you would." But it is not so easy. Jenks has to rise before dawn to be on the lookout for female snapping turtles in the cold damp by the local pond for three hours each weekday before returning to the classroom to teach. He is at it on weekends as well. Sarah lends him family horse Bessie, and her brother Robert, one of Jenk's students pitches in gathering turtles which Agassiz also wants. Out in the middle of the large pond on a windy day, Robert falls into the icy water trying to net a turtle and nearly drowns trying to swim to shore when his sailboat is blown away. Jenks comes to his rescue and a grateful Sarah takes him in her arms.

The school year draws to a close with the annual cross-country footrace between the Peirce Academy boys and much larger Middleborough Boy's School. Jenks, who won the race as a student, breaks out his secret weapon: candied ginger, "the ultimate energy booster." The race starts at the City Hall Commons, and in an exciting finish, Peirce wins first and third. Jenks congratulates the boys and bids them a fond farewell, with promises of new adventures in learning in the fall.

He returns to his lonely pond vigil with Bessie. The big moment comes early on a Sunday when Mother Turtle comes ashore and heads for a nesting site in a nearby sandy field. Jenks stealthily follows, scoops up eggs, and as the town clock strikes four A.M., mounts up for the race to the train station. But then he slaps himself in dismay- it's Sunday and there's no train till nine! The only chance is Bessie- is she up to it? He feeds her some candied ginger and off they go! But as they hit the main road, Jenks hears a train whistle- it must be a freight train- and he races to the nearest intersection where he drives Bessie onto the tracks. The train screeches to a halt, and Jenks jumps on board with his pail: "Professor Agassiz of Cambridge must have these eggs by seven A.M.- GO!"

The collier reaches for a wrench to brain the lunatic, but the engineer stops him and whispers, "Let the Boston police deal with him." Jenks sits huddled on the floor guarding his pail and grinning at his luck. The clacking of the wheels on the tracks seem to cry out "Luck! Luck! Luck!" He imagines Sarah painting in a passing field, and being feted at a grand ball by Agassiz himself, who introduces his esteemed colleague, Professor Jenks, to the assembled dignitaries, who applaud as he and Sarah glide across the ballroom to the sounds of Strauss' Artists Life Waltz.

His daydreams end when the engineer sounds an alarm whistle as they enter the Boston train station and a security guard with a Doberman approaches. Jenks jumps off the train and races for the perimeter fence, Doberman at his heels. He vaults over the fence and runs away. "Don't worry," the engineer tells the guard, "he's just a harmless lunatic." Jenks spots a sleeping cabbie by the station and sneaks back as the city clock tolls 6:45. "I've got to get to Cambridge by seven! What's the fare?" "One dollar, Sir." "Here," says Jenks, "and there's two more if you get me there by seven!" They race across the Charles River bridge and clatter over cobblestones, reaching Agassiz' home as the city clock begins tolling seven. A disheveled Jenks is met at the door by the housemaid who refuses entry: "This is no time to be disturbing the Professor!" She threatens to call the police as Jenks tries to force his way in, but Agassiz, in pajamas and bathrobe appears at the stairway landing, "Let him in!" He hurriedly escorts him to the dining room, and catches the pail as Jenks trips on the claw-foot dining room table. Agassiz grabs an egg and neatly slices it in as the last "BONG!" sounds. "Perfect!" Agassiz declares.

The story has been narrated by now-seventy-five-year-old Brown University professor Jenks to great-granddaughter Elizabeth, as they are surrounded by the extended family on Christmas Eve in his Providence, Rhode Island home. "And then what happened?" asks Elizabeth. "And then he married grandma, and they lived happily ever after." Sarah kisses Jenks. "Merry Christmas Jonathan."