Nothing pleased him more than to get a bevy of bright young girls about him and teach them how to think clearly and reason logically.
One great advantage of the years my sisters and myself spent at the Troy Seminary was the large number of pleasant acquaintances we made there, many of which ripened into lifelong friendships.

From time to time many of our classmates visited us, and all alike enjoyed the intellectual fencing in which my brother-in-law drilled them.

He discoursed with us on law, philosophy, political economy, history, and poetry, and together we read novels without number.

The long winter evenings thus passed pleasantly, Mr.Bayard alternately talking and reading aloud Scott, Bulwer, James, Cooper, and Dickens, whose works were just then coming out in numbers from week to week, always leaving us in suspense at the most critical point of the story.

Our readings were varied with recitations, music, dancing, and games.
As we all enjoyed brisk exercise, even with the thermometer below zero, we took long walks and sleighrides during the day, and thus the winter months glided quickly by, while the glorious summer on those blue hills was a period of unmixed enjoyment.