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diff --git a/37471.txt b/37471.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36d9932 --- /dev/null +++ b/37471.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8893 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mind Amongst the Spindles, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mind Amongst the Spindles + +Author: Various + +Editor: Charles Knight + +Release Date: September 18, 2011 [EBook #37471] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIND AMONGST THE SPINDLES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Julia Neufeld and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + MIND AMONGST THE SPINDLES. + + A Miscellany, + + WHOLLY COMPOSED BY THE FACTORY GIRLS. + + + SELECTED FROM THE + + LOWELL OFFERING. + + + WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE ENGLISH EDITOR, + + AND A LETTER FROM + + HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + + BOSTON: + JORDAN, SWIFT & WILEY. + 1845. + + + [Illustration: DOW AND JACKSON'S PRESS] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION. By the English Editor 5 + + Abby's Year in Lowell 21 + + The First Wedding in Salmagundi 28 + + "Bless, and curse not" 32 + + Ancient Poetry 33 + + The Spirit of Discontent 36 + + The Whortleberry Excursion 38 + + The Western Antiquities 43 + + The Fig Tree 45 + + Village Pastors 49 + + The Sugar-Making Excursion 61 + + Prejudice against Labor 65 + + Joan of Arc 73 + + Susan Miller 81 + + Scenes on the Merrimac 92 + + The First Bells 100 + + Evening before Pay-Day 108 + + The Indian Pledge 118 + + The First Dish of Tea 120 + + Leisure Hours of the Mill Girls 122 + + The Tomb of Washington 136 + + Life among Farmers 138 + + A Weaver's Reverie 147 + + Our Duty to Strangers 150 + + Elder Isaac Townsend 152 + + Harriet Greenough 153 + + Fancy 161 + + The Widow's Son 163 + + Witchcraft 167 + + Cleaning Up 170 + + Visits to the Shakers 172 + + The Lock of Gray Hair 178 + + Lament of the little Hunchback 183 + + This World is not our Home 185 + + Dignity of Labor 187 + + The Village Chronicle 188 + + Ambition and Contentment 197 + + A Conversation on Physiology 199 + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +INTRODUCTION, BY THE ENGLISH EDITOR. + + +In the American state of Massachusetts, one of the New England states, +which was colonized by the stern Puritans who were driven from our +country by civil and religious persecution, has sprung up within the +last thirty years the largest manufacturing town of the vast republic. +Lowell is situated not a great distance from Boston, at the confluence +of the rivers Merrimac and Concord. The falls of these rivers here +afford a natural moving power for machinery; and at the latter end of +the year 1813 a small cotton manufacture was here set up, where the +sound of labor had not been heard before. The original adventure was not +a prosperous one. But in 1826 the works were bought by a company or +corporation; and from that time Lowell has gone on so rapidly increasing +that it is now held to be "the greatest manufacturing city in America." +According to Mr. Buckingham, there are now ten companies occupying or +working thirty mills, and giving employment to more than 10,000 +operatives, of whom 7,000 are females. The situation of the female +population is, for the most part, a peculiar one. Unlike the greater +number of the young women in our English factories, they are not brought +up to the labor of the mills, amongst parents who are also workers in +factories. They come from a distance; many of them remain only a limited +time; and they live in boarding houses expressly provided for their +accommodation. Miss Martineau, in her "Society in America," explains +the cause not only of the large proportion of females in the Lowell +mills, but also of their coming from distant parts in search of +employment: "Manufactures can to a considerable degree be carried on by +the labor of women; and there is a great number of unemployed women in +New England, from the circumstance that the young men of that region +wander away in search of a settlement on the land, and after being +settled find wives in the south and west." Again, she says, "Many of the +girls are in the factories because they have too much pride for domestic +service." + +In October, 1840, appeared the first number of a periodical work +entitled "The Lowell Offering." The publication arose out of the +meetings of an association of young women called "The Mutual Improvement +Society." It has continued at intervals of a month or six weeks, and the +first volume was completed in December, 1841. A second volume was +concluded in 1842. The work was under the direction of an editor, who +gives his name at the end of the second volume,--Abel C. Thomas. The +duties which this gentleman performed are thus stated by him in the +preface to the first volume:-- + +"The two most important questions which may be suggested shall receive +due attention. + +"1st. Are all the articles, in good faith and exclusively the +productions of females employed in the mills? We reply, unhesitatingly +and without reserve, that THEY ARE, the verses set to music excepted. We +speak from personal acquaintance with all the writers, excepting four; +and in relation to the latter (whose articles do not occupy eight pages +in the aggregate) we had satisfactory proof that they were employed in +the mills. + +"2d. Have not the articles been materially amended by the exercise of +the editorial prerogative? We answer, THEY HAVE NOT. We have taken +_less liberty_ with the articles than editors usually take with the +productions of other than the most experienced writers. Our corrections +and additions have been so slight as to be unworthy of special note." + +Of the merits of the compositions contained in these volumes their +editor speaks with a modest confidence, in which he is fully borne out +by the opinions of others:-- + +"In estimating the talent of the writers for the 'Offering,' the fact +should be remembered, that they are actively employed in the mills for +more than twelve hours out of every twenty-four. The evening, after +eight o'clock, affords their only opportunity for composition; and +whoever will consider the sympathy between mind and body, must be +sensible that a day of constant manual employment, even though the labor +be not excessive, must in some measure unfit the individual for the full +development of mental power. Yet the articles in this volume ask no +unusual indulgence from the critics--for, in the language of 'The North +American Quarterly Review,'--'many of the articles are such as satisfy +the reader at once, that if he has only taken up the "Offering" as a +phenomenon, and not as what may bear criticism and reward perusal, he +has but to own his error, and dismiss his condescension, as soon as may +be.'" + +The two volumes thus completed in 1842 were lent to us by a lady whose +well-earned literary reputation gave us the assurance that she would not +bestow her praise upon a work whose merit merely consisted in the +remarkable circumstance that it was written by young women, not highly +educated, during the short leisure afforded by their daily laborious +employments. She told us that we should find in those volumes some +things which might be read with pleasure and improvement. And yet we +must honestly confess that we looked at the perusal of these +closely-printed eight hundred pages as something of a task. We felt +that all literary productions, and indeed all works of art, should, in a +great degree, be judged without reference to the condition of the +producer. When we take up the poems of Burns, we never think that he was +a ploughman and an exciseman; but we have a painful remembrance of +having read a large quarto volume of verses by Ann Yearsly, who was +patronized in her day by Horace Walpole and Hannah More, and to have +felt only the conviction that the milkwoman of Bristol, for such was +their authoress, had better have limited her learning to the score and +the tally. But it was a duty to read the "Lowell Offering." The day that +saw us begin the first paper was witness to our continued reading till +night found us busy at the last page, not for a duty, but a real +pleasure. + +The qualities which most struck us in these volumes were chiefly these: +_First_--there is an entire absence of all pretension in the writers to +be what they are not. They are factory girls. They always call +themselves "girls." They have no desire to be fine ladies, nor do they +call themselves "ladies," as the common fashion is of most American +females. They have no affectations of gentility; and by a natural +consequence they are essentially free from all vulgarity. They describe +the scenes amongst which they live, their labors and their pleasures, +the little follies of some of their number, the pure tastes and +unexpensive enjoyments of others. They feel, and constantly proclaim +without any effort, that they think it an honor to labor with their +hands. They recognize the real dignity of all useful employments. They +know that there is no occupation really unworthy of men or women, but +the selfish pursuits of what is called pleasure, without the desire to +promote the good of others by physical, intellectual, or moral +exertions. _Secondly_--many of these papers clearly show under what +influences these young women have been brought up. An earnest feeling +of piety pervades their recollections of the past, and their hopes for +the future. The thoughts of home, too, lie deep in their hearts. They +are constantly describing the secluded farm-house where they were +reared, the mother's love, the father's labors. Sometimes a reverse of +fortune falling upon a family has dispersed its once happy members. +Sometimes we see visions of past household joy through the orphan's +tears. Not unfrequently the ardent girl, happy in the confirmed +affection of some equal in rank, looks exultingly towards the day when +she may carry back from the savings' bank at Lowell a little dower to +furnish out their little farm on the hill side, where the barberries +grew, so deliciously red and sour, in her remembrance of childhood. +_Thirdly_--there is a genuine patriotism in the tone of many of these +productions, which is worthy the descendants of the stern freemen who, +in the New England solitudes, looked tearfully back upon their +father-land. The institutions under which these young women live are +different from our own; but there is scarcely a particle of what we have +been too apt to call republican arrogance. The War of Independence is +spoken of as it ought to be by every American, with feelings of honest +exultation. But that higher sentiments than those of military triumph +mingle with the memory of that war, and render patriotism something far +nobler than mere national pride, may be seen in the little poem which we +gladly reprint, "The Tomb of Washington." The paper called "The Lock of +Gray Hair" is marked by an honest nationality, which we would be ashamed +not to reverence.--_Fourthly_--like all writers of good natural taste, +who have not been perverted into mere imitators of other writers, they +perceive that there is a great source of interest in describing, simply +and correctly, what they have witnessed with their own eyes. Thus, some +of the home pictures of these volumes are exceedingly agreeable, +presenting to us manners and habits wholly different from our own, and +scenes which have all the freshness of truth in their delineations.--The +old stories, too, which they sometimes tell of past life in America, are +equally interesting; and they show us how deeply in all minds is +implanted the love of old things, which are tenderly looked back upon, +even though they may have been swept away by what is real +improvement.--_Lastly_--although there are necessarily in these volumes, +as in every miscellany, some things which are tedious, and some puerile, +mock sentimentalities and labored efforts at fine writing, we think it +would be difficult upon the whole for a large body of contributors, +writing under great indulgence, to produce so much matter with so little +bad taste. Of pedantry there is literally none. The writers are familiar +with good models of composition; they know something of ancient and +modern history; the literature of England has reached them, and given a +character and direction to their thoughts. But there is never any +attempt to parade what they know; and we see they have been readers, +only as we discover the same thing in the best educated persons, not in +a display of their reading, but in a general tone which shows that +cultivation has made them wiser and better. + +Such were the opinions we had formed of "The Lowell Offering," before we +were acquainted with the judgment pronounced upon the same book by a +writer whose original and brilliant genius is always under the direction +of kindly feelings towards his fellow-creatures, and especially towards +the poor and lowly of his human brethren. Mr. Dickens, in his "American +Notes," thus mentions "The Lowell Offering," of which he says, "I +brought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have +read from beginning to end:"--"Of the merits of 'The Lowell Offering,' +as a literary production, I will only observe, putting entirely out of +sight the fact of the articles having been written by these girls after +the arduous labors of the day, that it will compare advantageously with +a great many English annuals. It is pleasant to find that many of its +tales are of the mills and of those who work in them; that they +inculcate habits of self-denial and contentment, and teach good +doctrines of enlarged benevolence. A strong feeling for the beauties of +nature, as displayed in the solitudes the writers have left at home, +breathes through its pages like wholesome village air; and though a +circulating library is a favorable school for the study of such topics, +it has very scant allusion to fine clothes, fine marriages, fine houses, +or fine life. Some persons might object to the papers being signed +occasionally with rather fine names, but this is an American fashion. +One of the provinces of the state legislature of Massachusetts is to +alter ugly names into pretty ones, as the children improve upon the +tastes of their parents." + +If the separate articles in "The Lowell Offering" bear signatures which +represent distinct writers, we have, in our selection of thirty-seven +articles, given the productions of twenty-nine individual contributors. +It is this circumstance which leads us to believe that many of the +papers are faithful representations of individual feelings. Tabitha, +from whose pen we have given four papers, is a simple, unpretending +narrator of old American scenes and customs. Ella, from whom we select +three papers, is one of the imaginative spirits who dwell on high +thoughts of the past, and reveries of the future--one who has been an +earnest thinker as well as a reader. Jemima prettily describes two +little home-scenes. Susanna, who to our minds exhibits natural powers +and feelings, that by cultivation might enable her to become as +interesting an historian of the old times of America in the days before +the Revolution as an Irving or a Cooper, furnishes us with two papers. +The rest are Lisettas, and Almiras, and Ethelindas, and Annettes, and +Theresas; with others who are contented with simple initials. They have +all afforded us much pleasure. We have read what they have written with +a deep interest. May the love of letters which they enjoy, and the power +of composition which they have attained, shed their charms over their +domestic life, when their days of mill service are ended. May their +epistles to their friends be as full of truthfulness and good feeling as +their contributions to "The Lowell Offering." May the success of this +their remarkable attempt at literary composition not lead them to dream +too much of the proud distinctions of authorship--uncertain prizes, won, +if won at all, by many a weary struggle and many a bitter +disappointment. The efforts which they have made to acquire the practice +of writing have had their own reward. They have united themselves as +familiar friends with high and gentle minds, who have spoken to them in +books with love and encouragement. In dwelling upon the thoughts of +others, in fixing their own thoughts upon some definite object, they +have lifted themselves up into a higher region than is attained by +those, whatever be their rank, whose minds are not filled with images of +what is natural and beautiful and true. They have raised themselves out +of the sphere of the partial and the temporary into the broad expanse of +the universal and the eternal. During their twelve hours of daily labor, +when there were easy but automatic services to perform, waiting upon a +machine--with that slight degree of skill which no machine can ever +attain--for the repair of the accidents of its unvarying progress, they +may, without a neglect of their duty, have been elevating their minds in +the scale of being by cheerful lookings-out upon nature, by pleasant +recollections of books, by imaginary converse with the just and wise who +have lived before them, by consoling reflections upon the infinite +goodness and wisdom which regulates this world, so unintelligible +without such a dependence. These habits have given them cheerfulness and +freedom amidst their uninterrupted toils. We see no repinings against +their twelve hours' labor, for it has had its solace. Even during the +low wages of 1842, which they mention with sorrow but without complaint, +the same cultivation goes on; "The Lowell Offering" is still produced. +To us of England these things ought to be encouraging. To the immense +body of our factory operatives the example of what the girls of Lowell +have done should be especially valuable. It should teach them that their +strength, as well as their happiness, lies in the cultivation of their +minds. To the employers of operatives, and to all of wealth and +influence amongst us, this example ought to manifest that a strict and +diligent performance of daily duties, in work prolonged as much as in +our own factories, is no impediment to the exercise of those faculties, +and the gratification of those tastes, which, whatever the world may +have thought, can no longer be held to be limited by station. There is a +contest going on amongst us, as it is going on all over the world, +between the hard imperious laws which regulate the production of wealth +and the aspirations of benevolence for the increase of human happiness. +We do not deplore the contest; for out of it must come a gradual +subjection of the iron necessity to the holy influences of love and +charity. Such a period cannot, indeed, be rashly anticipated by +legislation against principles which are secondary laws of nature; but +one thing, nevertheless, is certain--that such an improvement of the +operative classes, as all good men,--and we sincerely believe amongst +them the great body of manufacturing capitalists,--ardently pray for and +desire to labor in their several spheres to attain, will be brought +about in a parallel progression with the elevation of the operatives +themselves in mental cultivation, and consequently in moral excellence. +We believe that this great good may be somewhat advanced by a knowledge +diffused in every building throughout the land where there is a mule or +a loom, of what the factory girls of Lowell have done to exhibit the +cheering influences of "MIND AMONGST THE SPINDLES." + + * * * * * + +We had written thus far when we received the following most interesting +and valuable letter from Miss Martineau. We have the greatest pleasure +in printing this admirable account of the factory girls at Lowell, from +the pen of one who has labored more diligently and successfully than any +writer of our day, to elevate the condition of the operative classes. To +Miss Martineau we are deeply indebted for the ardent zeal with which she +has recommended the compilation, and for the sound judgment with which +she has assisted us in arranging the details of a plan which mainly owes +its origin to her unwearied solicitude for the good of her +fellow-creatures. + + _Letter from Miss Martineau to the Editor._ + + _Tynemouth, May 20, 1844._ + + MY DEAR FRIEND,--Your interest in this Lowell book can scarcely + equal mine; for I have seen the factory girls in their Lyceum, and + have gone over the cotton-mills at Waltham, and made myself familiar + on the spot with factory life in New England; so that in reading the + "Offering," I saw again in my memory the street of houses built by + the earnings of the girls, the church which is their property, and + the girls themselves trooping to the mill, with their healthy + countenances, and their neat dress and quiet manners, resembling + those of the tradesman class of our country. + + My visit to Lowell was merely for one day, in company with Mr. + Emerson's party,--he (the pride and boast of New England as an + author and philosopher) being engaged by the Lowell factory people + to lecture to them, in a winter course of historical biography. Of + course the lectures were delivered in the evening, after the mills + were closed. The girls were then working seventy hours a week, yet, + as I looked at the large audience (and I attended more to them than + to the lecture) I saw no sign of weariness among any of them. There + they sat, row behind row, in their own Lyceum--a large hall, + wainscoted with mahogany, the platform carpeted, well lighted, + provided with a handsome table, desk, and seat, and adorned with + portraits of a few worthies, and as they thus sat listening to their + lecturer, all wakeful and interested, all well-dressed and + lady-like, I could not but feel my heart swell at the thought, of + what such a sight would be with us. + + The difference is not in rank, for these young people were all + daughters of parents who earn their bread with their own hands. It + is not in the amount of wages, however usual that supposition is, + for they were then earning from one to three dollars a-week, besides + their food; the children one dollar (4_s._ 3_d._), the second rate + workers two dollars, and the best three: the cost of their dress and + necessary comforts being much above what the same class expend in + this country. It is not in the amount of toil; for, as I have said, + they worked seventy clear hours per week. The difference was in + their superior culture. Their minds are kept fresh, and strong, and + free by knowledge and power of thought; and this is the reason why + they are not worn and depressed under their labors. They begin with + a poorer chance for health than our people; for the health of the + New England women generally is not good, owing to circumstances of + climate and other influences; but among the 3800 women and girls in + the Lowell mills when I was there, the average of health was not + lower than elsewhere; and the disease which was most mischievous was + the same that proves most fatal over the whole country--consumption; + while there were no complaints peculiar to mill life. + + At Waltham, where I saw the mills, and conversed with the people, I + had an opportunity of observing the invigorating effects of MIND in + a life of labor. Twice the wages and half the toil would not have + made the girls I saw happy and healthy, without that cultivation of + mind which afforded them perpetual support, entertainment, and + motive for activity. They were not highly educated, but they had + pleasure in books and lectures, in correspondence with home; and had + their minds so open to fresh ideas, as to be drawn off from thoughts + of themselves and their own concerns. When at work they were amused + with thinking over the last book they had read, or with planning the + account they should write home of the last Sunday's sermon, or with + singing over to themselves the song they meant to practise in the + evening; and when evening came, nothing was heard of tired limbs and + eagerness for bed, but, if it was summer, they sallied out, the + moment tea was over, for a walk, and if it was winter, to the + lecture-room or to the ball-room for a dance, or they got an hour's + practice at the piano, or wrote home, or shut themselves up with a + new book. It was during the hours of work in the mill that the + papers in the "Offering" were meditated, and it was after work in + the evenings that they were penned. + + There is, however, in the case of these girls, a stronger support, a + more elastic spring of vigor and cheerfulness than even an active + and cultivated understanding. The institution of factory labor has + brought ease of heart to many; and to many occasion for noble and + generous deeds. The ease of heart is given to those who were before + suffering in silent poverty, from the deficiency of profitable + employment for women, which is even greater in America than with us. + It used to be understood there that all women were maintained by the + men of their families; but the young men of New England are apt to + troop off into the West, to settle in new lands, leaving sisters at + home. Some few return to fetch a wife, but the greater number do + not, and thus a vast over proportion of young women remains; and to + a multitude of these the opening of factories was a most welcome + event, affording means of honorable maintenance, in exchange for + pining poverty at home. + + As for the noble deeds, it makes one's heart glow to stand in these + mills, and hear of the domestic history of some who are working + before one's eyes, unconscious of being observed or of being the + object of any admiration. If one of the sons of a New England farmer + shows a love for books and thought, the ambition of an affectionate + sister is roused, and she thinks of the glory and honor to the whole + family, and the blessing to him, if he could have a college + education. She ponders this till she tells her parents, some day, of + her wish to go to Lowell, and earn the means of sending her brother + to college. The desire is yet more urgent if the brother has a pious + mind, and a wish to enter the ministry. Many a clergyman in America + has been prepared for his function by the devoted industry of + sisters; and many a scholar and professional man dates his elevation + in social rank and usefulness from his sister's, or even some + affectionate aunt's entrance upon mill life, for his sake. Many + girls, perceiving anxiety in their fathers' faces, on account of the + farm being incumbered, and age coming on without release from the + debt, have gone to Lowell, and worked till the mortgage was paid + off, and the little family property free. Such motives may well + lighten and sweeten labor; and to such girls labor is light and + sweet. + + Some, who have no such calls, unite the surplus of their earnings to + build dwellings for their own residence, six, eight, or twelve + living together with the widowed mother or elderly aunt of one of + them to keep house for, and give countenance to the party. I saw a + whole street of houses so built and owned, at Waltham; pretty frame + houses, with the broad piazza, and the green Venitian blinds, that + give such an air of coolness and pleasantness to American village + and country abodes. There is the large airy eating-room, with a few + prints hung up, the piano at one end, and the united libraries of + the girls, forming a good-looking array of books, the rocking chairs + universal in America, the stove adorned in summer with flowers, and + the long dining-table in the middle. The chambers do not answer to + our English ideas of comfort. There is a strange absence of the wish + for privacy; and more girls are accommodated in one room than we + should see any reason for in such comfortable and pretty houses. + + In the mills the girls have quite the appearance of ladies. They + sally forth in the morning with their umbrellas in threatening + weather, their calashes to keep their hair neat, gowns of print or + gingham, with a perfect fit, worked collars or pelerines, and + waistbands of ribbon. For Sundays and social evenings they have + their silk gowns, and neat gloves and shoes. Yet through proper + economy,--the economy of educated and thoughtful people,--they are + able to lay by for such purposes as I have mentioned above. The + deposits in the Lowell Savings' Bank were, in 1834, upwards of + 114,000 dollars, the number of operatives being 5000, of whom 3800 + were women and girls. + + I thank you for calling my attention back to this subject. It is + one I have pleasure in recurring to. There is nothing in America + which necessitates the prosperity of manufactures as of agriculture, + and there is nothing of good in their factory system that may not be + emulated elsewhere--equalled elsewhere, when the people employed are + so educated as to have the command of themselves and of their lot in + life, which is always and everywhere controlled by mind, far more + than by outward circumstances. + + I am very truly yours, + + H. MARTINEAU. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +MIND AMONGST THE SPINDLES. + + + + +ABBY'S YEAR IN LOWELL. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"Mr. Atkins, I say! Husband, why can't you speak? Do you hear what Abby +says?" + +"Any thing worth hearing?" was the responsive question of Mr. Atkins; +and he laid down the New Hampshire Patriot, and peered over his +spectacles, with a look which seemed to say, that an event so uncommon +deserved particular attention. + +"Why, she says that she means to go to Lowell, and work in the factory." + +"Well, wife, let her go;" and Mr. Atkins took up the Patriot again. + +"But I do not see how I can spare her; the spring cleaning is not done, +nor the soap made, nor the boys' summer clothes; and you say that you +intend to board your own 'men-folks' and keep two more cows than you did +last year; and Charley can scarcely go alone. I do not see how I can get +along without her." + +"But you say she does not assist you any about the house." + +"Well, husband, she _might_." + +"Yes, she might do a great many things which she does not think of +doing; and as I do not see that she means to be useful here; we will let +her go to the factory." + +"Father, are you in earnest? may I go to Lowell?" said Abby; and she +raised her bright black eyes to her father's, with a look of exquisite +delight. + +"Yes, Abby, if you will promise me one thing, and that is, that you will +stay a whole year without visiting us, excepting in case of sickness, +and that you will stay but one year." + +"I will promise anything, father, if you will only let me go; for I +thought you would say that I had better stay at home, and pick rocks, +and weed the garden, and drop corn, and rake hay; and I do not want to +do such work any longer. May I go with the Slater girls next Tuesday? +for that is the day they have set for their return." + +"Yes, Abby, if you will remember that you are to stay a year, and only a +year." + +Abby retired to rest that night with a heart fluttering with pleasure; +for ever since the visit of the Slater girls, with new silk dresses, and +Navarino bonnets trimmed with flowers and lace veils, and gauze +handkerchiefs, her head had been filled with visions of fine clothes; +and she thought if she could only go where she could dress like them, +she would be completely happy. She was naturally very fond of dress, and +often, while a little girl, had she sat on the grass bank by the +road-side, watching the stage which went daily by her father's retired +dwelling; and when she saw the gay ribbons and smart shawls, which +passed like a bright phantom before her wondering eyes, she had thought +that when older she too would have such things; and she looked forward +to womanhood as to a state in which the chief pleasure must consist in +wearing fine clothes. But as years passed over her, she became aware +that this was a source from which she could never derive any enjoyment, +while she remained at home, for her father was neither able nor willing +to gratify her in this respect, and she had begun to fear that she must +always wear the same brown cambric bonnet, and that the same calico gown +would always be her "go-to-meeting dress." And now what a bright picture +had been formed by her ardent and uncultivated imagination.--Yes, she +would go to Lowell, and earn all that she possibly could, and spend +those earnings in beautiful attire; she would have silk dresses,--one of +grass green, and another of cherry red, and another upon the color of +which she would decide when she purchased it; and she would have a new +Navarino bonnet; far more beautiful than Judith Slater's; and when at +last she fell asleep, it was to dream of satin and lace, and her glowing +fancy revelled all night in a vast and beautiful collection of +milliners' finery. + +But very different were the dreams of Abby's mother; and when she awoke +the next morning, her first words to her husband were, "Mr. Atkins, +were you serious last night when you told Abby that she might go to +Lowell? I thought at first that you were vexed because I interrupted +you, and said it to stop the conversation." + +"Yes, wife, I was serious, and you did not interrupt me, for I had been +listening to all that you and Abby were saying. She is a wild, +thoughtless girl, and I hardly know what it is best to do with her; but +perhaps it will be as well to try an experiment, and let her think and +act a little while for herself. I expect that she will spend all her +earnings in fine clothes, but after she has done so she may see the +folly of it; at all events, she will be more likely to understand the +value of money when she has been obliged to work for it. After she has +had her own way for one year, she may possibly be willing to return +home, and become a little more steady, and be willing to devote her +active energies (for she is a very capable girl) to household duties, +for hitherto her services have been principally out of doors, where she +is now too old to work. I am also willing that she should see a little +of the world, and what is going on in it; and I hope that, if she +receives no benefit, she will at least return to us uninjured." + +"O, husband, I have many fears for her," was the reply of Mrs. Atkins, +"she is so very giddy and thoughtless, and the Slater girls are as +hair-brained as herself, and will lead her on in all sorts of folly. I +wish you would tell her that she must stay at home." + +"I made a promise," said Mr. Atkins, "and I will keep it; and Abby, I +trust, will keep _hers_." + +Abby flew round in high spirits to make the necessary preparations for +her departure, and her mother assisted her with a heavy heart. + + +CHAPTER II. + +The evening before she left home her father called her to him, and +fixing upon her a calm, earnest, and almost mournful look, he said, +"Abby, do you ever think?"--Abby was subdued, and almost awed, by her +father's look and manner. There was something unusual in it--something +in his expression which was unexpected in him, which reminded her of her +teacher's look at the Sabbath school, when he was endeavoring to +impress upon her mind some serious truth. "Yes, father," she at length +replied, "I have thought a great deal lately about going to Lowell." + +"But I do not believe, my child, that you have had one serious +reflection upon the subject, and I fear that I have done wrong in +consenting to let you go from home. If I was too poor to maintain you +here, and had no employment about which you could make yourself useful, +I should feel no self-reproach, and would let you go, trusting that all +might yet be well; but now I have done what I may at some future time +severely repent of; and, Abby, if you do not wish to make me wretched, +you will return to us a better, milder, and more thoughtful girl." + +That night Abby reflected more seriously than she had ever done in her +life before. Her father's words, rendered more impressive by the look +and tone with which they were delivered, had sunk into her heart as +words of his had never done before. She had been surprised at his ready +acquiescence in her wishes, but it had now a new meaning. She felt that +she was about to be abandoned to herself, because her parents despaired +of being able to do anything for her; they thought her too wild, +reckless, and untameable, to be softened by aught but the stern lessons +of experience. I will surprise them, said she to herself; I will show +them that I have some reflection; and after I come home, my father shall +never ask me if I _think_. Yes, I know what their fears are, and I will +let them see that I can take care of myself, and as good care as they +have ever taken of me. I know that I have not done as well as I might +have done; but I will begin _now_, and when I return, they shall see +that _I am_ a better, milder, and more thoughtful girl. And the money +which I intended to spend in fine dress shall be put into the bank; I +will save it all, and my father shall see that I can earn money, and +take care of it too. O, how different I will be from what they think I +am; and how very glad it will make my father and mother to see that I am +not so very bad, after all. + +New feelings and new ideas had begotten new resolutions, and Abby's +dreams that night were of smiles from her mother, and words from her +father, such as she had never received nor deserved. + +When she bade them farewell the next morning, she said nothing of the +change which had taken place in her views and feelings, for she felt a +slight degree of self-distrust in her own firmness of purpose. + +Abby's self-distrust was commendable and auspicious; but she had a very +prominent development in that part of the head where phrenologists +locate the organ of firmness; and when she had once determined upon a +thing, she usually went through with it. She had now resolved to pursue +a course entirely different from that which was expected of her, and as +different from the one she had first marked out for herself. This was +more difficult, on account of her strong propensity for dress, a love of +which was freely gratified by her companions. But when Judith Slater +pressed her to purchase this beautiful piece of silk, or that splendid +piece of muslin, her constant reply was, "No, I have determined not to +buy any such things, and I will keep my resolution." + +Before she came to Lowell, she wondered, in her simplicity, how people +could live where there were so many stores, and not spend all their +money; and it now required all her firmness to resist being overcome by +the tempting display of beauties which met her eye whenever she +promenaded the illuminated streets. It was hard to walk by the +milliners' shops with an unwavering step; and when she came to the +confectionaries, she could not help stopping. But she did not yield to +the temptation; she did not spend her money in them. When she saw fine +strawberries, she said to herself, "I can gather them in our own pasture +next year;" when she looked upon the nice peaches, cherries, and plums +which stood in tempting array behind their crystal barriers, she said +again, "I will do without them _this_ summer;" and when apples, pears, +and nuts were offered to her for sale, she thought that she would eat +none of them till she went home. But she felt that the only safe place +for her earnings was the savings' bank, and there they were regularly +deposited, that it might be out of her power to indulge in momentary +whims. She gratified no feeling but a newly-awakened desire for mental +improvement, and spent her leisure hours in reading useful books. + +Abby's year was one of perpetual self-contest and self-denial; but it +was by no means one of unmitigated misery. The ruling desire of years +was not to be conquered by the resolution of a moment; but when the +contest was over, there was for her the triumph of victory. If the +battle was sometimes desperate, there was so much more merit in being +conqueror. One Sabbath was spent in tears, because Judith Slater did not +wish her to attend their meeting with such a dowdy bonnet; and another +fellow-boarder thought her gown must have been made in "the year one." +The color mounted to her cheeks, and the lightning flashed from her +eyes, when asked if she had "_just come down_;" and she felt as though +she should be glad to be away from them all, when she heard their sly +innuendoes about "bush-wackers." Still she remained unshaken. It is but +a year, said she to herself, and the time and money that my father +thought I should spend in folly, shall be devoted to a better purpose. + + +CHAPTER III. + +At the close of a pleasant April day, Mr. Atkins sat at his kitchen +fire-side, with Charley upon his knees. "Wife," said he to Mrs. Atkins, +who was busily preparing the evening meal, "is it not a year since Abby +left home?" + +"Why, husband, let me think: I always clean up the house thoroughly just +before _fast-day_, and I had not done it when Abby went away. I remember +speaking to her about it, and telling her that it was wrong to leave me +at such a busy time, and she said, 'Mother, I will be at home to do it +all next year.' Yes, it is a year, and I should not be surprised if she +should come this week." + +"Perhaps she will not come at all," said Mr. Atkins, with a gloomy look; +"she has written us but few letters, and they have been very short and +unsatisfactory. I suppose she has sense enough to know that no news is +better than bad news, and having nothing pleasant to tell about herself, +she thinks she will tell us nothing at all. But if I ever get her home +again, I will keep her here. I assure you, her first year in Lowell +shall also be her last." + +"Husband, I told you my fears, and if you had set up your authority, +Abby would have been obliged to stay at home; but perhaps she is doing +pretty well. You know she is not accustomed to writing, and that may +account for the few and short letters we have received; but they have +all, even the shortest, contained the assurance that she would be at +home at the close of the year." + +"Pa, the stage has stopped here," said little Charley, and he bounded +from his father's knee. The next moment the room rang with the shout of +"Abby has come! Abby has come!" In a few moments more, she was in the +midst of the joyful throng. Her father pressed her hand in silence, and +tears gushed from her mother's eyes. Her brothers and sisters were +clamorous with delight, all but little Charley, to whom Abby was a +stranger, and who repelled with terror all her overtures for a better +acquaintance. Her parents gazed upon her with speechless pleasure, for +they felt that a change for the better had taken place in their once +wayward girl. Yes, there she stood before them, a little taller and a +little thinner, and, when the flush of emotion had faded away, perhaps a +little paler; but the eyes were bright in their joyous radiance, and the +smile of health and innocence was playing around the rosy lips. She +carefully laid aside her new straw bonnet, with its plain trimming of +light blue ribbon, and her dark merino dress showed to the best +advantage her neat symmetrical form. There was more delicacy of personal +appearance than when she left them, and also more softness of manner; +for constant collision with so many young females had worn off the +little asperities which had marked her conduct while at home. + +"Well, Abby, how many silk gowns have you got?" said her father, as he +opened a large new trunk. "_Not one_, father," said she; and she fixed +her dark eyes upon him with an expression which told all. "But here are +some little books for the children, and a new calico dress for mother; +and here is a nice black silk handkerchief for you to wear around your +neck on Sundays; accept it, dear father, for it is your daughter's first +gift." + +"You had better have bought me a pair of spectacles, for I am sure I +cannot see anything." There were tears in the rough farmer's eyes, but +he tried to laugh and joke, that they might not be perceived. "But what +did you do with all your money?" + +"I thought I had better leave it there," said Abby, and she placed her +bank-book in her father's hand. Mr. Atkins looked a moment, and the +forced smile faded away. The surprise had been too great, and tears fell +thick and fast from the father's eyes. + +"It is but a little," said Abby. "But it was all you could save," +replied her father, "and I am proud of you, Abby; yes, proud that I am +the father of such a girl. It is not this paltry sum which pleases me so +much, but the prudence, self-command, and real affection for us which +you have displayed. But was it not sometimes hard to resist temptation?" + +"Yes, father, _you_ can never know how hard; but it was the thought of +_this_ night which sustained me through it all. I knew how you would +smile, and what my mother would say and feel; and though there have been +moments, yes, hours, that have seen me wretched enough, yet this one +evening will repay for all. There is but one thing now to mar my +happiness, and that is the thought that this little fellow has quite +forgotten me;" and she drew Charley to her side. But the new +picture-book had already effected wonders, and in a few moments he was +in her lap, with his arms around her neck, and his mother could not +persuade him to retire that night until he had given "sister Abby" a +hundred kisses. + +"Father," said Abby, as she arose to retire, when the tall clock struck +eleven, "may I not sometime go back to Lowell? I should like to add a +little to the sum in the bank, and I should be glad of _one_ silk gown!" + +"Yes, Abby, you may do anything you wish. I shall never again be afraid +to let you spend a year in Lowell." + + LUCINDA. + + + + +THE FIRST WEDDING IN SALMAGUNDI. + + +I have often heard this remark, "If their friends can give them nothing +else, they will surely give them a wedding." As I have nothing else to +present at this time, I hope my friends will not complain if I give them +an account of the first wedding in our town. The ceremony of marriage +being performed by his Excellency the Governor, it would not be amiss to +introduce him first of all. + +Let me then introduce John Wentworth (the last governor of New Hampshire +while the colonies were subject to the crown of Great Britain), whose +country seat was in Salmagundi. The wedding which I am about to +describe was celebrated on a romantic spot, by the side of Lake +Winnipiseogee. All the neighbors within ten miles were invited, and it +was understood that all who came were expected to bring with them some +implements of husbandry, such as ploughs, harrows, yokes, bows, +wheelbarrows, hods, scythe-snaths, rakes, goads, hay-hooks, bar-pins, +&c. These articles were for a fair, the product of which was to defray +the expenses of the wedding, and also to fit out the bride with some +household furniture. All these implements, and a thousand and one +besides, being wanted on the farm of Wentworth, he was to employ persons +to buy them for his own especial use. + +Johnny O'Lara, an old man, who used to chop wood at my father's door, +related the particulars of the wedding one evening, while I sat on a +block in the chimney-corner (the usual place for the greatest rogue in +the family), plying my knitting-needles, and every now and then, when +the eyes of my step-mother were turned another way, playing slyly with +the cat. And once, when we yonkers went upon a whortleberry excursion, +with O'Lara for our pilot, he showed us the spot where the wedding took +place, and described it as it was at the time. On the right was a grove +of birches; on the left a grove of bushy pines, with recesses for the +cows and sheep to retire from the noon-day sun. The background was a +forest of tall pines and hemlocks, and in front were the limpid waters +of the "Smile of the Great Spirit." These encircled about three acres of +level grass-land, with here and there a scattering oak. "Under yonder +oak," said O'Lara, "the ceremony was performed; and here, on this flat +rock, was the rude oven constructed, where the good wives baked the +lamb; and there is the place where crotched stakes were driven to +support a pole, upon which hung two huge iron kettles, in which they +boiled their peas. And on this very ground," said O'Lara, "in days of +yore, the elfs and fairies used to meet, and, far from mortal ken, have +their midnight gambols." + +The wedding was on a fine evening in the latter part of the month of +July, at a time when the moon was above the horizon for the whole night. +The company were all assembled, with the exception of the Governor and +his retinue. To while away the time, just as the sun was sinking behind +the opposite mountains, they commenced singing an ode to sunset. They +had sung, + + "The sunset is calm on the face of the deep, + And bright is the last look of Sol in the west; + And broad do the beams of his parting glance sweep, + Like the path that conducts to the land of the blest," + +when the blowing of a horn announced the approach of the Governor, whose +barge was soon seen turning a point of land. The company gave a salute +of nineteen guns, which was returned from the barge, gun for gun. The +Governor and retinue soon landed, and the fair was quickly over. The +company being seated on rude benches prepared for the occasion, the +blowing of a horn announced that it was time for the ceremony to +commence; and, being answered by a whistle, all eyes were turned toward +the right, and issuing from the birchen grove were seen three musicians, +with a bagpipe, fife, and a Scotch fiddle, upon which they were playing +with more good nature than skill. They were followed by the bridegroom +and grooms-man, and in the rear were a number of young men in their +holiday clothes. These having taken their places, soft music was heard +from the left; and from a recess in the pines, three maidens in white, +with baskets of wild flowers on the left arm, came forth, strewing the +flowers on the ground, and singing a song, of which I remember only the +chorus: + + "Lead the bride to Hymen's bowers, + Strew her path with choicest flowers." + +The bride and bridesmaid followed, and after them came several lasses in +gala dresses. These having taken their places, the father of the bride +arose, and taking his daughter's hand and placing it in that of +Clifford, gave them his blessing. The Governor soon united them in the +bonds of holy matrimony, and as he ended the ceremony with saying, "What +God hath joined let no man put asunder," he heartily saluted the bride. +Clifford followed his example, and after him she was saluted by every +gentleman in the company. As a compensation for this "rifling of +sweets," Clifford had the privilege of kissing every lady present, and +beginning with Madame Wentworth, he saluted them all, from the +gray-headed matron, to the infant in its mother's arms. + +The cake and wine were then passed round. Being a present from Madame +Wentworth, they were no doubt excellent. After this refreshment, and +while the good matrons were cooking their peas, and making other +preparations, the young folks spent the time in playing +"blind-man's-buff," and "hide and go seek," and in singing "Jemmy and +Nancy," "Barbara Allen," "The Friar with Orders Grey," "The Lass of +Richmond Hill," "Gilderoy," and other songs which they thought were +appropriate to the occasion. + +At length the ringing of a bell announced that dinner was ready. "What, +dinner at that time of night?" perhaps some will say. But let me tell +you, good friends (in Johnny O'Lara's words), that "the best time for a +wedding dinner, is when it is well cooked, and the guests are ready to +eat it." The company were soon arranged around the rude tables, which +were rough boards, laid across poles that were supported by crotched +stakes driven into the ground. But it matters not what the tables were, +as they were covered with cloth white as the driven snow, and well +loaded with plum puddings, baked lamb, and green peas, with all +necessary accompaniments for a well ordered dinner, which the guests +complimented in the best possible manner, that is, by making a hearty +meal. + +Dinner being ended, while the matrons were putting all things to rights, +the young people made preparation for dancing; and a joyous time they +had. The music and amusement continued until the "blushing morn" +reminded the good people that it was time to separate. The rising sun +had gilded the sides of the opposite mountains, which were sending up +their exhalations, before the company were all on their way to their +respective homes. Long did they remember the first wedding in our town. +Even after the frost of seventy winters had whitened the heads of those +who were then boys, they delighted to dwell on the merry scenes of that +joyful night; and from that time to the present, weddings have been +fashionable in Salmagundi, although they are not always celebrated in +quite so romantic a manner. + + TABITHA. + + + + +"BLESS, AND CURSE NOT." + + +The Athenians were proud of their glory. Their boasted city claimed +pre-eminence in the arts and sciences; even the savage bowed before the +eloquence of their soul-stirring orators; and the bards of every nation +sang of the glory of Athens. + +But pre-eminent as they were, they had not learned to be merciful. The +pure precepts of kindness and love were not taught by their sages; and +their noble orators forgot to inculcate the humble precepts of +forgiveness, and the "charity which hopeth all things." They told of +patriotism, of freedom, and of that courage which chastises wrong or +injury with physical suffering; but they told not of that nobler spirit +which "renders good for evil," and "blesses, but curses not." + +Alcibiades, one of their own countrymen, offended against their laws, +and was condemned to expiate the offence with his life. The civil +authorities ordered his goods to be confiscated, that their value might +swell the riches of the public treasury; and everything that pertained +to him, in the way of citizenship, was obliterated from the public +records. To render his doom more dreary and miserable,--to add weight to +the fearful fulness of his sentence,--the priests and priestesses were +commanded to pronounce upon him their curse. One of them, however, a +being gentle and good as the principles of mercy which dwelt within her +heart--timid as the sweet songsters of her own myrrh and orange groves, +and as fair as the acacia-blossom of her own bower--rendered courageous +by the all-stimulating and powerful influence of kindness, dared alone +to assert the divinity of her office, by refusing to curse her +unfortunate fellow-being--asserting that she was "PRIESTESS TO BLESS, +AND NOT TO CURSE." + + LISETTA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +ANCIENT POETRY. + + +I love old poetry, with its obscure expressions, its obsolete words, its +quaint measure, and rough rhyme. I love it with all these, perhaps _for_ +these. It is because it is different from modern poetry, and not that I +think it better, that it at times affords me pleasure. But when one has +been indulging in the perusal of the smooth and elegant productions of +later poets, there is at least the charm of variety in turning to those +of ancient bards. This is pleasant to those who love to exercise the +imagination--for if we would understand our author, we must go back into +olden times; we must look upon the countenances and enter into the +feelings of a long-buried generation; we must remember that much of what +we know was then unknown, and that thoughts and sentiments which may +have become common to us, glowed upon these pages in all their primal +beauty. Much of which our writer may speak has now been wholly lost; and +difficult, if not impossible, to be understood are many of his +expressions and allusions. + +But these difficulties present a "delightful task" to those who would +rather push on through a tangled labyrinth, than to walk with ease in a +smooth-rolled path. Their self-esteem is gratified by being able to +discover beauty where other eyes behold but deformity: and a brilliant +thought or glowing image is rendered to them still more beautiful, +because it shines through a veil impenetrable to other eyes. They are +proud of their ability to perceive this beauty, or understand that +oddity, and they care not for the mental labor which they have been +obliged to perform. + +When I turn from modern poetry to that of other days, it is like leaving +bright flowery fields to enter a dark tangled forest. The air is cooler, +but damp and heavy. A sombre gloom reigns throughout, occasionally +broken by flitting sunbeams, which force their way through the thick +branches which meet above me, and dance and glitter upon the dark +underwood below. They are strongly contrasted with the deep shade +around, and my eye rests upon them with more pleasure than it did upon +the broad flood of sunshine which bathes the fields without. My +searching eye at times discovers some lonely flower, half hidden by +decayed leaves and withered moss, yet blooming there in undecaying +beauty. There are briers and thistles and creeping vines around, but I +heedlessly press on, for I must enjoy the fragrance and examine the +structure of these unobtrusive plants. I enjoy all this for a while, but +at length I grow chilled and weary, and am glad to leave the forest for +a less fatiguing resort. + +But there is one kind of old poetry to which these remarks may not +apply--I mean the POETRY OF THE BIBLE.--And how much is there of this! +There are songs of joy and praise, and those of woe and lamentation; +there are odes and elegies; there are prophecies and histories; there +are descriptions of nature and narratives of persons, and all written +with a fervency of feeling which embodies itself in lofty and glowing +imagery. And what is this but poetry? yet not that which can be compared +to some dark, mazy forest, but rather like a sacred grove, such as "were +God's first temples." There is no gloom around, neither is there bright +sunshine; but a calm and holy light pervades the place. The tall trees +meet not above me, but through their lofty boughs I can look up and see +the blue heavens bending their perfect dome above the hallowed spot, +while now and then some fleecy cloud sails slowly on, as though it loved +to shadow the still loneliness beneath. There are soft winds murmuring +through the high tree-tops, and their gentle sound is like a voice from +the spirit-land. There are delicate white flowers waving upon their +slight stems, and their sweet fragrance is like the breath of heaven. I +feel that I am in God's temple. The Spirit above waits for the +sacrifice. I can now erect an altar, and every selfish worldly thought +should be laid thereon, a free-will offering. But when the rite is over, +and I leave this consecrated spot for the busy path of life, I should +strive to bear into the world a heart baptized in the love of beauty, +holiness, and truth. + +I have spoken figuratively--perhaps too much so to please the pure and +simple tastes of some--but He who made my soul and placed it in the body +which it animates, implanted within it a love of the beautiful in +literature, and this love was first awakened and then cherished by the +words of Holy Writ. + +I have, when a child, read my Bible, from its earliest book to its +latest. I have gone in imagination to the plains of Uz, and have there +beheld the pastoral prince in all his pride and glory. I have marked +him; too, when in the depth of his sorrow he sat speechless upon the +ground for seven days and seven nights; but when he opened his mouth and +spake, I listened with eagerness to the heart-stirring words and +startling imagery which poured forth from his burning lips! But my heart +has thrilled with a delightful awe when "the Lord answered Job out of +the whirlwind," and I listened to words of more simplicity than +uninspired man may ever conceive. + +I have gone, too, with the beloved disciple into that lonely isle where +he beheld those things of which he was commanded to write. My +imagination dared not conceive of the glorious throne, and of Him who +sat upon it; but I have looked with a throbbing delight upon the New +Jerusalem coming down from heaven in her clear crystal light, "as a +bride adorned for her husband." I have gazed upon the golden city, +flashing like "transparent glass," and have marked its pearly gates and +walls of every precious stone. In imagination have I looked upon all +this, till my young spirit longed to leave its earthly tenement and soar +upward to that brighter world, where there is no need of sun or moon, +for "the Lamb is the light thereof." + +I have since read my Bible for better purposes than the indulgence of +taste. There must I go to learn my duty to God and my neighbor. There +should I look for precepts to direct the life that now is, and for the +promise of that which is to come; yet seldom do I close that sacred +volume without a feeling of thankfulness, that the truths of our holy +religion have been so often presented in forms which not only reason and +conscience will approve, but also which the fancy can admire and the +heart must love. + + ELLA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF DISCONTENT. + + +"I will not stay in Lowell any longer; I am determined to give my notice +this very day," said Ellen Collins, as the earliest bell was tolling to +remind us of the hour for labor. + +"Why, what is the matter, Ellen? It seems to me you have dreamed out a +new idea! Where do you think of going? and what for?" + +"I am going home, where I shall not be obliged to rise so early in the +morning, nor be dragged about by the ringing of a bell, nor confined in +a close noisy room from morning till night. I will not stay here; I am +determined to go home in a fortnight." + +Such was our brief morning's conversation. + +In the evening, as I sat alone, reading, my companions having gone out +to public lectures or social meetings, Ellen entered. I saw that she +still wore the same gloomy expression of countenance, which had been +manifested in the morning; and I was disposed to remove from her mind +the evil influence, by a plain common-sense conversation. + +"And so, Ellen," said I, "you think it unpleasant to rise so early in +the morning, and be confined in the noisy mill so many hours during the +day. And I think so, too. All this, and much more, is very annoying, no +doubt. But we must not forget that there are advantages, as well as +disadvantages, in this employment, as in every other. If we expect to +find all sunshine and flowers in any station in life, we shall most +surely be disappointed. We are very busily engaged during the day; but +then we have the evening to ourselves, with no one to dictate to or +control us. I have frequently heard you say, that you would not be +confined to household duties, and that you dislike the millinery +business altogether, because you could not have your evenings for +leisure. You know that in Lowell we have schools, lectures, and meetings +of every description, for moral and intellectual improvement." + +"All that is very true," replied Ellen, "but if we were to attend every +public institution, and every evening school which offers itself for our +improvement, we might spend every farthing of our earnings, and even +more. Then if sickness should overtake us, what are the probable +consequences? Here we are, far from kindred and home; and if we have an +empty purse, we shall be destitute of _friends_ also." + +"I do not think so, Ellen. I believe there is no place where there are +so many advantages within the reach of the laboring class of people, as +exist here; where there is so much equality, so few aristocratic +distinctions, and such good fellowship, as may be found in this +community. A person has only to be honest, industrious, and moral, to +secure the respect of the virtuous and good, though he may not be worth +a dollar; while on the other hand, an immoral person, though he should +possess wealth, is not respected." + +"As to the morality of the place," returned Ellen, "I have no fault to +find. I object to the constant hurry of everything. We cannot have time +to eat, drink, or sleep; we have only thirty minutes, or at most +three-quarters of an hour, allowed us, to go from our work, partake of +our food, and return to the noisy chatter of machinery. Up before day, +at the clang of the bell--and out of the mill by the clang of the +bell--into the mill, and at work, in obedience to that ding-dong of a +bell--just as though we were so many living machines. I will give my +notice to-morrow: go, I will--I won't stay here and be a white slave." + +"Ellen," said I, "do you remember what is said of the bee, that it +gathers honey even in a poisonous flower? May we not, in like manner, if +our hearts are rightly attuned, find many pleasures connected with our +employment? Why is it, then, that you so obstinately look altogether on +the dark side of a factory life? I think you thought differently while +you were at home, on a visit, last summer--for you were glad to come +back to the mill in less than four weeks. Tell me, now--why were you so +glad to return to the ringing of the bell, the clatter of the machinery, +the early rising, the half-hour dinner, and so on?" + +I saw that my discontented friend was not in a humor to give me an +answer--and I therefore went on with my talk. + +"You are fully aware, Ellen, that a country life does not exclude people +from labor--to say nothing of the inferior privileges of attending +public worship--that people have often to go a distance to meeting of +any kind--that books cannot be so easily obtained as they can here--that +you cannot always have just such society as you wish--that you"-- + +She interrupted me, by saying, "We have no bell, with its everlasting +ding-dong." + +"What difference does it make?" said I, "whether you shall be awakened +by a bell, or the noisy bustle of a farm-house? For, you know, farmers +are generally up as early in the morning as we are obliged to rise." + +"But then," said Ellen, "country people have none of the clattering of +machinery constantly dinning in their ears." + +"True," I replied, "but they have what is worse--and that is, a dull, +lifeless silence all around them. The hens may cackle sometimes, and the +geese gabble, and the pigs squeal"---- + +Ellen's hearty laugh interrupted my description--and presently we +proceeded, very pleasantly, to compare a country life with a factory +life in Lowell. Her scowl of discontent had departed, and she was +prepared to consider the subject candidly. We agreed, that since we must +work for a living, the mill, all things considered, is the most +pleasant, and best calculated to promote our welfare; that we will work +diligently during the hours of labor; improve our leisure to the best +advantage, in the cultivation of the mind,--hoping thereby not only to +increase our own pleasure, but also to add to the happiness of those +around us. + + ALMIRA. + + + + +THE WHORTLEBERRY EXCURSION. + + +About a dozen of us, lads and lasses, had promised friend H. that on the +first lowery day we would meet him and his family on the top of Moose +Mountain, for the purpose of picking whortleberries, and of taking a +view of the country around. We had provided the customary complement of +baskets, pails, dippers, &c.; and one morning, which promised a suitable +day for our excursion, we piled ourselves into a couple of waggons, and +rode to the foot of the mountain and commenced climbing it on foot. A +beaten path and spotted trees were our guides. A toilsome way we found +it--some places being so steep that we were obliged to hold by the +twigs, to prevent us from falling. + +Three-quarters of an hour after we left our horses, we found ourselves +on the whortleberry ground--some of us singing, some chatting, and all +trying to see who could pick the most berries. Friend H. went from place +to place among the young people, and with his social conversation gave +new life to the party--while his chubby boys and rosy girls by their +nimbleness plainly told that they did not intend that any one should +beat them in picking berries. + +Towards noon, friend H. conducted us to a spring, where we made some +lemonade, having taken care to bring plenty of lemons and sugar with us, +and also bread and cheese for a lunch. Seated beneath a wide-spreading +oak, we partook of our homely repast; and never in princely hall were +the choicest viands eaten with a keener relish. After resting a while, +we recommenced picking berries, and in a brief space our pails and +baskets were all full. + +About this time, the clouds cleared away, the sun shone out in all the +splendor imaginable, and bright and beautiful was the prospect. Far as +the eye could reach, in a north and north-easterly direction, were to be +seen fields of corn and grain, with new mown grass-land, and potato +flats, farm-houses, barns, and orchards--together with a suitable +proportion of wood-land, all beautifully interspersed; and a number of +ponds of water, in different places, and of different forms and +sizes--some of them containing small islands, which added to the beauty +of the scenery. The little village at Wakefield corner, which was about +three miles distant, seemed to be almost under our feet; and with friend +H.'s spy-glass, we could see the people at work in their gardens, +weeding vegetables, picking cherries, gathering flowers, &c. But not one +of our number had the faculty that the old lady possessed, who, in the +time of the Revolution, in looking through a spy-glass at the French +fleet, brought the Frenchmen so near, that she could hear them chatter; +so we had to be content with ignorance of their conversation. + +South-westerly might be seen Cropple-crown Mountain; and beyond it, +Merry-meeting Pond, where, I have been told, Elder Randall, the father +of the Free-will Baptist denomination, first administered the ordinance +of Baptism. West, might be seen Tumble-down-dick Mountain; and north, +the Ossipee Mountains; and far north, might be seen the White Mountains +of New Hampshire, whose snow-crowned summits seemed to reach the very +skies. + +The prospect in the other directions was not so grand, although it was +beautiful--so I will leave it, and take the shortest route, with my +companions, with the baskets and pails of berries, to the house of +friend H. On our way, we stopped to view the lot of rock maples, which, +with some little labor, afforded a sufficient supply of sugar for the +family of friend H., and we promised that in the season of sugar-making +the next spring, we would make it convenient to visit the place, and +witness the process of making maple-sugar. + +Our descent from the mountain was by a different path--our friends +having assured us, that although our route would be farther, we should +find it more pleasant; and truly we did--for the pathway was not so +rough as the one in which we travelled in the morning. And besides, we +had the pleasure of walking over the farm of the good Quaker, and of +hearing from his own lips many interesting circumstances of his life. + +The country, he told us, was quite a wilderness when he first took up +his abode on the mountain; and bears, he said, were as plenty as +woodchucks, and destroyed much of his corn. He was a bachelor, and lived +alone for a number of years after he first engaged in clearing his land. +His habitation was between two huge rocks, at about seventy rods from +the place where he afterwards built his house.--He showed us this +ancient abode of his; it was in the midst of an old orchard. It appeared +as if the rocks had been originally one; but by some convulsion of +nature it had been sundered, midway, from top to bottom. The back part +of this dwelling was a rock wall, in which there was a fire-place and an +oven. The front was built of logs, with an aperture for a door-way; and +the roof was made of saplings and bark. In this rude dwelling, friend H. +dressed his food, and ate it; and here, on a bed of straw, he spent his +lonely nights. A small window in the rock wall admitted the light by +day; and by night, his solitary dwelling was illuminated with a +pitch-pine torch. + +On being interrogated respecting the cause of his living alone so long +as he did, he made answer, by giving us to understand, that if he was +called "the bear," he was not so much of a brute as to marry until he +could give his wife a comfortable maintenance; "and moreover, I was +resolved," said he, "that Hannah should never have the least cause to +repent of the ready decision which she made in my favor." "Then," said +one of our company, "your wife was not afraid to trust herself with the +bear?" "She did not hesitate in the least," said friend H.; "for when I +'popped the question,' by saying, 'Hannah, will thee have me?' she +readily answered, 'Yes, To----;' she would have said, 'Tobias, I will;' +but the words died on her lips, and her face, which blushed like the +rose, became deadly pale; and she would have fallen on the floor, had I +not caught her in my arms. After Hannah got over her faintness, I told +her that we had better not marry, until I was in a better way of living; +to which she also agreed. And," said he, "before I brought home my bird, +I had built yonder cage"--pointing to his house; "and now, neighbors, +let us hasten to it; for Hannah will have her tea ready by the time we +get there." When we arrived at the house we found that tea was ready; +and the amiable Mrs. H., the wife of the good Quaker, was waiting for +us, with all imaginable patience. + +The room in which we took tea was remarkably neat. The white floor was +nicely sanded, and the fire-place filled with pine-tops and rose-bushes; +and vases of roses were standing on the mantel-piece. The table was +covered with a cloth of snowy whiteness, and loaded with delicacies; and +here and there stood a little China vase, filled with white and damask +roses. + +"So-ho!" said the saucy Henry L., upon entering the room; "I thought +that you Quakers were averse to every species of decoration; but see! +here is a whole flower-garden!" Friend H. smiled and said, "the rose is +a favorite with Hannah; and then it is like her, with one exception." +"And what is that exception?" said Henry.--"Oh," said our friend, +"Hannah has no thorns to wound." Mrs. H.'s heightened color and smile +plainly told us, that praise from her husband was "music to her ear." +After tea, we had the pleasure of promenading through the house; and +Mrs. H. showed us many articles of domestic manufacture, being the work +of her own and her daughters' hands. The articles consisted of sheets, +pillow-cases, bed-quilts, coverlets of various colors, and woven in +different patterns,--such as chariot wheels, rose-of-sharon, ladies' +delight, federal constitution--and other patterns, the names of which I +have forgotten. The white bed-spreads and the table-covers, which were +inspected by us, were equal, if not superior, to those of English +manufacture; in short, all that we saw proclaimed that order and +industry had an abiding place in the house of friend H. + +Mrs. H. and myself seated ourselves by a window which overlooked a young +and thrifty orchard. A flock of sheep were grazing among the trees, and +their lambs were gambolling from place to place. "This orchard is more +beautiful than your other," said I; "but I do not suppose it contains +anything so dear to the memory of friend H. as his old habitation." She +pointed to a knoll, where was a small enclosure, and which I had not +before observed. "There," said she, "is a spot more dear to Tobias; for +there sleep our children." "Your cup has then been mingled with sorrow?" +said I. "But," replied she, "we do not sorrow without hope; for their +departure was calm as the setting of yonder sun, which is just sinking +from sight; and we trust that we shall meet them in a fairer world, +never to part." A tear trickled down the cheek of Mrs. H., but she +instantly wiped it away, and changed the conversation. Friend H. came +and took a seat beside us, and joined in the conversation, which, with +his assistance, became animated and amusing. + +Here, thought I, dwell a couple, happily united. Friend H., though rough +in his exterior, nevertheless possesses a kindly affectionate heart; and +he has a wife whose price is above rubies. + +The saucy Henry soon came to the door, and bawled out, "The stage is +ready." We obeyed the summons, and found that Henry and friend H.'s son +had been for our vehicles. We were again piled into the waggons--pails, +baskets, whortleberries, and all; and with many hearty shakes of the +hand, and many kind farewells, we bade adieu to the family of friend H., +but not without renewing the promise, that, in the next sugar-making +season, we would revisit Moose Mountain. + + JEMIMA. + + + + +THE WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. + + +In the valley of the Mississippi, and the more southern parts of North +America, are found antique curiosities and works of art, bearing the +impress of cultivated intelligence. But of the race, or people, who +executed them, time has left no vestige of their existence, save these +monuments of their skill and knowledge. Not even a tradition whispers +its _guess-work_, who they might be. We only know _they were_. + +What proof and evidence do we gather from their remains, which have +withstood the test of time, of their origin and probable era of their +existence? That they existed centuries ago, is evident from the size +which forest trees have attained, which grow upon the mounds and +fortifications discovered. That they were civilized and understood the +arts, is apparent from the manner of laying out and erecting their +fortifications, and from various utensils of gold, copper, and iron +which have occasionally been found in digging below the earth's surface. +If I mistake not, I believe even glass has been found, which, if so, +shows them acquainted with chemical discoveries, which are supposed to +have been unknown until a period much later than the probable time of +their existence. That they were not the ancestors of the race which +inhabited this country at the time of its discovery by Columbus, appears +conclusive from the total ignorance of the Indian tribes of all +knowledge of arts and civilization, and the non-existence of any +tradition of their once proud sway. That they were a mighty people is +evident from the extent of territory where these antiquities are +scattered. The banks of the Ohio and Mississippi tell they once lived; +and even to the shore where the vast Pacific heaves its waves, there are +traces of their existence. Who were they? In what period of time did +they exist? + +In a cave in one of the Western States, there is carved upon the walls a +group of people, apparently in the act of devotion; and a rising sun is +sculptured above them. From this we should infer that they were Pagans, +worshipping the sun and the fabulous gods. But what most strikingly +arrests the antiquarian's observation, and causes him to repeat the +inquiry, "who were they?" is the habiliments of the group. One part of +their habit is of the Grecian costume, and the remainder is of the +Phoenicians. Were they a colony from Greece? Did they come from that +land in the days of its proud glory, bringing with them a knowledge of +arts, science, and philosophy? Did they, too, seek a home across the +western waters, because they loved liberty in a strange land better than +they loved slavery at home? Or what may be as probable, were they the +descendants of some band who managed to escape the destruction of +ill-fated Troy?--the descendants of a people who had called Greece a +mother-country, but were sacrificed to her vindictive ire, because they +were prouder to be Trojans than the descendants of Grecians? Ay, who +were they? Might not America have had its Hector, its Paris, and Helen? +its maidens who prayed, and its sons who fought? All this might have +been. But their historians and their poets alike have perished. They +_have been_; but the history of their existence, their origin, and their +destruction, all, all are hidden by the dark chaos of oblivion. +Imagination alone, from inanimate landmarks, voiceless walls, and +soulless bodies, must weave the record which shall tell of their lives, +their aims, origin, and final extinction. + +Recently, report says, in Mexico there have been discovered several +mummies, embalmed after the manner of the ancient Egyptians. If true, it +carries the origin of this fated people still farther back; and we might +claim them to be contemporaries with Moses and Joshua. Still, if I form +my conclusions correctly from what descriptions I have perused of these +Western relics of the past, I should decide that they corresponded +better with the ancient Grecians, Phoenicians, or Trojans, than with the +Egyptians. I repeat, I may be incorrect in my premises and deductions, +but as imagination is their historian, it pleases me better to fill a +world with heroes and beauties of Homer's delineations, than with those +of "Pharaoh and his host." + + LISETTE. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +THE FIG-TREE. + + +It was a cold winter's evening. The snow had fallen lightly, and each +tree and shrub was bending beneath its glittering burden. Here and there +was one, with the moonbeams gleaming brightly upon it, until it seemed, +with its many branches, touched by the ice-spirit, or some fairy-like +creation, in its loveliness and beauty. Every thing was hushed in +Dridonville. + +Situated at a little distance, was a large white house, surrounded with +elm-trees, in the rear of which, upon an eminence, stood a summer-house; +and in the warm season might have been seen many a gay lady reclining +beneath its vine-covered roof. No pains had been spared to make the +situation desirable. It was the summer residence of Captain Wilson. But +it was now mid-winter, and yet he lingered in the country. Many were the +questions addressed by the villagers to the old gardener, who had grown +grey in the captain's service, as to the cause of the long delay; but he +could not, or would not, answer their inquiries. + +The shutters were closed, the fire burning cheerfully, and the astral +lamp throwing its soft mellow light upon the crimson drapery and rich +furniture of one of the parlors. In a large easy chair was seated a +gentleman, who was between fifty and sixty years of age. He was in deep +and anxious thought; and ever and anon his lip curled, as if some bitter +feeling was in his heart. Standing near him was a young man. His brow +was open and serene; his forehead high and expansive; and his eyes +beamed with an expression of benevolence and mildness. His lips were +firmly compressed, denoting energy and decision of character. + +"You may be seated," said Capt. Wilson, for it was he who occupied the +large chair, the young man being his only son. "You may be seated, +Augustus," and he cast upon him a look of mingled pride and scorn. The +young man bowed profoundly, and took a seat opposite his father. There +was a long pause, and the father was first to break silence. "So you +intend to marry a beggar, and suffer the consequences. But do you think +your love will stand the test of poverty, and the sneer of the world? +for I repeat, that not one farthing of my money shall you receive, +unless you comply with the promise which I long since made to my old +friend, that our families should be united. She will inherit his vast +possessions, as there is no other heir. True, she is a few years your +senior; but that is of no importance. Your mother is older than I am. +But I have told you all this before. Consider well ere you choose +between wealth and poverty." + +"Would that I could conscientiously comply with your request," replied +Augustus, "but I have promised to be protector and friend to Emily +Summerville. She is not rich in this world's goods; but she has what is +far preferable--a contented mind; and you will allow that, in point of +education, she will compare even with Miss Clarkson." In a firm voice he +continued, "I have made my choice, I shall marry Emily;" and he was +about to proceed, but his father stamped his foot, and commanded him to +quit his presence. He left the house, and as he walked rapidly towards +Mr. Grant's, the uncle of Miss Summerville, he thought how unstable were +all earthly possessions, "and why," he exclaimed, "why should I make +myself miserable for a little paltry gold? It may wound my pride at +first to meet my gay associates; but that will soon pass away, and my +father will see that I can provide for my own wants." + +Emily Summerville was the daughter of a British officer, who for many +years resided in the pleasant village of Dridonville. He was much +beloved by the good people for his activity and benevolence. He built +the cottage occupied by Mr. Grant. On account of its singular +construction, it bore the name of the "English cottage." After his death +it was sold, and Mr. Grant became the purchaser. There Emily had spent +her childhood. On the evening before alluded to, she was in their little +parlor, one corner of which was occupied by a large fig-tree. On a stand +were geraniums, rose-bushes, the African lily, and many other plants. At +a small table sat Emily, busily engaged with her needle, when the old +servant announced Mr. Wilson. "Oh, Augustus, how glad I am you are +come!" she exclaimed, as she sprung from her seat to meet him; "but you +look sad and weary," she added, as she seated herself by his side, and +gazed inquiringly into his face, the mirror of his heart. "What has +happened? you look perplexed." + +"Nothing more than I have expected for a long time," was the reply; and +it was with heartfelt satisfaction that he gazed on the fair creature by +his side, and thought she would be a star to guide him in the way of +virtue. He told her all. And then he explained to her the path he had +marked out for himself. "I must leave you for a time, and engage in the +noise and excitement of my profession. It will not be long, if I am +successful. I must claim one promise from you, that is, that you will +write often, for that will be the only pleasure I shall have to cheer me +in my absence." + +She did promise; and when they separated at a late hour, they dreamed +not that it was their last meeting on earth. + + * * * * * + +"Oh, uncle," said Emily, as they entered the parlor together one +morning, "do look at my fig-tree; how beautiful it is. If it continues +to grow as fast as it has done, I can soon sit under its branches." "It +is really pretty," replied her uncle; and he continued, laughing and +patting her cheek, "you must cherish it with great care, as it was a +present from ---- now don't blush; I do not intend to speak his name, +but was merely about to observe, that it might be now as in olden times, +that as _he_ prospers, the tree will flourish; if he is sick, or in +trouble, it will decay." + +"If such are your sentiments," said Emily, "you will acknowledge that +thus far his path has been strewed with flowers." + +Many months passed away, and there was indeed a change. The tree that +had before looked so green, had gradually decayed, until nothing was +left but the dry branches. But she was not superstitious: "It might be," +she said, "that she had killed it with kindness." Her uncle never +alluded to the remark he had formerly made; but Emily often thought +there might be some truth in it. She had received but one letter from +Augustus, though she had written many. + +Summer had passed, and autumn was losing itself in winter. Augustus +Wilson was alone in the solitude of his chamber.--There was a hectic +flush upon his cheek, and the low hollow cough told that consumption was +busy. Was that the talented Augustus Wilson? he whose thrilling +eloquence had sounded far and wide? His eyes were riveted upon a +withered rose. It was given him by Emily, on the eve of his departure, +with these words, "Such as I am, receive me. Would I were of more worth, +for your sake." + +"No," he musingly said; "it is not possible she has forgotten me. I will +not, cannot believe it." He arose, and walked the room with hurried +steps, and a smile passed over his face, as he held communion with the +bright images of the past. He threw himself upon his couch, but sleep +was a stranger to his weary frame. + +Three weeks quickly passed, and Augustus Wilson lay upon his death-bed. +Calm and sweet was his slumber, as the spirit took its flight to the +better land. And O, it was a sad thing to see that father, with the +frost of many winters upon his head, bending low over his son, +entreating him to speak once more; but all was silent. He was not there; +nought remained but the beautiful casket; the jewel which had adorned it +was gone. And deep was the grief of the mother; but, unlike her husband, +she felt she had done all she could to brighten her son's pathway in +life. She knew not to what extent Capt. W. had been guilty. + +Augustus was buried in all the pomp and splendor that wealth could +command. The wretched father thought in this way to blind the eyes of +the world. But he could not deceive himself. It was but a short time +before he was laid beside his son at Mount Auburn. Several letters were +found among his papers, but they had not been opened. Probably he +thought that by detaining them, he should induce his son to marry the +rich Miss Clarkson, instead of the poor Emily Summerville. + + * * * * * + +Emily Summerville firmly stood amidst the desolation that had withered +all her bright hopes in life. She had followed her almost idolized uncle +to the grave; she had seen the cottage, and all the familiar objects +connected with her earliest recollections, pass into the hands of +strangers; but there was not a sigh, nor a quiver of the lip, to tell of +the anguish within. She knew not that Augustus Wilson had entered the +spirit-land, until she saw the record of his death in a Boston paper. +"O, if he had only sent me one word," she said; "even if it had been to +tell me that I was remembered no more, it would have been preferable to +this." The light which had shone so brightly on her pathway was +withdrawn, and the darkness of night closed around her. + +Long and fearful was the struggle between life and death; but when she +arose from that sick bed, it was with a chastened spirit. "I am young," +she thought, "and I may yet do much good." And when she again mingled in +society, it was with a peace that the world could neither give nor take +away. + +She bade adieu to her native village, and has taken up her abode in +Lowell. She is one of the class called "factory girls." She recently +received the letters intercepted by Capt. Wilson, and the melancholy +pleasure of perusing them is hallowed by the remembrance of him who is +"gone, but not lost." + + IONE. + + + + +VILLAGE PASTORS. + + +The old village pastor of New England was "a man having authority." His +deacons were _under_ him, and not, as is now often the case, his +tyrannical rulers; and whenever his parishioners met him, they doffed +their hats, and said "Your Reverence." Whatever passed his lips was both +law and gospel; and when too old and infirm to minister to his charge, +he was not turned away, like an old worn-out beast, to die of hunger, or +gather up, with failing strength, the coarse bit which might eke out a +little longer his remaining days; but he was still treated with all the +deference, and supported with all the munificence which was believed due +to him whom they regarded as "God's vicegerent upon earth." He deemed +himself, and was considered by his parishioners, if not infallible, yet +something approaching it. Those were indeed the days of glory for New +England clergymen. + +Perhaps I am wrong. The present pastor of New England, with his more +humble mien and conciliatory tone, his closer application and untiring +activity, may be, in a wider sphere, as truly glorious an object of +contemplation. Many are the toils, plans and enterprises entrusted to +him, which in former days were not permitted to interfere with the +duties exclusively appertaining to the holy vocation; yet with added +labors, the modern pastor receives neither added honors, nor added +remuneration. Perhaps it is well--nay, perhaps it is _better_; but I am +confident that if the old pastor could return, and take a bird's-eye +view of the situations of his successors, he would exclaim, "How has the +glory departed from Israel, and how have they cast down the sons of +Levi!" + +I have been led to these reflections by a contemplation of the +characters of the first three occupants of the pulpit in my native +village. + +Our old pastor was settled, as all then were, for life. I can remember +him but in his declining years, yet even then was he a hale and vigorous +old man. Honored and beloved by all his flock, his days passed +undisturbed by the storms and tempests which have since then so often +darkened and disturbed the theological world. The opinions and creeds, +handed down by his Pilgrim Fathers, he carefully cherished, neither +adding thereto, nor taking therefrom; and he indoctrinated the young in +all the mysteries of the true faith, with an undoubting belief in its +infallibility. There was much of the patriarch in his look and manner; +and this was heightened by the nature of his avocations, in which +pastoral labors were mingled with clerical duties. No farm was in better +order than that of the parsonage; no fields looked more thriving, and no +flocks were more profitable than were those of the good clergyman. +Indeed he sometimes almost forgot his spiritual field, in the culture of +that which was more earthly. + +One Saturday afternoon the minister was very busily engaged in +hay-making. His good wife had observed that during the week he had been +unusually engrossed in temporal affairs, and feared for the well-being +of his flock, as she saw that he could not break the earthly spell, even +upon this last day of the week. She looked, and looked in vain for his +return; until, finding him wholly lost to a sense of his higher duties, +she deemed it her duty to remind him of them. So away she went to the +haying field, and when she was in sight of the reverend haymaker, she +screamed out, "Mr. W., Mr. W." + +"What, my dear?" shouted Mr. W. in return. + +"Do you intend to feed your people with hay to-morrow?" + +This was a poser--and Mr. W. dropped his rake; and, repairing to his +study, spent the rest of the day in the preparation of food more meat +for those who looked so trustfully to him for the bread of life. + +His faithful companion was taken from him, and those who knew of his +strong and refined attachment to her, said truly, when they prophesied, +that he would never marry again. + +She left one son--their only child--a boy of noble feelings and superior +intellect; and his father carefully educated him with a fond wish that +he would one day succeed him in the sacred office of a minister of God. +He hoped indeed that he might even fill the very pulpit which he must at +some time vacate; and he prayed that his own life might be spared until +this hope had been realized. + +Endicott W. was also looked upon as their future pastor by many of the +good parishioners; and never did a more pure and gentle spirit take upon +himself the task of preparing to minister to a people in holy things. He +was the beloved of his father, the only child who had ever blessed +him--for he had not married till late in life, and the warm affections +which had been so tardily bestowed upon one of the gentler sex, were now +with an unusual fervor lavished upon this image of her who was gone. + +When Endicott W. returned home, having completed his studies at the +University, he was requested by our parish to settle as associate pastor +with his father, whose failing strength was unequal to the regular +discharge of his parochial duties. It was indeed a beautiful sight to +see that old man, with bending form and silvery locks, joining in the +public ministrations with his young and gifted son--the one with a calm +expression of trusting faith; the countenance of the other beaming with +that of enthusiasm and hope. + +Endicott was ambitious. He longed to see his own name placed in the +bright constellation of famed theologians; and though he knew that years +must be spent in toil for the attainment of that object, he was willing +that they should be thus devoted. The midnight lamp constantly witnessed +the devotions of Endicott W. at the shrine of science; and the wasting +form and fading cheek told what would be the fate of the infatuated +worshipper. + +It was long before our young pastor, his aged father, and the idolizing +people, who were so proud of his talents, and such admirers of his +virtues,--it was long ere these could be made to believe he was dying; +but Endicott W. departed from life, as a bright cloud fades away in a +noon-day sky--for his calm exit was surrounded by all which makes a +death-bed glorious. His aged father said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord +hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." And then he went +again before his flock, and endeavored to reconcile them to their loss, +and dispense again the comforts and blessings of the gospel, trusting +that his strength would still be spared, until one, who was even then +preparing, should be ready to take his place. + + * * * * * + +Shall I tell you now of my own home? It was a rude farm-house, almost +embowered by ancient trees, which covered the sloping hill-side on which +it was situated; and it looked like an old pilgrim, who had crawled into +the thicket to rest his limbs, and hide his poverty. My parents were +poor, toiling, care-worn beings, and in a hard struggle for the comforts +of this life had almost forgotten to prepare for that which is to come. +It is true, the outward ordinances of religion were never neglected; but +the spirit, the feeling, the interest, in short all that is truly +deserving the name of piety, was wanting. My father toiled through the +burning heat of summer, and the biting frost of winter, for his loved +ones; and my mother also labored, from the first dawn of day till a late +hour at night in behalf of her family. She was true to her duties as +wife and mother, but it was from no higher motive than the instincts +which prompt the fowls of the air to cherish their brood; and though she +perhaps did not believe that "labor was the end of life," still her +conduct would have given birth to that supposition. + +I had been for some time the youngest of the family, when a little +brother was born. He was warmly welcomed by us, though we had long +believed the family circle complete.--We were not then aware at how dear +a price the little stranger was to be purchased. From the moment of his +birth, my mother never knew an hour of perfect health. She had +previously injured her constitution by unmitigated toil, and now were +the effects to be more sensibly felt. She lived very many years; but it +was the life of an invalid. + +Reader, did you ever hear of the "thirty years' consumption?" a disease +at present unknown in New England--for that scourge of our climate will +now complete in a few months the destruction which it took years of +desperate struggle to perform upon the constitutions of our more hardy +ancestors. + +My mother was in such a consumption--that disorder which comes upon its +victim like the Aurorean flashes in an Arctic sky, now vivid in its pure +loveliness, and then shrouded in a sombre gloom. Now we hoped, nay, +almost believed, she was to be again quite well, and anon we watched +around a bed from which we feared she would never arise. + +It was strange to us, who had always seen her so unremitting in her +toilsome labors, and so careless in her exposure to the elements, to +watch around her now--to shield her from the lightest breeze, or the +slightest dampness of the air--to guard her from all intrusion, and +relieve her from all care--to be always reserving for her the warmest +place by the fire-side, and preparing the choicest bit of food--to be +ever ready to pillow her head and bathe her brow--in short, to be never +unconscious of the presence of disease.--Our steps grew softer, and our +voices lower, and the stillness of our manners had its influence upon +our minds. The hush was upon our spirits; and there can surely be +nothing so effectual in carrying the soul before its Maker, as disease; +and it may truly be said to every one who enters the chamber of +sickness, "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground." + +My little brother was to us an angel sent from heaven.--He possessed a +far more delicate frame and lofty intellect than any other member of the +family; and his high, pale brow, and brilliant eyes, were deemed sure +tokens of uncommon genius. My mother herself watched with pleasure these +indications of talent, although the time had been when a predilection +for literary pursuits would have been thought inconsistent with the +common duties which we were all born to fulfil. + +We had always respected the learned and talented, but it was with a +feeling akin to the veneration we felt for the inhabitants of the +spiritual world. They were far above us, and we were content to bow in +reverence. Our thoughts had been restricted to the narrow circle of +every-day duties, and our highest aspirations were to be admitted at +length, as spectators, to the glory of a material heaven, where streets +of gold and thrones of ivory form the magnificence of the place. It was +different now.--With a nearer view of that better world, to which my +mother had received her summons, came also more elevated spiritual and +blissful views of its glory and perfection. It was another heaven, for +she was another being; and she would have been willing at any moment to +have resigned the existence which she held by so frail a tenure, had it +not been for the sweet child which seemed to have been sent from that +brighter world to hasten and prepare her for departure. + +Our pastor was now a constant visitant. Hitherto he had found but little +to invite him to our humble habitation. He had been received with awe +and constraint, and the topics upon which he loved to dwell touched no +chord in the hearts of those whom he addressed. But now my mother was +anxious to pour into his ears all the new-felt sentiments and emotions +with which her heart was filled. She wished to share his sympathy, and +receive his instructions; for she felt painfully conscious of her +extreme ignorance. + +It was our pastor who first noticed in my little brother the indications +of mental superiority; and we felt then as though the magical powers of +some favored order of beings had been transferred to one in our own +home-circle; and we loved the little Winthrop (for father had named him +after the old governor) with a stronger and holier love than we had +previously felt for each other. And in these new feelings how much was +there of happiness! Though there was now less health, and of course less +wealth, in our home, yet there was also more pure joy. + +I have sometimes been out upon the barren hill-side, and thought that +there was no pleasure in standing on a spot so desolate. I have been +again in the same bare place, and there was a balmy odor in the +delicious air, which made it bliss but to inhale the fragrance. Some +spicy herb had carpeted the ground, and though too lowly and simple to +attract the eye, yet the charm it threw around the scene was not less +entrancing because so viewless and unobtrusive. + +Such was the spell shed around our lowly home by the presence of +religion. It was with us the exhalation from lowly plants, and the pure +fragrance went up the more freely because they had been bruised. In our +sickness and poverty we had joy in the present, and bright hopes for the +future. + +It was early decided that Winthrop should be a scholar.--Our pastor said +it must be so, and Endicott, who was but a few years older, assisted him +in his studies. They were very much together, and excepting in their own +families, had no other companion. But when my brother returned from the +pastor's study with a face radiant with the glow of newly-acquired +knowledge, and a heart overflowing in its desire to impart to others, he +usually went to his pale, emaciated mother to give vent to his +sensations of joy, and came to me to bestow the boon of knowledge. I was +the nearest in age. I had assisted to rear his infancy, and been his +constant companion in childhood; and now our intercourse was to be +continued and strengthened, amidst higher purposes and loftier feelings. +I was the depository of all his hopes and fears, the sharer of all his +plans for the future; and his aim was then to follow in the footsteps of +Endicott W. If he could only be as good, as kind and learned, he should +think himself one of the best of mankind. + +When Endicott became our pastor, my brother was ready to enter college, +with the determination to consecrate himself to the same high calling. +It seemed hardly like reality to us, that one of our own poor household +was to be an educated man. We felt lifted up--not with pride--for the +feeling which elevated us was too pure for that; but we esteemed +ourselves better than we had ever been before, and strove to be more +worthy of the high gift which had been bestowed upon us. When my brother +left home, it was with the knowledge that self-denial was to be +practised, for his sake, by those who remained; but he also knew that it +was to be willingly, nay, joyously performed. Still he did not know +_all_. Even things which heretofore, in our poverty, we had deemed +essential to comfort, were now resigned.--We did not even permit my +mother to know how differently the table was spread for her than for our +own frugal repast. Neither was she aware how late and painfully I toiled +to prevent the hire of additional service upon our little farm. The joy +in the secret depths of my heart was its own reward; and never yet have +I regretted an effort or a sacrifice made then. It was a discipline like +the refiner's fire, and but for my brother, I should never have been +even as, with all my imperfections, I trust I am now. + +My brother returned from college as the bright sun of Endicott W.'s +brief career was low in a western sky. He had intended to study with him +for the same vocation--and with him he _did_ prepare. O, there could +have been no more fitting place to imbue the mind with that wisdom which +cometh from above, than the sick room at our pastor's. + + "The chamber where the good man meets his fate, + Is privileged beyond the common walks of life,"-- + +and Endicott's was like the shelter of some bright spirit from the other +world, who, for the sake of those about him, was delaying for a while +his return to the home above.--My brother was with him in his latest +hours, and received as a dying bequest the charge of his people. The +parish also were anxious that he should be Endicott's successor; and in +the space requested for farther preparation, our old pastor returned to +his pulpit. + +But he had overrated his own powers; and besides, he was growing blind. +There were indeed those who said that, notwithstanding his calmness in +the presence of others, he had in secret wept his sight away; and that +while a glimmer of it remained, the curtain of his window, which +overlooked the grave-yard, had never been drawn. He ceased his labors, +but a temporary substitute was easily found--for, as old Deacon S. +remarked, "There are many ministers _now_, who are glad to go out to +day's labor." + +My mother had prayed that strength might be imparted to her feeble +frame, to retain its rejoicing inhabitant until she could see her son a +more active laborer in the Lord's vineyard; "and then," said she, "I can +depart in peace." For years she had hoped the time would come, but dared +not hope to see it. But life was graciously spared; and the day which +was to see him set apart as peculiarly a servant of his God, dawned upon +her in better health than she had known for years. Perhaps it was the +glad spirit which imparted its renewing glow to the worn body, but she +went with us that day to the service of ordination. The old church was +thronged; and as the expression of thankfulness went up from the +preacher's lips, that one so worthy was then to be dedicated to his +service, my own heart was subdued by the solemn joy that he was one of +us. My own soul was poured out in all the exercises; but when the charge +was given, there was also an awe upon all the rest. + +Our aged pastor had been led into his pulpit, that he might perform this +ceremony; and when he arose with his silvery locks, thinned even since +he stood there last, and raised his sightless eyes to heaven, I freely +wept. He was in that pulpit where he had stood so many years, to warn, +to guide, and to console; and probably each familiar face was then +presented to his imagination. He was where his dear departed son had +exercised the ministerial functions, and the same part of the service +which he had performed at his ordination, he was to enact again for his +successor. The blind old man raised his trembling hand, and laid it upon +the head of the young candidate; and as the memories of the past came +rushing over him, he burst forth in a strain of heart-stirring +eloquence. There was not a tearless eye in the vast congregation; and +the remembrance of that hour had doubtless a hallowing influence upon +the young pastor's life. + +My brother was settled for five years, and as we departed from the +church, I heard Deacon S. exclaim, in his bitterness against modern +degeneracy in spiritual things, that "the old pastor was settled _for +life_." "So is the new one," said a low voice in reply; and for the +first time the idea was presented to my mind that Winthrop was to be, +like Endicott W., one of the early called. + +But the impression departed in my constant intercourse with him in his +home--for our lowly dwelling was still the abode of the new pastor. He +would never remove from it while his mother lived, and an apartment was +prepared for him adjoining hers. They were pleasant rooms, for during +the few past years he had done much to beautify the place, and the +shrubs which he had planted were already at their growth. The thick +vines also which had struggled over the building, were now gracefully +twined around the windows, and some of the old trees cut down, that we +might be allowed a prospect. Still all that could conduce to beauty was +retained; and I have often thought how easily and cheaply the votary of +true taste can enjoy its pleasures. + +Winthrop was now so constantly active and cheerful, that I could not +think of death as connected with him. But I knew that he was feeble, and +watched and cherished him, as I had done when he was but a little child. +Though in these respects his guardian, in others I was his pupil. I sat +before him, as Mary did at the Messiah's feet, and gladly received his +instructions. My heart went out with him in all the various functions of +his calling. I often went with him to the bed-side of the sick, and to +the habitations of the wretched. None knew better than he did, how to +still the throbbings of the wrung heart, and administer consolation. + +I was present also, when, for the first time, he sprinkled an infant's +brow with the waters of consecration; and when he had blessed the babe, +he also prayed that we might all become even as that little child. I was +with him, too, when for the first time he joined in holy bands, those +whom none but God should ever put asunder; and if the remembrance of the +fervent petition which went up for them, has dwelt as vividly in their +hearts as it has in mine, that prayer must have had a holy influence +upon their lives. + +I have said that I remember his first baptism and wedding; but none who +were present will forget his first funeral. It was our mother's. She had +lived so much beyond our expectations, and been so graciously permitted +to witness the fulfilment of her dearest hope, that when at length the +spirit winged its flight, we all joined in the thanksgiving which went +up from the lips of her latest-born, that she had been spared so long. + +It was a beautiful Sabbath--that day appointed for her funeral--but in +the morning a messenger came to tell us that the clergyman whom we +expected was taken suddenly ill. What could be done? Our old pastor was +then confined to his bed, and on this day all else were engaged. "I will +perform the services myself," said Winthrop. "I shall even be happy to +do it." + +"Nay," said I, "you are feeble, and already spent with study and +watching. It must not be so." + +"Do not attempt to dissuade me, sister," he replied. "There will be many +to witness the interment of her who has hovered upon the brink of the +grave so long; and has not almost every incident of her life, from my +very birth, been a text from which important lessons may be drawn?" And +then, fixing his large mild eyes full upon me, as though he would utter +a truth which duty forbade him longer to suppress, he added, "I dare not +misimprove this opportunity. This first death in _my_ parish may also be +the last. Nay, weep not, my sister, because I may go next. The time at +best is short, and I must work while the day lasts." + +I did not answer. My heart was full, and I turned away. That day my +brother ascended his pulpit to conduct the funeral services, and in them +he _did_ make of her life a lesson to all present. But when he addressed +himself particularly to the young, the middle-aged and the old, his eyes +kindled, and his cheeks glowed, as he varied the subject to present the +"king of terrors" in a different light to each. Then he turned to the +mourners. And who were _they?_ His own aged father, the companion for +many years of her who was before them in her shroud. His own brothers +and sisters, and the little ones of the third generation, whose childish +memories had not even yet forgotten her dying blessing. He essayed to +speak, but in vain. The flush faded from his cheek till he was deadly +pale. Again he attempted to address us, and again in vain. He raised his +hand, and buried his face in the folds of his white handkerchief. I also +covered my eyes, and there was a deep stillness throughout the assembly. +At that moment I thought more of the living than of the dead; and then +there was a rush among the great congregation, like the sudden bursting +forth of a mighty torrent. + +I raised my eyes, but could see no one in the pulpit. The next instant +it was filled. I also pressed forward, and unimpeded ascended the steps, +for all stood back that I might pass. I reached him as he lay upon the +seat where he had fallen, and the handkerchief, which was still pressed +to his lips, was wet with blood. They bore him down, and through the +aisle; and when he passed the coffin, he raised his head, and gazed a +moment upon that calm, pale face. Then casting upon all around a +farewell glance, he sunk gently back, and closed his eyes. + + * * * * * + +A few evenings after, I was sitting by his bed-side. The bright glow of +a setting sun penetrated the white curtains of his windows, and fell +with softened lustre upon his face. The shadows of the contiguous +foliage were dancing upon the curtains, the floor, and the snowy drapery +of his bed; and as he looked faintly up, he murmured, "It is a beautiful +world; but the other is glorious! and my mother is there, and Endicott. +See! they are beckoning to me, and smiling joyfully!--Mother, dear +mother, and Endicott, I am coming!" + +His voice and looks expressed such conviction of the reality of what he +saw, that I also looked up to see these beautiful spirits. My glance of +disappointment recalled him; and he smiled as he said, "I think it was a +dream; but it will be reality soon.--Do not go," said he, as I arose to +call for others. "Do not fear, sister. The bands are very loose, and the +spirit will go gently, and perhaps even before you could return." + +I reseated myself, and pressing his wasted hand in mine, I watched,-- + + "As through his breast, the wave of life + Heaved gently to and fro." + +A few moments more, and I was alone with the dead. + +We buried Winthrop by the side of Endicott W., and the old pastor was +soon laid beside them. * * * * + +Years have passed since then, and I still love to visit those three +graves. But other feelings mingle with those which once possessed my +soul. I hear those whose high vocation was once deemed a sure guarantee +for their purity, either basely calumniated, or terribly condemned. +Their morality is questioned, their sincerity doubted, their usefulness +denied, and their pretensions scoffed at. It may be that unholy hands +are sometimes laid upon the ark, and that change of times forbids such +extensive usefulness as was in the power of the clergymen of New England +in former days. But when there comes a muttering cry of "Down with the +priesthood!" and a denial of the good which they have effected, my soul +repels the insinuation, as though it were blasphemy. I think of the +first three pastors of our village, and I reverence the ministerial +office and its labors, + + "If I but remember only, + That such as these have lived, and died." + + SUSANNA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +THE SUGAR-MAKING EXCURSION. + + +It was on a beautiful morning in the month of March, (one of those +mornings so exhilarating that they make even age and decrepitude long +for a ramble), that friend H. called to invite me to visit his +sugar-lot--as he called it--in company with the party which, in the +preceding summer, visited Moose Mountain upon the whortleberry +excursion. It was with the pleasure generally experienced in revisiting +former scenes, in quest of novelty and to revive impressions and +friendships, that our party set out for this second visit to Moose +Mountain. + +A pleasant sleigh-ride of four or five miles, brought us safely to the +domicile of friend H., who had reached home an hour previously, and was +prepared to pilot us to his sugar-camp. "Before we go," said he, "you +must one and all step within doors, and warm your stomachs with some +gingered cider." We complied with his request, and after a little social +chat with Mrs. H., who welcomed us with a cordiality not to be +surpassed, and expressed many a kind wish that we might spend the day +agreeably, we made for the sugar-camp, preceded by friend H., who walked +by the side of his sleigh, which appeared to be well loaded, and which +he steadied with the greatest care at every uneven place in the path. + +Arrived at the camp, we found two huge iron kettles suspended on a pole, +which was supported by crotched stakes, driven in the ground, and each +half full of boiling syrup. This was made by boiling down the sap, which +was gathered from troughs that were placed under spouts which were +driven into rock-maple trees, an incision being first made in the tree +with an auger. Friend H. told us that it had taken more than two barrels +of sap to make what syrup each kettle contained. A steady fire of oak +bark was burning underneath the kettles, and the boys and girls, friend +H.'s sons and daughters, were busily engaged in stirring the syrup, +replenishing the fire, &c. + +Abigail, the eldest daughter, went to her father's sleigh, and taking +out a large rundlet, which might contain two or three gallons, poured +the contents into a couple of pails. This we perceived was milk, and as +she raised one of the pails to empty the contents into the kettles, her +father called out, "Ho, Abigail! hast thee strained the milk?" + +"Yes, father," said Abigail. + +"Well," said friend H., with a chuckle, "Abigail understands what she is +about, as well as her mother would; and I'll warrant Hannah to make +better maple-sugar than any other woman in New England, or in the whole +United States--and you will agree with me in that, after that sugar is +turned off and cooled." Abigail turned to her work, emptied her milk +into the kettles, and then stirred their contents well together, and put +some bark on the fire. + +"Come, Jemima," said Henry L., "let us try to assist Abigail a little, +and perhaps we shall learn to make sugar ourselves; and who knows but +what she will give us a 'gob' to carry home as a specimen to show our +friends; and besides, it is possible that we may have to make sugar +ourselves at some time or other; and even if we do not, it will never do +us any harm to know how the thing is done." Abigail furnished us each +with a large brass scummer, and instructed us to take off the scum as it +arose, and put it into the pails; and Henry called two others of our +party to come and hold the pails. + +"But tell me, Abigail," said Henry, with a roguish leer, "was that milk +really intended for whitening the sugar?" + +"Yes," said Abigail with all the simplicity of a Quakeress, "for thee +must know that the milk will all rise in a scum, and with it every +particle of dirt or dust which may have found its way into the kettles." + +Abigail made a second visit to her father's sleigh, accompanied by her +little brother, and brought from thence a large tin baker, and placed it +before the fire. Her brother brought a peck measure two-thirds full of +potatoes, which Abigail put into the baker, and leaving them to their +fate, returned to the sleigh, and with her brother's assistance carried +several parcels, neatly done up in white napkins, into a little log hut +of some fifteen feet square, with a shed roof made of slabs. We began to +fancy that we were to have an Irish lunch. Henry took a sly peep into +the hut when we first arrived, and he declared that there was nothing +inside, save some squared logs, which were placed back against the +walls, and which he supposed were intended for seats. But he was +mistaken in thinking that seats were every convenience which the +building contained,--as will presently be shown. + +Abigail and her brother had been absent something like half an hour, and +friend H. had in the mean time busied himself in gathering sap, and +putting it in some barrels hard by. The kettles were clear from scum, +and their contents were bubbling like soap. The fire was burning +cheerfully, the company all chatting merrily, and a peep into the baker +told that the potatoes were cooked. + +Abigail and her brother came, and taking up the baker, carried it inside +the building, but soon returned, and placed it again before the fire. +Then she called to her father, who came and invited us to go and take +dinner. + +We obeyed the summons; but how were we surprised, when we saw how neatly +arranged was every thing. The walls of the building were ceiled around +with boards, and side tables fastened to them, which could be raised or +let down at pleasure, being but pieces of boards fastened with leather +hinges and a prop underneath. The tables were covered with napkins, +white as the driven snow, and loaded with cold ham, neat's tongue, +pickles, bread, apple-sauce, preserves, dough-nuts, butter, cheese, and +_potatoes_--without which a Yankee dinner is never complete. For +beverage, there was chocolate, which was made over a fire in the +building--there being a rock chimney in one corner. "Now, neighbors," +said friend H., "if you will but seat yourselves on these squared logs, +and put up with these rude accommodations, you will do me a favor. We +might have had our dinner at the house, but I thought that it would be a +novelty, and afford more amusement to have it in this little hut, which +I built to shelter us from what stormy weather we might have in the +season of making sugar." + +We arranged ourselves around the room, and right merry were we, for +friend H.'s lively chat did not suffer us to be otherwise. He +recapitulated to us the manner of his life while a bachelor; the many +bear-fights which he had had; told us how many bears he had killed; how +a she-bear denned in his rock dwelling the first winter after he +commenced clearing his land--he having returned home to his father's to +attend school; how, when he returned in the spring, he killed her two +cubs, and afterwards the old bear, and made his Hannah a present of +their skins to make a muff and tippet; also his courtship, marriage, &c. + +In the midst of dinner, Abigail came in with some hot mince-pies, which +had been heating in the baker before the fire out of doors, and which +said much in praise of Mrs. H.'s cookery. + +We had finished eating, and were chatting as merrily as might be, when +one of the little boys called from without, "Father, the sugar has +grained." We immediately went out, and found one of the boys stirring +some sugar in a bowl to cool it. The fire was raked from beneath the +kettles, and Abigail and her eldest brother were stirring their contents +with all haste. Friend H. put a pole within the bail of one of the +kettles, and raised it up, which enabled two of the company to take the +other down, and having placed it in the snow, they assisted friend H. to +take down the other; and while we lent a helping hand to stir and cool +the sugar, friend H.'s children ate their dinners, cleared away the +tables, put what fragments were left into their father's sleigh, +together with the dinner-dishes, tin baker, rundlet, and the pails of +scum, which were to be carried home for the swine. A firkin was also put +into the sleigh; and after the sugar was sufficiently cool, it was put +into the firkin, and covered up with great care. + +After this we spent a short time promenading around the rock-maple +grove, if leafless trees can be called a grove. A large sap-trough, +which was very neatly made, struck my fancy, and friend H. said he would +make me a present of it for a cradle. This afforded a subject for mirth. +Friend H. said that we must not ridicule the idea of having sap-troughs +for cradles; for that was touching quality, as his eldest child had been +rocked many an hour in a sap-trough, beneath the shade of a tree, while +his wife sat beside it knitting, and he was hard by, hoeing corn. + +Soon we were on our way to friend H.'s house, which we all reached in +safety; and where we spent an agreeable evening, eating maple sugar, +apples, beech-nuts, &c. We also had tea about eight o'clock, which was +accompanied by every desirable luxury--after which we started for home. + +As we were about taking leave, Abigail made each of us a present of a +cake of sugar, which was cooled in a tin heart.--"Heigh ho!" said Henry +L., "how lucky! We have had an agreeable visit, a bountiful feast--have +learned how to make sugar, and have all got sweethearts!" + +We went home, blessing our stars and the hospitality of our Quaker +friends. + +I cannot close without telling the reader, that the sugar which was +that day made, was nearly as white as loaf sugar, and tasted much +better. + + JEMIMA. + + + + +PREJUDICE AGAINST LABOR. + + +CHAPTER I. + +Mrs. K. and her daughter Emily were discussing the propriety of +permitting Martha to be one of the party which was to be given at Mr. +K.'s the succeeding Tuesday evening, to celebrate the birth-day of +George, who had lately returned from college. Martha was the niece of +Mr. K. She was an interesting girl of about nineteen years of age, who, +having had the misfortune to lose her parents, rather preferred working +in a factory for her support, than to be dependent on the charity of her +friends. Martha was a favorite in the family of her uncle; and Mrs. K., +notwithstanding her aristocratic prejudices, would gladly have her niece +present at the party, were it not for fear of what people might say, if +Mr. and Mrs. K. suffered their children to appear on a level with +factory operatives. + +"Mother," said Emily, "I do wish there was not such a prejudice against +those who labor for a living; and especially against those who work in a +factory; for then Martha might with propriety appear at George's party; +but I know it would be thought disgraceful to be seen at a party with a +factory girl, even if she is one's own cousin, and without a single +fault. And besides, the Miss Lindsays are invited, and if Martha should +be present, they will be highly offended, and make her the subject of +ridicule. I would not for my life have Martha's feelings wounded, as I +know they would be, if either of the Miss Lindsays should ask her when +she left Lowell, or how long she had worked in a factory." + +"Well, Emily," said Mrs. K., "I do not know how we shall manage to keep +up appearances, and also spare Martha's feelings, unless we can persuade +your father to take her with him to Acton, on the morrow, and leave her +at your uncle Theodore's. I do not see any impropriety in this step, as +she proposes to visit Acton before she returns to Lowell." + +"You will persuade me to no such thing," said Mr. K., stepping to the +door of his study, which opened from the parlor, and which stood ajar, +so that the conversation between his wife and daughter had been +overheard by Mr. K., and also by the Hon. Mr. S., a gentleman of large +benevolence, whose firmness of character placed him far above popular +prejudice. These gentlemen had been in the study unknown to Mrs. K. and +Emily. + +"You will persuade me to no such thing," Mr. K. repeated, as he entered +the parlor accompanied by Mr. S.; "I am determined that my niece shall +be at the party. However loudly the public opinion may cry out against +such a measure, I shall henceforth exert my influence to eradicate the +wrong opinions entertained by what is called good society, respecting +the degradation of labor; and I will commence by placing my children and +niece on a level. The occupations of people have made too much +distinction in society. The laboring classes, who are in fact the wealth +of a nation, are trampled upon; while those whom dame Fortune has placed +above, or if you please, _below_ labor, with some few honorable +exceptions, arrogate to themselves all of the claims to good society. +But in my humble opinion, the rich and the poor ought to be equally +respected, if virtuous; and equally detested, if vicious." + +"But what will our acquaintances say?" said Mrs. K. + +"It is immaterial to me what 'they say' or think," said Mr. K., "so long +as I know that I am actuated by right motives." + +"But you know, my dear husband," replied his wife, "that the world is +censorious, and that much of the good or ill fortune of our children +will depend on the company which they shall keep. For myself, I care but +little for the opinion of the world, so long as I have the approbation +of my husband, but I cannot bear to have my children treated with +coldness; and besides, as George is intended for the law, his success +will in a great measure depend on public opinion; and I do not think +that even Esq. S. would think it altogether judicious, under existing +circumstances, for us to place our children on a level with the laboring +people." + +"If I may be permitted to express my opinion," said Mr. S. "I must say, +in all sincerity, that I concur in sentiment with my friend K.; and, +like him, I would that the line of separation between good and bad +society was drawn between the virtuous and the vicious; and to bring +about this much-to-be-desired state of things, the affluent, those who +are allowed by all to have an undisputed right to rank with good +society, must begin the reformation, by exerting their influence to +raise up those who are bowed down. Your fears, Mrs. K., respecting your +son's success, are, or should be, groundless; for, to associate with the +laboring people, and strive to raise them to their proper place in the +scale of being, should do more for his prosperity in the profession +which he has chosen, than he ought to realize by a contrary course of +conduct; and, I doubt not, your fears will prove groundless. So, my dear +lady, rise above them; and also above the opinions of a gainsaying +multitude--opinions which are erroneous, and which every philanthropist, +and every Christian, should labor to correct." + +The remarks of Esq. S. had so good an effect on Mrs. K., that she +relinquished the idea of sending Martha to Acton. + + +CHAPTER II. + +The following evening Emily and Martha spent at Esq. S.'s, agreeably to +an earnest invitation from Mrs. S. and her daughter Susan, who were +anxious to cultivate an acquaintance with the orphan. These ladies were +desirous to ascertain the real situation of a factory girl, and if it +was as truly deplorable as public fame had represented, they intended to +devise some plan to place Martha in a more desirable situation. Mrs. S. +had a sister, who had long been in a declining state of health; and she +had but recently written to Mrs. S. to allow Susan to spend a few months +with her, while opportunity should offer to engage a young lady to live +with her as a companion. This lady's husband was a clerk in one of the +departments at Washington; and, not thinking it prudent to remove his +family to the capital, they remained in P.; but the time passed so +heavily in her husband's absence, as to have a visible effect on her +health. Her physician advised her not to live so retired as she did, but +to go into lively company to cheer up her spirits; but she thought it +would be more judicious to have an agreeable female companion to live +with her; and Mrs. S. concluded, from the character given her by her +uncle, that Martha would be just such a companion as her sister wanted; +and she intended in the course of the evening to invite Martha to +accompany Susan on a visit to her aunt. + +The evening passed rapidly away, for the lively and interesting +conversation, in the neat and splendid parlor of Esq. S., did not suffer +any one present to note the flight of time. Martha's manners well +accorded with the flattering description which her uncle had given of +her. She had a good flow of language, and found no difficulty in +expressing her sentiments on any subject which was introduced. Her +description of "Life in Lowell" convinced those who listened to the +clear, musical tones of her voice, that the many reports which they had +heard, respecting the ignorance and vice of the factory operatives, were +the breathings of ignorance, wafted on the wings of slander, and not +worthy of credence. + +"But with all your privileges, Martha," said Mrs. S., "was it not +wearisome to labor so many hours in a day?" + +"Truly it was at times," said Martha, "and fewer hours of labor would be +desirable, if they could command a proper amount of wages; for in that +case there would be more time for improvement." + +Mrs. S. then gave Martha an invitation to accompany her daughter to P., +hoping that she would accept the invitation, and find the company of her +sister so agreeable that she would consent to remain with her, at least +for one year; assuring her that if she did, her privileges for +improvement should be equal, if not superior to those she had enjoyed in +Lowell; and also that she should not be a loser in pecuniary matters. +Martha politely thanked Mrs. S. for the interest she took in her behalf, +but wished a little time to consider the propriety of accepting the +proposal. But when Mrs. S. explained how necessary it was that her +sister should have a female companion with her, during her husband's +absence, Martha consented to accompany Susan, provided that her uncle +and aunt K. gave their consent. + +"What an interesting girl!" said Esq. S. to his lady, after the young +people had retired. "Amiable and refined as Emily K. appears, Martha's +manners show that her privileges have been greater, or that her +abilities are superior to those of Emily. How cold and calculating, and +also unjust, was her aunt K., to think that it would detract aught from +the respectability of her children for Martha to appear in company with +them! I really hope that Mr. K. will allow her to visit your sister. I +will speak to him on the subject." + +"She _must_ go with Susan," said Mrs. S.; "I am determined to take no +denial. Her sprightly manners and delightful conversation will cheer my +sister's spirits, and be of more avail in restoring her health than ten +physicians." + +Mr. K. gave the desired consent, and it was agreed by all parties +concerned that some time in the following week the ladies should visit +P.; and all necessary preparations were immediately made for the +journey. + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was Tuesday evening, and a whole bevy of young people had assembled +at Mr. K.'s. Beauty and wit were there, and seemed to vie with each +other for superiority. The beaux and belles were in high glee. All was +life and animation. The door opened, and Mr. K. entered the room. A +young lady, rather above the middle height, and of a form of the most +perfect symmetry, was leaning on his arm. She was dressed in a plain +white muslin gown; a lace 'kerchief was thrown gracefully over her +shoulders, and a profusion of auburn hair hung in ringlets down her +neck, which had no decoration save a single string of pearl; her head +was destitute of ornament, with the exception of one solitary rosebud on +the left temple; her complexion was a mixture of the rose and the lily; +a pair of large hazel eyes, half concealed by their long silken lashes, +beamed with intelligence and expression, as they cast a furtive glance +at the company. "Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. K., "this is my niece, +Miss Croly;" and as with a modest dignity she courtesied, a beholder +could scarce refrain from applying to her Milton's description of Eve +when she first came from the hand of her Creator. Mr. K. crossed the +room with his niece, seated her by the side of his daughter, and, +wishing the young people a pleasant evening, retired. The eyes of all +were turned towards the stranger, eager to ascertain whether indeed she +was the little girl who once attended the same school with them, but who +had, for a number of years past, been employed in a "Lowell factory." +"Oh, it is the same," said the Miss Lindsays. "How presumptuous," said +Caroline Lindsay to a gentleman who sat near her, "thus to intrude a +factory girl into our company! Unless I am very much mistaken, I shall +make her sorry for her impudence, and wish herself somewhere else +before the party breaks up." "Indeed, Miss Caroline, you will not try to +distress the poor girl; you cannot be so cruel," said the gentleman, who +was no other than the eldest son of Esq. S., who had on the preceding +day returned home, after an absence of two years on a tour through +Europe. "Cruel!" said Caroline, interrupting him, "surely, Mr. S., you +cannot think it cruel to keep people where they belong; or if they get +out of the way, to set them right; and you will soon see that I shall +direct Miss Presumption to her proper place, which is in the +kitchen,"--and giving her head a toss, she left Mr. S., and seating +herself by Emily and Martha, inquired when the latter left Lowell, and +if the factory girls were as ignorant as ever. + +Martha replied by informing her when she left the "city of spindles;" +and also by telling her that she believed the factory girls, considering +the little time they had for the cultivation of their minds, were not, +in the useful branches of education, behind any class of females in the +Union. "What chance can they have for improvement?" said Caroline: "they +are driven like slaves to and from their work, for fourteen hours in +each day, and dare not disobey the calls of the factory bell. If they +had the means for improvement, they have not the time; and it must be +that they are quite as ignorant as the southern slaves, and as little +fitted for society." Martha colored to the eyes at this unjust +aspersion; and Emily, in pity to her cousin, undertook to refute the +charge. Mr. S. drew near, and seating himself by the cousins, entered +into conversation respecting the state of society in Lowell. Martha soon +recovered her self-possession, and joined in the conversation with more +than her usual animation, yet with a modest dignity which attracted the +attention of all present. She mentioned the evening schools for teaching +penmanship, grammar, geography, and other branches of education, and how +highly they were prized, and how well they were attended by the factory +girls. She also spoke of the Lyceum and Institute, and other lectures; +and her remarks were so appropriate and sensible, that even those who +were at first for assisting Caroline Lindsay in directing her to her +"proper place," and who even laughed at what they thought to be Miss +Lindsay's wit,--became attentive listeners, and found that even one who +"had to work for a living" could by her conversation add much to the +enjoyment of "good society." + +All were now disposed to treat Martha with courtesy, with the exception +of the Miss Lindsays, who sat biting their lips for vexation; mortified +to think that in trying to make Martha an object of ridicule, they had +exposed themselves to contempt. Mr. S. took upon himself the task (if +task it could be called, for one whose feelings were warmly enlisted in +the work) of explaining in a clear and concise manner the impropriety of +treating people with contempt for none other cause than that they earned +an honest living by laboring with their hands. He spoke of the duty of +the rich, with regard to meliorating the condition of the poor, not only +in affairs of a pecuniary nature, but also by encouraging them in the +way of well-doing, by bestowing upon them that which would cost a good +man or woman nothing,--namely, kind looks, kind words, and all the sweet +courtesies of life. His words were not lost; for those who heard him +have overcome their prejudices against labor and laboring people, and +respect the virtuous whatever may be their occupation. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Bright and unclouded was the morning which witnessed the departure of +the family coach from the door of the Hon. Mr. S. Henry accompanied by +his sister and the beautiful Martha, whose champion he had been at the +birth-night party of George K. Arrived at P., they found that they were +not only welcome, but expected visitors; for Esq. S. had previously +written to his sister-in-law, apprising her of Henry's return, and his +intention of visiting her in company with his sister Susan, and a young +lady whom he could recommend as being just the companion of which she +was in need. In a postscript to his letter he added, "I do not hesitate +to commend this lovely orphan to your kindness, for I know you will +appreciate her worth." + +When Henry S. took leave of his aunt and her family, and was about to +start upon his homeward journey, he found that a two days' ride, and a +week spent in the society of Martha, had been at work with his heart. He +requested a private interview, and what was said, or what was concluded +on, I shall leave the reader to imagine, as best suits his fancy. I +shall also leave him to imagine what the many billets-doux contained +which Henry sent to P., and what were the answers he received, and read +with so much pleasure.--As it is no part of my business to enter into +any explanation of that subject, I will leave it and call the reader's +attention to the sequel of my story, hoping to be pardoned if I make it +as short as possible. * * * * + +It was a lovely moonlight evening. The Hon. Mr. S. and lady, Mr. and +Mrs. K., and Caroline Lindsay, were seated in the parlor of Mr. +K.--Caroline had called to inquire for Martha, supposing her to be in +Lowell. Caroline's father had been deeply engaged in the eastern land +speculation, the result of which was a total loss of property. This made +it absolutely necessary that his family should labor for their bread; +and Caroline had come to the noble resolution of going to Lowell to work +in a factory, not only to support herself, but to assist her parents in +supporting her little brother and sisters. It was a hard struggle for +Caroline to bring her mind to this; but she had done it, and was now +ready to leave home. Dreading to go where all were strangers, she +requested Mr. K. to give her directions where to find Martha, and to +honor her as the bearer of a letter to his niece. "I know," said she, +"that Martha's goodness of heart will induce her to secure me a place of +work, notwithstanding my former rudeness to her--a rudeness which has +caused me to suffer severely, and of which I heartily repent." Mr. K. +informed Caroline that he expected to see his niece that evening; and he +doubted not she would recommend Miss Lindsay to the overseer with whom +she had worked while in Lowell; and also introduce her to good society, +which she would find could be enjoyed, even in the "city of spindles," +popular prejudice to the contrary notwithstanding. Esquire and Mrs. S. +approved of Caroline's resolution of going to Lowell, and spoke many +words of encouragement, and also prevailed on her to accept of something +to assist in defraying the expenses of her journey, and to provide for +any exigency which might happen. They were yet engaged in conversation, +when a coach stopped at the door, and presently George and Emily entered +the parlor! They were followed by a gentleman and lady in bridal +habiliments. George stepped back, and introduced Mr. Henry S. and lady. +"Yes," said Henry laughingly, "I have brought safely back the Factory +Pearl, which a twelvemonth since I found in this room, and which I have +taken for my own." The lady threw back her veil, and Miss Lindsay beheld +the countenance of Martha Croly. + +I shall omit the apologies and congratulations of Caroline and the +assurance of forgiveness and proffers of friendship of Martha. The +reader must also excuse me from delineating the joy with which Martha +was received by her uncle and aunt K.; and the heartfelt satisfaction +which Esquire and Mrs. S. expressed in their son's choice of a wife. It +is enough to state that all parties concerned were satisfied and happy, +and continue so to the present time. To sum up the whole they are happy +themselves, and diffuse happiness all around them. + +Caroline Lindsay was the bearer of several letters from Martha, now Mrs. +S., to her friends in Lowell. She spent two years in a factory, and +enjoyed the friendship of all who knew her; and when she left Lowell her +friends could not avoid grieving for the loss of her company, although +they knew that a bright day was soon to dawn upon her. She is now the +wife of George K., and is beloved and respected by all who know her. +Well may she say, "Sweet are the uses of adversity," for adversity awoke +to energy virtues which were dormant, until a reverse of fortune. Her +father's affairs are in a measure retrieved; and he says that he is +doubly compensated for his loss of property in the happiness he now +enjoys. + +I will take leave of the reader, hoping that if he has hitherto had any +undue prejudice against labor, or laboring people, he will overcome it, +and excuse my freedom and plainness of speech. + + ETHELINDA. + + + + +JOAN OF ARC. + + +When, in the perusal of history, I meet with the names of females whom +circumstances, or their own inclinations, have brought thus openly +before the public eye, I can seldom repress the desire to know more of +them. Was it choice, or necessity, which led them to the battle-field, +or council-hall? Had the woman's heart been crushed within their +breasts? or did it struggle with the sterner feelings which had then +found entrance there? Were they recreant to their own sex? or were the +deed which claim the historian's notice but the necessary results of the +situations in which they had been placed? + +These are questions which I often ask, and yet I love not in old and +musty records to meet with names which long ere this should have +perished with the hearts upon which love had written them; for happier, +surely, is woman, when in _one_ manly heart she has been "shrined a +queen," than when upon some powerful throne she sits with an untrembling +form, and an unquailing eye, to receive the homage, and command the +services of loyal thousands. I love not to read of women transformed in +all, save outward form, into one of the sterner sex; and when I see, in +the memorials of the past, that this has apparently been done, I would +fain overleap the barriers of bygone time, and know how it has been +effected. Imagination goes back to the scenes which must have been +witnessed then, and perhaps unaided portrays the minute features of the +sketch, of which history has preserved merely the outlines. + +But I sometimes read of woman, when I would not know more of the places +where she has rendered herself conspicuous; when there is something so +noble and so bright in the character I have given her, that I fear a +better knowledge of trivial incidents might break the spell which leads +me to love and admire her; where, perhaps, the picture which my fancy +has painted, glows in colors so brilliant, that a sketch by Truth would +seem beside it but a sombre shadow. + +Joan of Arc is one of those heroines of history, who cannot fail to +excite an interest in all who love to contemplate the female character. +From the gloom of that dark age, when woman was but a plaything and a +slave, she stands in bold relief, its most conspicuous personage. Not, +indeed, as a queen, but as more than a queen, even the preserver of her +nation's king; not as a conqueror, but as the savior of her country; not +as a man, urged in his proud career by mad ambition's stirring energies, +but as a woman, guided in her brilliant course by woman's noblest +impulses--so does she appear in that lofty station which for herself she +won. + +Though high and dazzling was the eminence to which she rose, yet "'twas +not thus, oh 'twas not thus, her dwelling-place was found." Low in the +vale of humble life was the maiden born and bred; and thick as is the +veil which time and distance have thrown over every passage of her life +yet that which rests upon her early days is most impenetrable. And much +room is there here for the interested inquirer, and Imagination may rest +almost unchecked amid the slight revelations of History. + +Joan is a heroine--a woman of mighty power--wearing herself the +habiliments of man, and guiding armies to battle and to victory; yet +never to my eye is "the warrior-maid" aught but _woman_. The ruling +passion, the spirit which nerved her arm, illumed her eye, and buoyed +her heart, was woman's faith. Ay, it was _power_--and call it what ye +may--say it was enthusiasm, fanaticism, madness--or call it, if ye will, +what those _did_ name it who burned Joan at the stake,--still it was +power, the power of woman's firm, undoubting faith. + +I should love to go back into Joan's humble home--that home which the +historian has thought so little worthy of his notice; and in imagination +I _must_ go there, even to the very cradle of her infancy, and know of +all those influences which wrought the mind of Joan to that fearful +pitch of wild enthusiasm, when she declared herself the inspired agent +of the Almighty. + +Slowly and gradually was the spirit trained to an act like this; for +though, like the volcano's fire, its instantaneous bursting forth was +preceded by no prophet-herald of its coming--yet Joan of Arc was the +same Joan ere she was maid of Orleans; the same high-souled, pure and +imaginative being, the creature of holy impulses, and conscious of +superior energies. It must have been so; _a superior mind may burst upon +the world, but never upon itself_: there must be a feeling of sympathy +with the noble and the gifted, a knowledge of innate though slumbering +powers. The neglected eaglet may lie in its mountain nest, long after +the pinion is fledged; but it will fix its unquailing eye upon the +dazzling sun, and feel a consciousness of strength in the untried wing; +but let the mother-bird once call it forth, and far away it will soar +into the deep blue heavens, or bathe and revel amidst the +tempest-clouds--and henceforth the eyrie is but a resting place. + +As the diamond is formed, brilliant and priceless, in the dark bowels of +the earth, even so, in the gloom of poverty, obscurity, and toil, was +formed the mind of Joan of Arc.--Circumstances were but the jeweller's +cutting, which placed it where it might more readily receive the rays +of light, and flash them forth with greater brilliancy. + +I have said, that I must in imagination go back to the infancy of Joan, +and note the incidents which shed their silent, hallowed influence upon +her soul, until she stands forth an inspired being, albeit inspired by +naught but her own imagination. + +The basis of Joan's character is religious enthusiasm: this is the +substratum, the foundation of all that wild and mighty power which made +_her_, the peasant girl, the savior of her country. But the flame must +have been early fed; it was not merely an elementary portion of her +nature, but it was one which was cherished in infancy, in childhood and +in youth, until it became the master-passion of her being. + +Joan, the child of the humble and the lowly, was also the daughter of +the fervently religious. The light of faith and hope illumes their +little cot; and reverence for all that is good and true, and a trust +which admits no shade of fear or doubt, is early taught the gentle +child. Though "faith in God's own promises" was mingled with +superstitious awe of those to whom all were then indebted for a +knowledge of the truth; though priestly craft had united the wild and +false with the pure light of the gospel: and though Joan's religion was +mingled with delusion and error,--still it comprised all that is +fervent, and pure, and truthful, in the female heart. The first words +her infant lips are taught to utter, are those of prayer--prayer, +mayhap, to saints or virgin; but still to her _then_ and in all +after-time, the aspirations of a spirit which delights in communion with +the Invisible. + +She grows older, and still, amid ignorance, and poverty, and toil, the +spirit gains new light and fervor. With a mind alive to everything that +is high and holy, she goes forth into a dark and sinful world, dependent +upon her daily toil for daily bread; she lives among the thoughtless and +the vile; but like that plant which opens to nought but light and air, +and shrinks from all other contact--so her mind, amid the corruptions of +the world, is shut to all that is base and sinful, though open and +sensitive to that which is pure and noble. + +"Joan," says the historian, "was a tender of stables in a village inn." +Such was her outward life; but there was for her _another_ life, a life +within that life. While the hands perform low, menial service, the soul +untrammelled is away, and revelling amidst its own creations of beauty +and of bliss. She is silent and abstracted; always alone among her +fellows--for among them all she sees no kindred spirit; she finds none +who can touch the chords within her heart, or respond to their melody, +when she would herself sweep its harp-strings. + +Joan has no friends; far less does she ever think of earthly lovers; and +who would love _her_, the wild and strange Joan! though perhaps, the +gloomy, dull, and silent one; but that soul, whose very essence is +fervent zeal and glowing passion, sends forth in secrecy and silence its +burning love upon the unconscious things of earth. She talks to the +flowers, and the stars, and the changing clouds; and their voiceless +answers come back to her soul at morn, and noon, and stilly night. Yes, +Joan loves to go forth in the darkness of eve, and sit, + + "Beneath the radiant stars, still burning as they roll, + And sending down their prophecies into her fervent soul;" + +but, better even than this, does she love to go into some high +cathedral, where the "dim religious light" comes faintly through the +painted windows; and when the priests chant vesper hymns, and burning +incense goes upward from the sacred altar--and when the solemn strains +and the fragrant vapor dissolve and die away in the distant aisles and +lofty dome, she kneels upon the marble floor, and in ecstatic worship +sends forth the tribute of a glowing heart. + +And when at night she lies down upon her rude pallet, she dreams that +she is with those bright and happy beings with whom her fancy has +peopled heaven. She is there, among saints and angels, and even +permitted high converse with the Mother of Jesus. + +Yes, Joan is a dreamer; and she dreams not only in the night, but in the +day; whether at work or at rest, alone or among her fellow-men, there +are angel voices near, and spirit-wings are hovering around her, and +visions of all that is pure, and bright, and beautiful, come to the mind +of the lowly girl. She finds that she is a favored one; she feels that +those about her are not gifted as she has been; she knows that their +thoughts are not as her thoughts; and then the spirit questions, Why is +it thus that she should be permitted communings with unearthly ones? Why +was this ardent, aspiring mind bestowed upon _her_, one of earth's +meanest ones, shackled by bonds of penury, toil, and ignorance of all +that the world calls high and gifted? Day after day goes by, night after +night wears on, and still these queries will arise, and still they are +unanswered. + +At length the affairs of busy life, those which to Joan have heretofore +been of but little moment, begin to awaken even _her_ interest. +Hitherto, absorbed in her own bright fancies, she has mingled in the +scenes around her, like one who walketh in his sleep. They have been too +tame and insipid to arouse her energies, or excite her interest; but now +there is a thrilling power in the tidings which daily meet her ears. All +hearts are stirred, but none now throb like hers: her country is +invaded, her king an exile from his throne; and at length the +conquerors, unopposed, are quietly boasting of their triumphs on the +very soil they have polluted. And shall it be thus? Shall the victor +revel and triumph in her own loved France? Shall her country thus tamely +submit to wear the foreign yoke? And Joan says, No! She feels the power +to arouse, to quicken, and to guide. + +None now may tell whether it was first in fancies of the day or visions +of the night, that the thought came, like some lightning flash, upon her +mind, that it was for this that powers unknown to others had been +vouchsafed to _her_; and that for this, even new energies should now be +given.--But the idea once received is not abandoned; she cherishes it, +and broods upon it, till it has mingled with every thought of day and +night. If doubts at first arise, they are not harbored, and at length +they vanish away. + + "Her spirit shadowed forth a dream, till it became a creed." + +All that she sees and all that she hears--the words to which she eagerly +listens by day, and the spirit-whispers which come to her at +night,--they all assure her of this, that she is the appointed one. All +other thoughts and feelings now crystallize in this grand scheme; and as +the cloud grows darker upon her country's sky, her faith grows surer and +more bright. Her countrymen have ceased to resist, have almost ceased to +hope; but she alone, in her fervent joy, has "looked beyond the present +clouds and seen the light beyond." The spoiler shall yet be vanquished, +and _she_ will do it; her country shall be saved, and _she_ will save +it; her unanointed king shall yet sit on the throne, and "Charles shall +be crowned at Rheims." Such is her mission, and she goes forth in her +own ardent faith to its accomplishment. + +And did those who first admitted the claims of Joan as an inspired +leader, themselves believe that she was an agent of the Almighty? None +can now tell how much the superstition of their faith, mingled with the +commanding influence of a mind firm in its own conviction of +supernatural guidance, influenced those haughty ones, as they listened +to the counsels, and obeyed the mandates, of the peasant girl.--Perhaps +they saw that she was their last hope, a frail reed upon which they +might lean, yet one that might not break. Her zeal and faith might be an +instrument to effect the end which she had declared herself destined to +accomplish. Worldly policy and religious credulity might mingle in their +admission of her claims; but however this might be, the peasant girl of +Arc soon rides at her monarch's side, with helmet on her head, and armor +on her frame, the time-hallowed sword girt to her side, and the +consecrated banner in her hand; and with the lightning of inspiration in +her eye, and words of dauntless courage on her lips, she guides them on +to battle and to victory. + +Ay, there she is, the low-born maid of Arc! there, with the noble and +the brave, amid the clangor of trumpets, the waving of banners, the +tramp of the war horse, and the shouts of warriors; and there she is +more at home than in those humble scenes in which she has been wont to +bear a part. Now for once she is herself; now may she put forth all her +hidden energy, and with a mind which rises at each new demand upon its +powers, she is gaining for herself a name even greater than that of +queen. And now does the light beam brightly from her eye, and the blood +course quickly through her veins--for her task is ended, her mission +accomplished, and "Charles is crowned at Rheims." + +This is the moment of Joan's glory,--and what is before her now? To +stand in courts, a favored and flattered one? to revel in the soft +luxuries and enervating pleasures of a princely life? Oh this was not +for one like her. To return to obscurity and loneliness, and there to +let the over-wrought mind sink back with nought to occupy and support +it, till it feeds and drivels on the remembrance of the past--this is +what she would do; but there is for her what is better far, even the +glorious death of a martyr. + +Little does Joan deem, in her moment of triumph, that this is before +her; but when she has seen her mission ended, and her king the anointed +ruler of a liberated people, the sacred sword and standard are cast +aside; and throwing herself at her monarch's feet, and watering them +with tears of joy, she begs permission to return to her humble +home.--She has now done all for which that power was bestowed; her work +has been accomplished, and she claims no longer the special commission +of an inspired leader. But Dunois says, No! The English are not yet +entirely expelled the kingdom, and the French general would avail +himself of that name, and that presence, which have infused new courage +into his armies, and struck terror to their enemies. He knows that Joan +will no longer be sustained by the belief that she is an agent of +heaven; but she will be with them, and that alone must benefit their +cause. He would have her again assume the standard, sword, and armor; he +would have her still retain the title of "Messenger of God," though she +believe that her mission goes no farther. + +It probably was not the first time, and it certainly was not the last, +when woman's holiest feelings have been made the instruments of man's +ambition, or agents for the completion of his designs. Joan is now but a +woman, poor, weak, and yielding woman; and overpowered by their +entreaties, she consents to try again her influence. But the power of +that faith is gone, the light of inspiration is no more given, and she +is attacked, conquered, and delivered to her enemies. They place her in +low dungeons, then bring her before tribunals; they wring and torture +that noble spirit, and endeavor to obtain from it a confession of +imposture, or connivance with the "evil one;" but she still persists in +the declaration that her claims to a heavenly guidance were true. + +Once only was she false to herself. Weary and dispirited; deserted by +her friends, and tormented by her foes,--she yields to their assertions, +and admits that she did deceive her countrymen. Perhaps in that hour of +trial and darkness, when all hope of deliverance from without, or from +above, had died away,--when she saw herself powerless in the merciless +hands of her enemies, the conviction might steal upon her own mind, that +she had been self-deceived; that phantasies of the brain had been +received as visions from on high,--but though her confession was true in +the abstract, yet Joan was surely untrue to herself. + +Still it avails her little; she is again remanded to the dungeon, and +there awaits her doom. + +At length they bring her the panoply of war, the armored suit in which +she went forth at the king's right hand to fight their battle hosts. Her +heart thrills, and her eye flashes, as she looks upon it--for it tells +of glorious days. Once more she dons those fatal garments, and they find +her arrayed in the habiliments of war. It is enough for those who wished +but an excuse to take her life, and the Maid of Orleans is condemned to +die. + +They led Joan to the martyr-stake. Proudly and nobly went she forth, for +it was a fitting death for one like _her_. Once more the spirit may +rouse its noblest energies; and with brightened eye, and firm, undaunted +step, she goes where banners wave and trumpets sound, and martial hosts +appear in proud array. And the sons of England weep as they see her, the +calm and tearless one, come forth to meet her fate. They bind her to the +stake; they light the fire; and upward borne on wreaths of soaring +flame, the soul of the martyred Joan ascends to heaven. + + ELLA. + + + + +SUSAN MILLER. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"Mother, it is all over now," said Susan Miller, as she descended from +the chamber where her father had just died of _delirium tremens_. + +Mrs. Miller had for several hours walked the house, with that ceaseless +step which tells of fearful mental agony: and when she had heard from +her husband's room some louder shriek or groan, she had knelt by the +chair or bed which was nearest, and prayed that the troubled spirit +might pass away. But a faintness came over her, when a long interval of +stillness told that her prayer was answered; and she leaned upon the +railing of the stairway for support, as she looked up to see the first +one who should come to her from the bed of death. + +Susan was the first to think of her mother: and when she saw her sink, +pale, breathless, and stupified upon a stair, she sat down in silence, +and supported her head upon her own bosom. Then for the first time was +she aroused to the consciousness that she was to be looked upon as a +stay and support; and she resolved to bring from the hidden recesses of +her heart, a strength, courage, and firmness, which should make her to +her heart-broken mother, and younger brothers and sisters, what _he_ had +not been for many years, who was now a stiffening corpse. + +At length she ventured to whisper words of solace and sympathy, and +succeeded in infusing into her mother's mind a feeling of resignation to +the stroke they had received.--She persuaded her to retire to her bed, +and seek the slumber which had been for several days denied them; and +then she endeavored to calm the terror-stricken little ones, who were +screaming because their father was no more. The neighbors came in and +proffered every assistance; but when Susan retired that night to her own +chamber, she felt that she must look to HIM for aid, who alone could +sustain through the tasks that awaited her. + +Preparations were made for the funeral; and though every one knew that +Mr. Miller had left his farm deeply mortgaged, yet the store-keeper +cheerfully trusted them for articles of mourning, and the dress-maker +worked day and night, while she expected never to receive a +remuneration. The minister came to comfort the widow and her children. +He spoke of the former virtues of him who had been wont to seek the +house of God on each returning Sabbath, and who had brought his eldest +children to the font of baptism, and been then regarded as an example of +honesty and sterling worth; and when he adverted to the one failing +which had brought him to his grave in the very prime of manhood, he also +remarked, that he was now in the hands of a merciful God. + +The remains of the husband and father were at length removed from the +home which he had once rendered happy, but upon which he had afterwards +brought poverty and distress, and laid in that narrow house which he +never more might leave, till the last trumpet should call him forth; +and when the family were left to that deep silence and gloom which +always succeed a death and burial, they began to think of the trials +which were yet to come. + +Mrs. Miller had been for several years aware that ruin was coming upon +them. She had at first warned, reasoned, and expostulated; but she was +naturally of a gentle and almost timid disposition; and when she found +that she awakened passions which were daily growing more violent and +ungovernable, she resolved to await in silence a crisis which sooner or +later would change their destiny. Whether she was to follow her +degenerate husband to his grave, or accompany him to some low hovel, she +knew not; she shrunk from the future, but faithfully discharged all +present duties, and endeavored, by a strict economy, to retain at least +an appearance of comfort in her household. + +To Susan, her eldest child, she had confided all her fears and sorrows; +and they had watched, toiled, and sympathized together. But when the +blow came at last, when he who had caused all their sorrow and anxiety +was taken away by a dreadful and disgraceful death, the long-enduring +wife and mother was almost paralyzed by the shock. + +But Susan was young; she had health, strength, and spirits to bear her +up, and upon her devolved the care of the family, and the plan for its +future support. Her resolution was soon formed; and without saying a +word to any individual, she went to Deacon Rand, who was her father's +principal creditor. + +It was a beautiful afternoon in the month of May, when Susan left the +house in which her life had hitherto been spent, determined to know, +before she returned to it, whether she might ever again look upon it as +her home. It was nearly a mile to the deacon's house, and not a single +house upon the way. The two lines of turf in the road, upon which the +bright green grass was springing, showed that it was but seldom +travelled; and the birds warbled in the trees, as though they feared no +disturbance. The fragrance of the lowly flowers, the budding shrubs, and +the blooming fruit-trees, filled the air; and she stood for a moment to +listen to the streamlet which she crossed upon a rude bridge of stones. +She remembered how she had loved to look at it in summer, as it murmured +along among the low willows and alder bushes; and how she had watched it +in the early spring, when its swollen waters forced their way through +the drifts of snow which had frozen over it, and wrought for itself an +arched roof, from which the little icicles depended in diamond points +and rows of beaded pearls. She looked also at the meadow, where the +grass was already so long and green; and she sighed to think that she +must leave all that was so dear to her, and go where a ramble among +fields, meadows, and orchards, would be henceforth a pleasure denied to +her. + + +CHAPTER II. + +When she arrived at the spacious farm-house, which was the residence of +the deacon, she was rejoiced to find him at home and alone. He laid +aside his newspaper as she entered, and, kindly taking her hand, +inquired after her own health and that of her friends. "And now, +deacon," said she, when she had answered all his questions, "I wish to +know whether you intend to turn us all out of doors, as you have a +perfect right to do--or suffer us still to remain, with a slight hope +that we may sometime pay you the debt for which our farm is mortgaged." + +"You have asked me a very plain question," was the deacon's reply, "and +one which I can easily answer. You see that I have here a house, large +enough and good enough for the president himself, and plenty of every +thing in it and around it; and how in the name of common sense and +charity, and religion, could I turn a widow and fatherless children out +of their house and home! Folks have called me mean, and stingy, and +close-fisted; and though in my dealings with a rich man I take good care +that he shall not overreach me, yet I never stood for a cent with a poor +man in my life. But you spake about some time paying me; pray, how do +you hope to do it?" + +"I am going to Lowell," said Susan quietly, "to work in the factory, the +girls have high wages there now, and in a year or two Lydia and Eliza +can come too; and if we all have our health, and mother and James get +along well with the farm and the little ones, I hope, I do think, that +we can pay it all up in the course of seven or eight years." + +"That is a long time for you to go and work so hard, and shut yourself +up so close at your time of life," said the deacon, "and on many other +accounts I do not approve of it." + +"I know how prejudiced the people here are against factory girls," said +Susan, "but I should like to know what real good _reason_ you have for +disapproving of my resolution. You cannot think there is anything really +wrong in my determination to labor, as steadily and as profitably as I +can, for myself and the family." + +"Why, the way that I look at things is this," replied the deacon: +"whatever is not right, is certainly wrong; and I do not think it right +for a young girl like you, to put herself in the way of all sorts of +temptation. You have no idea of the wickedness and corruption which +exist in that town of Lowell. Why, they say that more than half of the +girls have been in the house of correction, or the county gaol, or some +other vile place; and that the other half are not much better; and I +should not think you would wish to go and work, and eat, and sleep, with +such a low, mean, ignorant, wicked set of creatures." + +"I know such things are said of them, deacon, but I do not think they +are true. I have never seen but one factory girl, and that was my cousin +Esther, who visited us last summer. I do not believe there is a better +girl in the world than she is; and I cannot think she would be so +contented and cheerful among such a set of wretches as some folks think +factory girls must be. There may be wicked girls there; but among so +many, there must be some who are good; and when I go there, I shall try +to keep out of the way of bad company, and I do not doubt that cousin +Esther can introduce me to girls who are as good as any with whom I have +associated. If she cannot I will have no companion but her, and spend +the little leisure I shall have in solitude, for I am determined to go." + +"But supposing, Susan, that all the girls there were as good, and +sensible, and pleasant as yourself--yet there are many other things to +be considered. You have not thought how hard it will seem to be boxed up +fourteen hours in a day, among a parcel of clattering looms, or whirling +spindles, whose constant din is of itself enough to drive a girl out of +her wits; and then you will have no fresh air to breathe, and as likely +as not come home in a year or two with a consumption, and wishing you +had staid where you would have had less money and better health. I have +also heard that the boarding women do not give the girls food which is +fit to eat, nor half enough of the mean stuff they do allow them, and it +is contrary to all reason to suppose that folks can work, and have their +health, without victuals to eat." + +"I have thought of all these things, deacon, but they do not move me. I +know the noise of the mills must be unpleasant at first, but I shall get +used to that; and as to my health, I know that I have as good a +constitution to begin with as any girl could wish, and no predisposition +to consumption, nor any of those diseases which a factory life might +otherwise bring upon me. I do not expect all the comforts which are +common to country farmers; but I am not afraid of starving, for cousin +Esther said, that she had an excellent boarding place, and plenty to +eat, and drink, and that which was good enough for anybody. But if they +do not give us good meat, I will eat vegetables alone, and when we have +bad butter, I will eat my bread without it." + +"Well," said the deacon, "if your health is preserved, you may lose some +of your limbs. I have heard a great many stories about girls who had +their hands torn off by the machinery, or mangled so that they could +never use them again; and a hand is not a thing to be despised, nor +easily dispensed with. And then, how should you like to be ordered +about, and scolded at, by a cross overseer?" + +"I know there is danger," replied Susan, "among so much machinery, but +those who meet with accidents are but a small number, in proportion to +the whole, and if I am careful I need not fear any injury. I do not +believe the stories we hear about bad overseers, for such men would not +be placed over so many girls; and if I have a cross one, I will give no +reason to find fault; and if he finds fault without reason, I will leave +him, and work for some one else.--You know that I must do something, and +I have made up my mind what it shall be." + +"You are a good child, Susan," and the deacon looked very kind when he +told her so, "and you are a courageous, noble-minded girl. I am not +afraid that _you_ will learn to steal, and lie, and swear, and neglect +your Bible and the meeting-house; but lest anything unpleasant should +happen, I will make you this offer: I will let your mother live upon the +farm, and pay me what little she can, till your brother James is old +enough to take it at the halves; and if you will come here, and help my +wife about the house and dairy, I will give you 4_s._ 6_d._ a-week, and +you shall be treated as a daughter--perhaps you may one day be one." + +The deacon looked rather sly at her, and Susan blushed; for Henry Rand, +the deacon's youngest son, had been her playmate in childhood, her +friend at school, and her constant attendant at all the parties and +evening meetings. Her young friends all spoke of him as her lover, and +even the old people had talked of it as a very fitting match, as Susan, +besides good sense, good humor, and some beauty, had the health, +strength and activity which are always reckoned among the qualifications +for a farmer's wife. + +Susan knew of this; but of late, domestic trouble had kept her at home, +and she knew not what his present feelings were. Still she felt that +they must not influence her plans and resolutions. Delicacy forbade that +she should come and be an inmate of his father's house, and her very +affection for him had prompted the desire that she should be as +independent as possible of all favors from him, or his father; and also +the earnest desire that they might one day clear themselves of debt. So +she thanked the deacon for his offer, but declined accepting it, and +arose to take leave. + +"I shall think a great deal about you, when you are gone," said the +deacon, "and will pray for you, too. I never used to think about the +sailors, till my wife's brother visited us, who had led for many years a +sea-faring life; and now I always pray for those who are exposed to the +dangers of the great deep. And I will also pray for the poor factory +girls who work so hard and suffer so much." + +"Pray for me, deacon," replied Susan in a faltering voice, "that I may +have strength to keep a good resolution." + +She left the house with a sad heart; for the very success of her hopes +and wishes had brought more vividly to mind the feeling that she was +really to go and leave for many years her friends and home. + +She was almost glad that she had not seen Henry; and while she was +wondering what he would say and think, when told that she was going to +Lowell, she heard approaching footsteps, and looking up, saw him coming +towards her. The thought--no, the idea, for it had not time to form into +a definite thought--flashed across her mind, that she must now arouse +all her firmness, and not let Henry's persuasion shake her resolution to +leave them all, and go to the factory. + +But the very indifference with which he heard of her intention was of +itself sufficient to arouse her energy. He appeared surprised, but +otherwise wholly unconcerned, though he expressed a hope that she would +be happy and prosperous, and that her health would not suffer from the +change of occupation. + +If he had told her that he loved her--if he had entreated her not to +leave them, or to go with the promise of returning to be his future +companion through life--she could have resisted it; for this she had +resolved to do; and the happiness attending an act of self-sacrifice +would have been her reward. + +She had before known sorrow, and she had borne it patiently and +cheerfully; and she knew that the life which was before her would have +been rendered happier by the thought, that there was one who was deeply +interested for her happiness, and who sympathized in all her trials. + +When she parted from Henry it was with a sense of loneliness, of utter +desolation, such as she had never before experienced. She had never +before thought that he was dear to her, and that she had wished to carry +in her far-off place of abode the reflection that she was dear to him. +She felt disappointed and mortified, but she blamed not him, neither did +she blame herself; she did not know that any one had been to blame. Her +young affections had gone forth as naturally and as involuntarily as the +vapors rise to meet the sun. But the sun which had called them forth, +had now gone down, and they were returning in cold drops to the +heart-springs from which they had arisen; and Susan resolved that they +should henceforth form a secret fount, whence every other feeling should +derive new strength and vigor. She was now more firmly resolved that her +future life should be wholly devoted to her kindred, and thought not of +herself but as connected with them. + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was with pain that Mrs. Miller heard of Susan's plan; but she did not +oppose her. She felt that it must be so, that she must part with her +for her own good and the benefit of the family; and Susan hastily made +preparations for her departure. + +She arranged everything in and about the house for her mother's +convenience; and the evening before she left she spent in instructing +Lydia how to take her place, as far as possible, and told her to be +always cheerful with mother, and patient with the younger ones, and to +write a long letter every two months (for she could not afford to hear +oftener), and to be sure and not forget her for a single day. + +Then she went to her own room; and when she had re-examined her trunk, +bandbox, and basket, to see that all was right, and laid her +riding-dress over the great armchair, she sat down by the window to +meditate upon her change of life. + +She thought, as she looked upon the spacious, convenient chamber in +which she was sitting, how hard it would be to have no place to which +she could retire and be alone, and how difficult it would be to keep her +things in order in the fourth part of a small apartment, and how +possible it was that she might have unpleasant room-mates, and how +probable that every day would call into exercise all her kindness and +forbearance. And then she wondered if it would be possible for her to +work so long, and save so much, as to render it possible that she might +one day return to that chamber and call it her own. Sometimes she wished +she had not undertaken it, that she had not let the deacon know that she +hoped to be able to pay him; she feared that she had taken a burden upon +herself which she could not bear, and sighed to think that her lot +should be so different from that of most young girls. + +She thought of the days when she was a little child; when she played +with Henry at the brook, or picked berries with him on the hill; when +her mother was always happy, and her father always kind; and she wished +that the time could roll back, and she could again be a careless little +girl. + +She felt, as we sometimes do, when we shut our eyes and try to sleep, +and get back into some pleasant dream, from which we have been too +suddenly awakened. But the dream of youth was over, and before her was +the sad waking reality of a life of toil, separation, and sorrow. + +When she left home the next morning, it was the first time she had ever +parted from her friends. The day was delightful, and the scenery +beautiful; a stage-ride was of itself a novelty to her, and her +companions pleasant and sociable; but she felt very sad, and when she +retired at night to sleep in a hotel, she burst into tears. + +Those who see the factory girls in Lowell, little think of the sighs and +heart-aches which must attend a young girl's entrance upon a life of +toil and privation, among strangers. + +To Susan, the first entrance into a factory boarding-house seemed +something dreadful. The rooms looked strange and comfortless, and the +women cold and heartless; and when she sat down to the supper-table, +where, among more than twenty girls, all but one were strangers, she +could not eat a mouthful. She went with Esther to their sleeping +apartment, and, after arranging her clothes and baggage, she went to +bed, but not to sleep. + +The next morning she went into the mill; and at first, the sight of so +many bands, and wheels, and springs, in constant motion was very +frightful. She felt afraid to touch the loom, and she was almost sure +that she could never learn to weave; the harness puzzled and the reed +perplexed her; the shuttle flew out, and made a new bump upon her head; +and the first time she tried to spring the lathe, she broke out a +quarter of the treads. It seemed as if the girls all stared at her, and +the overseers watched every motion, and the day appeared as long as a +month had been at home. But at last it was night; and O, how glad was +Susan to be released! She felt weary and wretched, and retired to rest +without taking a mouthful of refreshment. There was a dull pain in her +head, and a sharp pain in her ankles; every bone was aching, and there +was in her ears a strange noise, as of crickets, frogs, and jews-harps, +all mingling together, and she felt gloomy and sick at heart. "But it +won't seem so always," said she to herself; and with this truly +philosophical reflection, she turned her head upon a hard pillow, and +went to sleep. + +Susan was right, it did not seem so always. Every succeeding day seemed +shorter and pleasanter than the last; and when she was accustomed to the +work, and had become interested in it, the hours seemed shorter, and the +days, weeks, and months flew more swiftly by than they had ever done +before. She was healthy, active, and ambitious, and was soon able to +earn even as much as her cousin, who had been a weaver several years. + +Wages were then much higher than they are now; and Susan had the +pleasure of devoting the avails of her labor to a noble and cherished +purpose. There was a definite aim before her, and she never lost sight +of the object for which she left her home, and was happy in the prospect +of fulfilling that design. And it needed all this hope of success, and +all her strength of resolution, to enable her to bear up against the +wearing influences of a life of unvarying toil. Though the days seemed +shorter than at first, yet there was a tiresome monotony about them. +Every morning the bells pealed forth the same clangor, and every night +brought the same feeling of fatigue. But Susan felt, as all factory +girls feel, that she could bear it for a while. There are few who look +upon factory labor as a pursuit for life. It is but a temporary +vocation; and most of the girls resolve to quit the mill when some +favorite design is accomplished. Money is their object--not for itself, +but for what it can perform; and pay-days are the landmarks which cheer +all hearts, by assuring them of their progress to the wished-for goal. + +Susan was always very happy when she enclosed the quarterly sum to +Deacon Rand, although it was hardly won, and earned by the deprivation +of many little comforts, and pretty articles of dress, which her +companions could procure. But the thought of home, and the future happy +days which she might enjoy in it, was the talisman which ever cheered +and strengthened her. + +She also formed strong friendships among her factory companions, and +became attached to her pastor, and their place of worship. After the +first two years she had also the pleasure of her sister's society, and +in a year or two more, another came. She did not wish them to come while +very young. She thought it better that their bodies should be +strengthened, and their minds educated in their country home; and she +also wished, that in their early girlhood they should enjoy the same +pleasures which had once made her own life a very happy one. + +And she was happy now; happy in the success of her noble exertions, the +affection and gratitude of her relatives, the esteem of her +acquaintances, and the approbation of conscience. Only once was she +really disquieted. It was when her sister wrote that Henry Rand was +married to one of their old school-mates. For a moment the color fled +from her cheek, and a quick pang went through her heart. It was but for +a moment; and then she sat down and wrote to the newly-married couple a +letter, which touched their hearts by its simple fervent wishes for +their happiness, and assurances of sincere friendship. + +Susan had occasionally visited home, and she longed to go, never to +leave it; but she conquered the desire, and remained in Lowell more than +a year after the last dollar had been forwarded to Deacon Rand. And +then, O, how happy was she when she entered her chamber the first +evening after her arrival, and viewed its newly-painted wainscoting, and +brightly-colored paper-hangings, and the new furniture with which she +had decorated it; and she smiled as she thought of the sadness which had +filled her heart the evening before she first went to Lowell. + +She now always thinks of Lowell with pleasure, for Lydia is married +here, and she intends to visit her occasionally, and even sometimes +thinks of returning for a little while to the mills. Her brother James +has married, and resides in one half of the house, which he has recently +repaired; and Eliza, though still in the factory, is engaged to a +wealthy young farmer. + +Susan is with her mother, and younger brothers and sisters. People begin +to think she will be an old maid, and she thinks herself that it will be +so. The old deacon still calls her a good child, and prays every night +and morning for the factory girls. + + F. G. A. + + + + +SCENES ON THE MERRIMAC. + + +I have been but a slight traveller, and the beautiful rivers of our +country have, with but one or two exceptions, rolled their bright waves +before "the orbs of fancy" alone, and not to my visual senses. But the +few specimens which have been favored me of river scenery, have been +very happy in the influence they have exerted upon my mind, in favor of +this feature of natural loveliness. + +I do not wonder that the "stream of _his_ fathers" should be ever so +favorite a theme with the poet, and that wherever he has sung its +praise, the spot should henceforth be as classic ground. Wherever some +"gently rolling river" has whispered its soft murmurs to the recording +muse, its name has been linked with his; and far as that name may +extend, is the beauty of that inspiring streamlet appreciated. + +Helicon and Castalia are more frequently referred to than +Parnassus,--and even the small streams of hilly Scotland, are renowned +wherever the songs of her poet "are said or sung." "The banks and braes +o' bonny Doon," are duly applauded in the drawing-rooms of America; and +the Tweed, the "clear winding Devon," the "braes of Ayr," the "braes o' +Ballochmyle," and the "sweet Afton," so often the theme of his lays, for +his "Mary's asleep by its murmuring stream," are names even here quite +as familiar, perhaps more so, than our own broad and beauteous rivers. +Such is the hallowing power of Genius; and upon whatever spot she may +cast her bright unfading mantle, there is forever stamped the impress of +beauty. + +"The Bard of Avon" is an honorary title wherever our language is read; +and though we may have few streams which have as yet been sacred to the +muse, yet time will doubtless bring forth those whose genius shall make +the Indian cognomens of our noble rivers' names associated with all that +is lofty in intellect and beautiful in poetry. + +The Merrimac has already received the grateful tribute of praise from +the muse of the New England poet; and well does it merit the encomiums +which he has bestowed upon it. It is a beautiful river, from the time +when its blue waters start on their joyous course, leaving "the smile of +the Great Spirit," to wind through many a vale, and round many a hill, +till they mingle + + "With ocean's dark eternal tide." + +I have said that I have seen but few rivers. No! never have I stood + + "Where Hudson rolls his lordly flood; + Seen sunrise rest, and sunset fade + Along his frowning palisade; + Looked down the Appalachian peak + On Juniata's silver streak; + Or seen along his valley gleam + The Mohawk's softly winding stream; + The setting sun, his axle red + Quench darkly in Potomac's bed; + And autumn's rainbow-tinted banner + Hang lightly o'er the Susquehanna;"-- + +but I still imagine that all their beauties are concentrated in the blue +waters of the Merrimac--not as it appears here, where, almost beneath my +factory window, its broad tide moves peacefully along; but where by +"Salisbury's beach of shining sand," it rolls amidst far lovelier +scenes, and with more rapid flow. Perhaps it is because it is _my_ river +that I think it so beautiful--no matter if it is; there is a great +source of gratification in the feeling of whatever is in any way +connected with our _humble_ selves is on that account invested with some +distinctive charm, and in some mysterious way rendered peculiarly +lovely. + +But even to the stranger's eye, if he have any taste for the beautiful +in nature, the charms of the banks of the Merrimac would not be +disregarded. Can there be a more beautiful bend in a river, than that +which it makes at Salisbury Point? It is one of the most picturesque +scenes, at all events, which I have ever witnessed. Stand for a moment +upon the drawbridge which spans with its single arch the spot where "the +winding Powow" joins his sparkling waters with the broad tide of the +receiving river. We will suppose it is a summer morning. The thin white +mist from the Atlantic, which the night-spirit has thrown, like a bridal +veil, over the vale and river, is gently lifted by Aurora, and the +unshrouded waters blush "celestial rosy red" at the exposure of their +own loveliness. But the bright flush is soon gone, and as the sun rides +higher in the heavens, the millions of little wavelets don their diamond +crowns, and rise, and sink, and leap, and dance rejoicingly together; +and while their sparkling brilliancy arrests the eye, their murmurs of +delight are no less grateful to the ear. The grove upon the Newbury side +is already vocal with the morning anthems of the feathered choir, and +from the maple, oak, and pine is rising one glad peal of melody. The +slight fragrance of the kalmia, or American laurel, which flourishes +here in much profusion, is borne upon the morning breeze; and when their +roseate umbels are opened to the sun, they "sing to the eye," as their +less stationary companions have done to the ear. + +The road which accompanies the river in its beauteous curve, is soon +alive with the active laborers of "Salisbury shore;" and soon the loud +"Heave-ho!" of the ship-builders is mingled with the more mellifluous +tones which have preceded them. The other busy inhabitants are soon +threading the winding street, and as they glance upon their bright and +beauteous river, their breasts swell with emotions of pleasure, though +in their constant and active bustle, they may seldom pause to analyze +the cause. The single sail of the sloop which has lain so listless at +the little wharf, and the double one of the schooner which is about to +traverse its way to the ocean, are unfurled to the morning wind, and the +loud orders of the bustling skipper, and the noisy echoes of his +bustling men, are borne upon the dewy breeze, and echoed from the +Newbury slopes. Soon they are riding upon the bright waters, and the +little skiff or wherry is also seen darting about, amidst the rolling +diamonds, while here and there a heavy laden "gundelow" moves slowly +along, "with sure and steady aim," as though it disdained the pastime of +its livelier neighbors. + +Such is many a morning scene on the banks of the Merrimac; and not less +delightful are those of the evening. Perhaps the sunset has passed. The +last golden tint has faded from the river, and its waveless surface +reflects the deep blue of heaven, and sends back undimmed the first +faint ray of the evening star. The rising tide creeps rippling up the +narrow beach, sending along its foremost swell, which, in a sort of +drowsy play, leaps forward, and then sinks gently back upon its +successors. Now the tide is up--the trees upon the wooded banks of +Newbury, and the sandy hills upon the Amesbury side, are pencilled with +minutest accuracy in the clear waters. Farther down, the dwellings at +the Ferry, and those of the Point, which stand upon the banks, are also +mirrored in the deep stream. You might also fancy that beneath its lucid +tide there was a duplicate village, so distinct is every shadow. As, one +by one, the lights appear in the cottage windows, their reflected fires +shoot up from the depths of the Merrimac. + +But the waters shine with brighter radiance as evening lengthens; for +Luna grows more lavish of her silvery beams as the crimson tints of her +brighter rival die in the western sky. The shore is still and +motionless, save where a pair of happy lovers steal slowly along the +shadowed walk which leads to Pleasant Valley. The old weather-worn ship +at the Point, which has all day long resounded with the clatter of +mischievous boys, is now wrapped in silence. The new one in the +ship-yard, which has also been dinning with the maul and hammer, is +equally quiet. But from the broad surface of the stream there comes the +song, the shout, and the ringing laugh of the light-hearted. They come +from the boats which dot the water, and are filled with the young and +gay. Some have just shot from the little wharf, and others have been for +hours upon the river. What they have been doing, and where they have +been, I do not precisely know; but, from the boughs which have been +broken from _somebody's_ trees, and the large clusters of laurel which +the ladies bear, I think I can "guess-o." + +But it grows late. The lights which have glowed in the reflected +buildings have one by one been quenched, and still those light barks +remain upon the river. And that large "gundelow," which came down the +Powow, from the mills, with its freight of "factory girls," sends forth +"the sound of music and dancing." We will leave them--for it is possible +that they will linger till after midnight, and we have staid quite long +enough to obtain an evening's glimpse at the Merrimac. + +Such are some of the scenes on the river, and many are also the pleasant +spots upon its banks. Beautiful walks and snug little nooks are not +unfrequent; and there are bright green sheltered coves, like Pleasant +Valley, where "all save the spirit of man is divine." + +I remember the first steamboat which ever came hissing and puffing and +groaning and sputtering up the calm surface of the Merrimac. I remember +also the lovely moonlight evening when I watched her return from +Haverhill, and when every wave and rock and tree were lying bathed in a +flood of silver radiance. I shall not soon forget her noisy approach, so +strongly contrasted with the stillness around, nor the long loud ringing +cheers which hailed her arrival and accompanied her departure. I noted +every movement, as she hissed and splashed among the bright waters, +until she reached the curve in the river, and then was lost to view, +excepting the thick sparks which rose above the glistening foilage of +the wooded banks. + +I remember also the first time I ever saw the aborigines of our country. +They were Penobscots, and then, I believe, upon their way to this city. +They encamped among the woods of the Newbury shore, and crossed the +river (there about a mile in width) in their little canoes, whenever +they wished to beg or trade.--They sadly refuted the romantic ideas +which I had formed from the descriptions of Cooper and others; +nevertheless, they were to me an interesting people. They appeared so +strange, with their birch-bark canoes and wooden paddles, their women +with men's hats and such _outre_ dresses, their little boys with their +unfailing bows and arrows, and the little feet which they all had. Their +curious, bright-stained baskets, too, which they sold or gave away. I +have one of them now, but it has lost its bright tints. It was given me +in return for a slight favor.--I remember also one dreadful stormy night +while they were amongst us. The rain poured in torrents. The thick +darkness was unrelieved by a single lightning-flash, and the hoarse +murmur of the seething river was the only noise which could be +distinguished from the pitiless storm. I thought of my new acquaintance, +and looked out in the direction of their camp. I could see at one time +the lights flickering among the thick trees, and darting rapidly to and +fro behind them, and then all would be unbroken gloom. Sometimes I +fancied I could distinguish a whoop or yell, and then I heard nought but +the pelting of the rain. As I gazed on the wild scene, I was strongly +reminded of scenes which are described in old border tales, of wild +banditti, and night revels of lawless hordes of barbarians. + +These are summer scenes; and in winter there is nothing particularly +beautiful in the icy robe with which the Merrimac often enrobes its +chilled waters. But the breaking up of the ice is an event of much +interest. + +As spring approaches, and the weather becomes milder, the river, which +has been a thoroughfare for loaded teams and lighter sleighs, is +gradually shunned, even by the daring skater. Little pools of bluish +water, which the sun has melted, stand in slight hollows, distinctly +contrasted with the clear dark ice in the middle of the stream, or the +flaky snow-crust near the shore. At length a loud crack is heard, like +the report of a cannon--then another, and another--and finally the +loosened mass begins to move towards the ocean. The motion at first is +almost imperceptible, but it gradually increases in velocity, as the +impetus of the descending ice above propels it along; and soon the dark +blue waters are seen between the huge chasms of the parting ice. By and +bye, the avalanches come drifting down, tumbling, crashing, and whirling +along, with the foaming waves boiling up wherever they can find a +crevice; and trunks of trees, fragments of buildings, and ruins of +bridges, are driven along with the tumultuous mass.--A single night will +sometimes clear the river of the main portion of the ice, and then the +darkly-tinted waters will roll rapidly on, as though wildly rejoicing at +their deliverance from bondage. But for some time the white cakes, or +rather ice-islands, will be seen floating along, though hourly +diminishing in size, and becoming more "like angel's visits." + +But there is another glad scene occasionally upon the Merrimac--and that +is, when there is a launching. I have already alluded to the +ship-builders, and they form quite a proportion of the inhabitants of +the shore. And now, by the way, I cannot omit a passing compliment to +the inhabitants of this same shore. It is seldom that so correct, +intelligent, contented, and truly comfortable a class of people is to be +found, as in this pretty hamlet. Pretty it most certainly is--for nearly +all the houses are neatly painted, and some of them indicate much taste +in the owners. And then the people are so kind, good, and industrious. A +Newburyport editor once said of them, "They are nice folks there on +Salisbury shore; they always pay for their newspapers"--a trait of +excellence which printers can usually appreciate. + +But now to the ships, whose building I have often watched with interest, +from the day when the long keel was laid till it was launched into the +river. This is a scene which is likewise calculated to inspire salutary +reflections, from the comparison which is often instituted between +ourselves and a wave-tossed bark. How often is the commencement of +active life compared to the launching of a ship; and even the +unimaginative Puritans could sing, + + "Life's like a ship in constant motion, + Sometimes high and sometimes low, + Where every man must plough the ocean, + Whatsoever winds may blow." + +The striking analogy has been more beautifully expressed by better +poets, though hardly with more force. And if we are like wind-tossed +vessels on a stormy sea, then the gradual formation of our minds may be +compared to the building of a ship. And it was this thought which often +attracted my notice to the labors of the shipwright. + +First, the long keel is laid--then the huge ribs go up the sides; then +the rail-way runs around the top. Then commences the boarding or +timbering of the sides; and for weeks, or months, the builder's maul is +heard, as he pounds in the huge _trunnels_ which fasten all together. +Then there is the finishing inside, and the painting outside, and, after +all, the launching. + +The first that I ever saw was a large and noble ship. It had been long +in building, and I had watched its progress with much interest. The +morning it was to be launched I played truant to witness the scene. It +was a fine sunshiny day, Sept. 21, 1832; and I almost wished I was a +boy, that I might join the throng upon the deck, who were determined +upon a ride. The blocks which supported the ship were severally knocked +out, until it rested upon but one. When that was gone, the ship would +rest upon greased planks, which descended to the water. It must have +been a thrilling moment to the man who lay upon his back, beneath the +huge vessel, when he knocked away the last prop. But it was done, and +swiftly it glided along the planks, then plunged into the river, with an +impetus which sunk her almost to her deck, and carried her nearly to the +middle of the river. Then she slowly rose, rocked back and forth, and +finally righted herself, and stood motionless. But while the dashing +foaming waters were still clamorously welcoming her to a new element, +and the loud cheers from the deck were ringing up into the blue sky, the +bottle was thrown, and she was named the WALTER SCOTT. It will be +remembered that this was the very day on which the Great Magician +died--a fact noticed in the Saturday Courier about that time. + +Several years after this, I was attending school in a neighboring town. +I happened one evening to take up a newspaper. I think it was a +Portsmouth paper; and I saw the statement that a fine new ship had been +burnt at sea, called the WALTER SCOTT. The particulars were so minutely +given, as to leave no room for doubt that it was the beautiful vessel +which I had seen launched, upon the banks of the Merrimac. + + ANNETTE. + + + + +THE FIRST BELLS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +There are times when I am melancholy, when the sun seems to shine with a +shadowy light, and the woods are filled with notes of sadness; when the +up-springing flowers seem blossoms strewed upon a bier, and every +streamlet chants a requiem. Have we not all our trials? And though we +may bury the sad thoughts to which they give birth in the dark recesses +of our own hearts, yet Memory and Sensibility must both be dead, if we +can always be light and mirthful. + +Once it was not so. There was a time when I gaily viewed the dull clouds +of a rainy day, and could hear the voice of rejoicing in the roarings of +the wintry storm, when sorrow was an unmeaning word, and in things which +now appear sacred my thoughtless mind could see the ludicrous. + +These thoughts have been suggested by the recollection of a poor old +couple, to whom in my careless girlhood I gave the name of "the first +bells." And now, I doubt not, you are wondering what strange association +of ideas could have led me to fasten this appellation upon a poor old +man and woman. My answer must be the narration of a few facts. + +When I was young, we all worshipped in the great meeting-house, which +now stands so vacant and forlorn upon the brow of Church Hill. It is +never used but upon town-meeting days--for those who once went up to the +house of God in company, now worship in three separate buildings. There +is discord between them--that worst of all hatred, the animosity which +arises from difference of religious opinions. I am sorry for it; not +that I regret that they cannot all think alike, but that they cannot +"agree to differ." Because the heads are not in unison, it needeth not +that the hearts should be estranged; and a difference of faith may be +expressed in kindly words. I have my friends among them all, and they +are not the less dear to me, because upon some doctrinal points our +opinions cannot be the same. A creed which I do not now believe is +hallowed by recollections of the Sabbath worship, the evening meetings, +the religious feelings--in short, of the faith, hope, and trust of my +earlier days. + +I remember now how still and beautiful our Sunday mornings used to seem, +after the toil and play of the busy week. I would take my catechism in +my hand, and go and sit upon a large flat stone, under the shade of the +chestnut tree; and, looking abroad, would wonder if there was a thing +which did not feel that it was the Sabbath. The sun was as bright and +warm as upon other days, but its light seemed to fall more softly upon +the fields, woods and hills; and though the birds sung as loudly and +joyfully as ever, I thought their sweet voices united in a more sacred +strain. I heard a Sabbath tone in the waving of the boughs above me, and +the hum of the bees around me, and even the bleating of the lambs and +the lowing of the kine seemed pitched upon some softer key. Thus it is +that the heart fashions the mantle with which it is wont to enrobe all +nature, and gives to its never silent voices a tone of joy, or sorrow, +or holy peace. + +We had then no bell; and when the hour approached for the commencement +of religious services, each nook and dale sent forth its worshippers in +silence. But precisely half an hour before the rest of our neighbors +started, the old man and woman, who lived upon Pine Hill, could be seen +wending their way to the meeting-house. They walked side by side, with a +slow even step, such as was befitting the errand which had brought them +forth. Their appearance was always the signal for me to lay aside my +book, and prepare to follow them to the house of God. And it was because +they were so unvarying in their early attendance, because I was never +disappointed in the forms which first emerged from the pine trees upon +the hill, that I gave them the name of "the first bells." + +Why they went thus regularly early I know not, but think it probable +they wished for time to rest after their long walk, and then to prepare +their hearts to join in exercises which were evidently more valued by +them than by most of those around them. Yet it must have been a deep +interest which brought so large a congregation from the scattered +houses, and many far-off dwellings of our thinly peopled country town. + +And every face was then familiar to me. I knew each white-headed +patriarch who took his seat by the door of his pew, and every aged woman +who seated herself in the low chair in the middle of it; and the +countenances of the middle-aged and the young were rendered familiar by +the exchange of Sabbath glances, as we met year after year in that +humble temple. + +But upon none did I look with more interest than upon "the first bells." +There they always were when I took my accustomed seat at the right hand +of the pulpit. Their heads were always bowed in meditation till they +arose to join in the morning prayer; and when the choir sent forth their +strain of praise they drew nearer to each other, and looked upon the +same book, as they silently sent forth the spirit's song to their Father +in heaven. There was an expression of meekness, of calm and perfect +faith, and of subdued sorrow upon the countenances of both, which won my +reverence, and excited my curiosity to know more of them. + +They were poor. I knew it by the coarse and much-worn garments which +they always wore; but I could not conjecture why they avoided the +society and sympathy of all around them. They always waited for our +pastor's greeting when he descended from the pulpit, and meekly bowed to +all around, but farther than this, their intercourse with others +extended not. It appeared to me that some heavy trial, which had knit +their own hearts more closely together, and endeared to them their faith +and its religious observances, had also rendered them unusually +sensitive to the careless remarks and curious inquiries of a country +neighborhood. + +One Sabbath our pastor preached upon parental love. His text was that +affecting ejaculation of David, "O Absalom, my son, my son!" He spoke of +the depth and fervor of that affection which in a parental heart will +remain unchanged and unabated, through years of sin, estrangement, and +rebellion. He spoke of that reckless insubordination which often sends +pang after pang through the parent's breast; and of wicked deeds which +sometimes bring their grey hairs in sorrow to the grave. I heard stifled +sobs; and looking up, saw that the old man and woman at the right hand +of the pulpit had buried their faces in their hands. They were trembling +with agitation, and I saw that a fount of deep and painful remembrances +had now been opened. They soon regained their usual calmness, but I +thought their steps more slow, and their countenances more sorrowful +that day, when after our morning service had closed, they went to the +grave in the corner of the churchyard. There was no stone to mark it, +but their feet had been wearing, for many a Sabbath noon, the little +path which led to it. + +I went that night to my mother, and asked her if she could not tell me +something about "the first bells." She chid me for the phrase by which I +was wont to designate them, but said that her knowledge of their former +life was very limited. Several years before, she added, a man was +murdered in hot blood in a distant town, by a person named John L. The +murderer was tried and hung; and not long after, this old man and woman +came and hired the little cottage upon Pine Hill. Their names were the +same that the murderer had borne, and their looks of sadness and +retiring manners had led to the conclusion that they were his parents. +No one knew, certainly, that it was so--for they shrunk from all +inquiries, and never adverted to the past; but a gentle and sad looking +girl, who had accompanied them to their new place of abode, had pined +away, and died within the first year of their arrival. She was their +daughter, and was supposed to have died of a broken heart for her +brother who had been hung. She was buried in the corner of the +churchyard, and every pleasant Sabbath noon her aged parents had mourned +together over her lowly grave. + +"And now, my daughter," said my mother, in conclusion "respect their +years, their sorrows, and, above all, the deep fervent piety which +cheers and sustains them, and which has been nurtured by agonies, and +watered by tears, such as I hope my child will never know." + +My mother drew me to her side, and kissed me tenderly; and I resolved +that never again would I in a spirit of levity call Mr. and Mrs. L. "the +first bells." + + +CHAPTER II. + +Years passed on; and through summer's sunshine and its showers, and +through winter's cold and frost, and storms, that old couple still went +upon their never-failing Sabbath pilgrimage. I can see them even now, as +they looked in days long gone by. The old man, with his loose, black, +Quaker-like coat, and low-crowned, much-worn hat, his heavy cowhide +boots, and coarse blue mittens; and his partner walking slowly by his +side, wearing a scanty brown cloak with four little capes, and a close, +black, rusty-looking bonnet. In summer the cloak was exchanged for a +cotton shawl, and the woollen gown for one of mourning print. The +Sabbath expression was as unchangeable as its dress. Their features were +very different, but they had the same mild, mournful look, the same +touching glance, whenever their eyes rested upon each other; and it was +one which spoke of sympathy, hallowed by heartfelt piety. + +At length a coffin was borne upon a bier from the little house upon the +hill; and after that the widow went alone each Sabbath noon to the two +graves in the corner of the churchyard. I felt sad when I thought how +lonely and sorrowful she must be now; and one pleasant day I ventured an +unbidden guest into her lowly cot. As I approached her door, I heard her +singing in a low, tremulous tone, + + "How are thy servants blessed, O Lord." + +I was touched to the heart; for I could see that her blessings were +those of a faith, hope, and joy, which the world could neither give nor +take away. + +She was evidently destitute of what the world calls comforts, and I +feared she might also want its necessaries. But her look was almost +cheerful as she assured me that her knitting (at which I perceived she +was quite expeditious) supplied her with all which she now wanted. + +I looked upon her sunburnt, wrinkled countenance, and thought it radiant +with moral beauty. She wore no cap, and her thin grey hair was combed +back from her furrowed brow. Her dress was a blue woollen skirt, and a +short loose gown; and her hard shrivelled hands bore witness to much +unfeminine labor. Yet she was contented, and even happy, and singing +praise to God for his blessings. + +The next winter I thought I could perceive a faltering in her gait +whenever she ascended Church Hill; and one Sabbath she was not in her +accustomed seat. The next, she was also absent; and when I looked upon +Pine Hill, I could perceive no smoke issuing from her chimney. I felt +anxious, and requested liberty to make, what was then in our +neighborhood an unusual occurrence, a Sabbath visit. My mother granted +me permission to go, and remain as long as my services might be +necessary; and at the close of the afternoon worship, I went to the +little house upon the hill. I listened eagerly for some sound as I +entered the cold apartment; but hearing none, I tremblingly approached +the low hard bed. She was lying there with the same calm look of +resignation, and whispered a few words of welcome as I took her hand. + +"You are sick and alone," said I to her; "tell me what I can do for +you." + +"I am sick," was her reply, "but not _alone_. He who is every where, and +at all times present, has been with me, in the day and in the night. I +have prayed to him, and received answers of mercy, love, and peace. He +has sent His angel to call me home, and there is nought for you to do +but to watch the spirit's departure." + +I felt that it was so; yet I must do something. I kindled a fire, and +prepared some refreshment; and after she drank a bowl of warm tea, I +thought she looked better. She asked me for her Bible, and I brought her +the worn volume which had been lying upon the little stand. She took +from it a soiled and much worn letter, and after pressing it to her +lips, endeavored to open it--but her hands were too weak, and it dropped +upon the bed. "No matter," said she, as I offered to open it for her; "I +know all that is in it, and in that book also. But I thought I should +like to look once more upon them both. I have read them daily for many +years till now; but I do not mind it--I shall go soon." + +She followed me with her eyes as I laid them aside, and then closing +them, her lips moved as if in prayer. She soon after fell into a +slumber, and I watched her every breath, fearing it might be the last. + +What lessons of wisdom, truth and fortitude were taught me by that +humble bed-side! I had never before been with the dying, and I had +always imagined a death-bed to be fraught with terror. I expected that +there were always fearful shrieks and appalling groans, as the soul left +its clay tenement; but my fears were now dispelled. A sweet calmness +stole into my inmost soul, as I watched by the low couch of the +sufferer; and I said, "If this be death, may my last end be like hers." + +But at length I saw that some dark dream had brought a frown upon the +pallid brow, and an expression of woe around the parched lips. She was +endeavoring to speak or to weep, and I was about to awaken her, when a +sweet smile came like a flash of sunlight over her sunken face, and I +saw that the dream of woe was exchanged for one of pleasure. Then she +slept calmly, and I wondered if the spirit would go home in that +peaceful slumber. But at length she awoke, and after looking upon me and +her little room with a bewildered air, she heaved a sigh, and said +mournfully, "I thought that I was not to come back again, but it is only +for a little while. I have had a pleasant dream, but not at first. I +thought once that I stood in the midst of a vast multitude, and we were +all looking up at one who was struggling on a gallows. O, I have seen +that sight in many a dream before, but still I could not bear it, and I +said, 'Father, have mercy;' and then I thought that the sky rolled away +from behind the gallows, and there was a flood of glory in the depth +beyond; and I heard a voice saying to him who was hanging there, 'This +day shalt thou be with me in Paradise!' And then the gallows dropped, +and the multitude around me vanished, and the sky rolled together again; +but before it had quite closed over that scene of beauty, I looked +again, and _they were all there_. Yes," added she with a placid smile, +"I know that _he_ is there with them; the _three_ are in heaven, and _I_ +shall be there soon." + +She ceased, and a drowsy feeling came over her. After a while she opened +her eyes with a strange look of anxiety and terror. I went to her, but +she could not speak, and she pressed my hand closely, as though she +feared I would leave her. It was a momentary terror, for she knew that +the last pangs were coming on. There was a painful struggle, and then +came rest and peaceful confidence. "That letter," whispered she +convulsively; and I went to the Bible, and took from it the soiled paper +which claimed her thoughts even in death. I laid it in her trembling +hands, which clasped it nervously, and then pressing it to her heart, +she fell into that slumber from which there is no awakening. + +When I saw that she was indeed gone, I took the letter, and laid it in +its accustomed place; and then, after straightening the limbs, and +throwing the bed-clothes over the stiffening form, I left the house. + +It was a dazzling scene of winter beauty that met my eye as I went forth +from that lowly bed of death. The rising sun threw a rosy light upon the +crusted snow, and the earth was dressed in a robe of sparkling jewels. +The trees were hung with glittering drops, and the frozen streams were +dressed in lobes of brilliant beauty. + +I thought of her upon whose eyes a brighter morn had beamed, and of a +scene of beauty upon which no sun should ever set, and whose +never-fading glories shall yield a happiness which may never pass away. + +I went home, and told my mother what had passed; and she went, with some +others, to prepare the body for burial. I went to look upon it once +more, the morning of the funeral. The features had assumed a rigid +aspect, but the placid smile was still there. The hands were crossed +upon the breast; and as the form lay so still and calm in its snowy +robes, I almost wished that the last change might come upon me, so that +it would bring a peace like this, which should last for evermore. + +I went to the Bible, and took from it that letter. Curiosity was strong +within me, and I opened it. It was signed "John L.," and dated from his +prison the night before his execution. But I did not read it. O no! it +was too sacred. It contained those words of penitence and affection over +which her stricken heart had brooded for years. It had been the +well-spring from which she had drunk joy and consolation, and derived +her hopes of a reunion where there should be no more shame, nor sorrow, +nor death. + +I could not destroy that letter: so I laid it beneath the clasped hands, +over the heart to which it had been pressed when its beatings were +forever stilled; and they buried her, too, in the corner of the +churchyard; and that tattered paper soon mouldered to ashes upon her +breast. * * * * + +We have now a bell upon our new meeting-house; and when I hear its +Sabbath morning peal, my thoughts are subdued to a tone fitting for +sacred worship; for my mind goes back to that old couple, whom I was +wont to call "the first bells;" and I think of the power of religion to +hallow and strengthen the affections, to elevate the mind, and sustain +the drooping spirit, even in the saddest and humblest lot of life. + + SUSANNA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +EVENING BEFORE PAY-DAY. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"To-morrow is pay-day; are you not glad, Rosina, and Lucy? _Dorcas_ is, +I know; for she always loves to see the money. Don't I speak truth +_now_, Miss Dorcas Tilton?" + +"I wish you would stop your clack, Miss Noisy Impudence; for I never +heard you speak anything that was worth an answer. Let me alone, for I +have not yet been able to obtain a moment's time to read my tract." + +"'My tract'--how came it 'my tract,' Miss Stingy Oldmaid?--for I can +call names as fast as you," was the reply of Elizabeth Walters. "Not +because you bought it, or paid for it, or gave a thank'ee to those who +did; but because you lay your clutches upon every thing you can get +without downright stealing." + +"Well," replied Dorcas, "I do not think I have clutched any thing now +which was much coveted by anyone else." + +"You are right, Dorcas," said Rosina Alden, lifting her mild blue eye +for the first time towards the speakers; "the tracts left here by the +monthly distributors are thrown about, and trampled under foot, even by +those who most approve the sentiments which they contain. I have not +seen anyone take them up to read but yourself." + +"She likes them," interrupted the vivacious Elizabeth, "because she gets +them for nothing. They come to her as cheap as the light of the sun, or +the dews of heaven; and thus they are rendered quite as valuable in her +eyes." + +"And that very cheapness, that freedom from exertion and expense by +which they are obtained, is, I believe, the reason why they are +generally so little valued," added Rosina. "People are apt to think +things worthless which come to them so easily. They believe them cheap, +if they are offered cheap. Now I think, without saying one word against +those tracts, that they would be more valued, more perused, and exert +far more influence, if they were only to be obtained by payment for +them. If they do good now, it is to the publishers only; for I do not +think the community in general is influenced by them in the slightest +degree. If Dorcas feels more interested in them because she procures +them gratuitously, it is because she is an exception to the general +rule." + +"I like sometimes," said Dorcas, "to see the voice of instruction, of +warning, of encouragement, and reproof, coming to the thoughtless, +ignorant, poor and sinful, as it did from him who said to those whom he +sent to inculcate its truths, Freely ye have received, _freely give_. +The gospel is an expensive luxury now, and those only who can afford to +pay their four, or six, or more, dollars a year, can hear its truths +from the successors of him who lifted his voice upon the lonely +mountain, and opened his lips for council at the table of the despised +publican, or under the humble roof of the Magdalen." + +"Do not speak harshly, Dorcas," was Rosina's reply; "times have indeed +changed since the Savior went about with not a shelter for his head, +dispensing the bread of life to all who would but reach forth their +hands and take it; but circumstances have also changed since then. It is +true, we must lay down our money for almost everything we have; but +money is much more easily obtained than it was then. It is true, we +cannot procure a year's seat in one of our most expensive churches for +less than your present week's wages; and if you really wish for the +benefits of regular gospel instruction, you must make for it as much of +an exertion as was made by the woman who went on her toilsome errand to +the deep well of Samaria, little aware that she was there to receive the +waters of eternal life. Do not say that it was by no effort, no +self-denial, that the gospel was received by those who followed the +great Teacher to the lonely sea-side, or even to the desert, where, +weary and famished, they remained day after day, beneath the heat of a +burning sun, and were relieved from hunger but by a miracle. And who so +poor now, or so utterly helpless, that they cannot easily obtain the +record of those words which fell so freely upon the ears of the +listening multitudes of Judea? If there are such, there are societies +which will cheerfully relieve their wants, if application be made. And +these tracts, which come to us with scarcely the trouble of stretching +forth our hands for their reception, are doubtless meant for good." + +"Well, Rosina," exclaimed Elizabeth, "if you hold out a little longer, I +think Dorcas will have no reason to complain but that she gets _her_ +preaching cheap enough; but as I, for one, am entirely willing to pay +for mine, you may be excused for the present; and those who wish to +hear a theological discussion, can go and listen to the very able +expounders of the Baptist and Universalist faiths, who are just now +holding forth in the other chamber. As Dorcas hears no preaching but +that which comes _as cheap as the light of the sun_, she will probably +like to go; and do not be offended with me, Rosina, if I tell you +plainly, that you are not the one to rebuke her. What sacrifice have you +made? How much have you spent? When have you ever given anything for the +support of the gospel?" + +A tear started to Rosina's eye, and the color deepened upon her cheek. +Her lip quivered, but she remained silent. + +"Well," said Lucy to Elizabeth, "all this difficulty is the effect of +the very simple question you asked; and I will answer for one, that I am +glad to-morrow is pay-day. Pray what shall you get that is new, +Elizabeth?" + +"Oh, I shall get one of those damask silk shawls which are now so +fashionable. How splendid it will look! Let me see; this is a five +weeks' payment, and I have earned about two dollars per week; and so +have you, and Rosina; and Dorcas has earned a great deal more, for she +has extra work. Pray what new thing shall _you_ get, Dorcas?" added she, +laughing. + +"She will get a new bank book, I suppose," replied Lucy. "She has +already deposited in her own name five hundred dollars, and now she has +got a book in the name of her little niece, and I do not know but she +will soon procure another. She almost worships them, and Sundays she +stays here reckoning up her interest while we are at meeting." + +"I think it is far better," retorted Dorcas, "to stay at home, than to +go to meeting, as Elizabeth does, to show her fine clothes. I do not +make a mockery of public worship to God." + +"There, Lizzy, you must take that, for you deserved it," said Lucy to +her friend. "You know you _do_ spend almost all your money in dress." + +"Well," said Elizabeth, "I shall sow all my wild oats now, and when I am +an old maid I will be as steady, but _not quite_ so stingy as Dorcas. I +will get a bank book, and trot down Merrimack street as often as she +does, and everybody will say, 'what a remarkable change in Elizabeth +Walters! She used to spend all her wages as fast as they were paid her, +but now she puts them in the bank. She will be quite a fortune for some +one, and I have no doubt she will get married for what she _has_, if not +for what she is.' But I cannot begin now, and I don't see how _you_ can, +Rosina." + +"I have not begun," replied Rosina, in a low sorrowful tone. + +"Why yes, you have; you are as miserly now as Dorcas herself; and I +cannot bear to think of what you may become. Now tell me if you will not +get a new gown and bonnet, and go to meeting?" + +"I cannot," replied Rosina, decidedly. + +"Well, do, if you have any mercy on us, buy a new gown to wear in the +Mill, for your old one is so shabby. When calico is nine-pence a yard, I +do think it is mean to wear such an old thing as that; besides, I should +not wonder if it should soon drop off your back." + +"Will it not last me one month more?" and Rosina began to mend the +tattered dress with a very wistful countenance. + +"Why, I somewhat doubt it; but at all events, you must have another pair +of shoes." + +"These are but just beginning to let in the water," said Rosina; "I +think they must last me till another pay-day." + +"Well, if you have a fever or consumption, Dorcas may take care of you, +for _I_ will not; but what," continued the chattering Elizabeth, "shall +you buy that is new, Lucy?" + +"Oh, a pretty new, though cheap, bonnet; and I shall also pay my +quarter's pew-rent, and a year's subscription to the 'Lowell Offering;' +and that is all that I shall spend. You have laughed much about old +maids; but it was an old maid who took care of me when I first came to +Lowell, and she taught me to lay aside half of every month's wages. It +is a rule from which I have never deviated, and thus I have quite a +pretty sum at interest, and have never been in want of anything." + +"Well," said Elizabeth, "will you go out to-night with me, and we will +look at the bonnets, and also the damask silk shawls? I wish to know the +prices. How I wish to-day had been pay-day, and then I need not have +gone out with an empty purse." + +"Well, Lizzy, _you_ know that 'to-morrow is pay-day,' do you not?" + +"Oh yes, and the beautiful pay-master will come in, rattling his coppers +so nicely." + +"Beautiful!" exclaimed Lucy; "do you call our pay-master _beautiful_?" + +"Why, I do not know that he would look beautiful, if he was coming to +cut my head off; but really, that money-box makes him look +delightfully." + +"Well, Lizzy, it _does_ make a great difference in his appearance, I +know; but if we are going out to-night, we must be in a hurry." + +"If you go by the post-office, do ask if there is a letter for me," said +Rosina. + +"Oh, I hate to go near the post-office in the evening; the girls act as +wild as so many Caribbee Indians. Sometimes I have to stand there an +hour on the ends of my toes, stretching my neck, and sticking out my +eyes; and when I think I have been pommeled and jostled long enough, I +begin to 'set up on my own hook,' and I push away the heads that have +been at the list as if they were committing it all to memory, and I send +my elbows right and left in the most approved style, till I find myself +'master of the field.'" + +"Oh, Lizzy! you know better; how can you do so?" + +"Why, Lucy, pray tell me what _you_ do?" + +"I go away, if there is a crowd; or if I feel very anxious to know +whether there is a letter for me, the worst that I do is to try 'sliding +and gliding.' I dodge between folks, or slip through them, till I get +waited upon. But I know that we all act worse there than anywhere else; +and if the post-master speaks a good word for the factory girls, I think +it must come against his conscience, unless he has seen them somewhere +else than in the office." + +"Well, well, we must hasten along," said Elizabeth; "and stingy as +Rosina is, I suppose she will be willing to pay for a letter; so I will +buy her one, if I can get it. Good evening, ladies," continued she, +tying her bonnet; and she hurried after Lucy, who was already down the +stairs, leaving Dorcas to read her tract at leisure, and Rosina to patch +her old calico gown, with none to torment her. + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Two letters!" exclaimed Elizabeth, as she burst into the chamber, +holding them up, as little Goody in the storybook held up her "two +shoes;" "two letters! one for _you_, Rosina, and the other is for _me_. +Only look at it! It is from a cousin of mine, who has never lived out of +sight of the Green Mountains. I do believe, notwithstanding all that is +said about the ignorance of the factory girls, that the letters which +_go out_ of Lowell look as well as those which _come into_ it. See here: +up in the left hand corner, the direction commences, 'Miss;' one step +lower is 'Elizabeth;' then down another step, 'Walters.' Another step +brings us down to 'Lowell;' one more is the 'City;' and down in the +right hand corner is 'Massachusetts,' at full length. Quite a regular +stair-case, if the steps had been all of an equal width. Miss Elizabeth +Walters, Lowell City, Massachusetts, anticipates much edification from +the perusal thereof," said she, as she broke the seal. + +"Oh, I must tell you an anecdote," said Lucy. "While we were waiting +there, I saw one girl push her face into the little aperture, and ask if +there was a paper for her; and the clerk asked if it was a transient +paper. 'A what?' said she. 'A transient paper,' he repeated. 'Why, I +don't know what paper it is,' was the reply; 'sometimes our folks send +me one, and sometimes another.'" + +Dorcas and Elizabeth laughed, and the latter exclaimed, "Girls, I am not +so selfish as to be unwilling that you should share my felicity. Should +you not like to see my letter?" and she held it up before them. "It is +quite a contrast to our Rosina's delicate Italian penmanship, although +she is a factory girl." + + "DEAR COUSIN.--I write this to let you know that I am well, and hope + you are enjoying the same great blessing. Father and Mother are well + too. Uncle Joshua is sick of the information of the brain. We think + he will die, but he says that he shall live his days out. We have + not had a letter from you since you went to Lowell. I send this by + Mary Twining, an old friend of mine. She works upon the Appletown + Corporation. She will put this in the post-office, because we do not + know where you work. I hope you will go and see her. We have had a + nice time making maple sugar this spring. I wish you had been with + us. When you are married, you must come with your husband. Write to + me soon, and if you don't have a chance to send it by private + conveyance, drop it into the post-office. I shall get it, for the + mail-stage passes through the village twice a week. + + 'I want to see you morn, I think, + Than I can write with pen and ink; + But when I shall, I cannot tell-- + At present I must wish you well.' + + "Your loving cousin, + "JUDITH WALTERS." + +"Well," said Elizabeth, drawing a long breath, "I do not think my +_loving cousin_ will ever die of the 'information of the brain;' but if +it should get there, I do not know what might happen.--But, Rosina, from +whom is _your_ letter?" + +"My mother," said Rosina; and she seated herself at the little +light-stand, with a sheet of paper, pen, and inkstand. + +"Why, you do not intend to answer it to-night?" + +"I must commence it to-night," replied Rosina, "and finish it to-morrow +night, and carry it to the post-office. I cannot write a whole letter in +one evening." + +"Why, what is the matter?" said Dorcas. + +"My twin-sister is very sick," replied Rosina; and the tears she could +no longer restrain gushing freely forth. The girls, who had before been +in high spirits, over cousin Judy's letter, were subdued in an instant. +Oh, how quick is the influence of sympathy for grief! Not another word +was spoken. The letter was put away in silence, and the girls glided +noiselessly around the room, as they prepared to retire to rest. + +Shall we take a peep at Rosina's letter? It may remove some false +impressions respecting her character, and many are probably suffering +injustice from erroneous opinions, when, if all could be known, the very +conduct which has exposed them to censure would excite approbation. Her +widowed mother's letter was the following:-- + + "MY DEAR CHILD.--Many thanks for your last letter, and many more for + the present it contained. It was very acceptable, for it reached me + when I had not a cent in the world. I fear you deprive yourself of + necessaries to send me so much. But all you can easily spare will be + gladly received. I have as much employment at tailoring as I can + find time to do, and sometimes I sit up all night, when I cannot + accomplish my self-allotted task during the day. + + "I have delayed my reply to your letter, because I wished to know + what the doctors really thought of your sister Marcia. They + consulted to-day, and tell me _there is no hope_. The suspense is + now over, but I thought I was better prepared for the worst than I + am. She wished me to tell her what the doctors said. At length I + yielded to her importunities. 'Oh, mother,' said she, with a sweet + smile, 'I am so glad they have told you, for I have known it for a + long time. You must write to Rosina to come and see me before I + die.' Do as you think best, my dear, about coming. You know how glad + we would be to see you. But if you cannot come, do not grieve too + much about it.--Marcia must soon die, and you, I hope, will live + many years; but the existence which you commenced together here, I + feel assured will be continued in a happier world. The interruption + which will now take place will be short, in comparison with the life + itself which shall have no end. And yet it is hard to think that one + so young, so good, and lovely, is so soon to lie in the silent + grave. While the blue skies of heaven are daily growing more softly + beautiful, and the green things of earth are hourly putting forth a + brighter verdure, she, too, like the lovely creatures of nature, is + constantly acquiring some new charm, to fit her for that world which + she will so soon inhabit. Death is coming, with his severest + tortures, but she arrays her person in bright loveliness at his + approach, and her spirit is robed in graces which well may fit her + for that angel-band, which she is so soon to join. + + "I am now writing by her bed-side. She is sleeping soundly now, but + there is a heavy dew upon the cheek, brow, and neck of the tranquil + sleeper. A rose--it is one of _your_ roses, Rosina--is clasped in + her transparent hand: and one rosy pedal has somehow dropped upon + her temple. It breaks the line which the blue vein has so distinctly + traced on the clear white brow. I will take it away, and enclose it + in the letter. When you see it, perhaps it will bring more vividly + to memory the days when you and Marcia frolicked together among the + wild rose bushes.--Those which you transplanted to the front of the + house have grown astonishingly. Marcia took care of them as long as + she could go out of doors; for she wished to do something to show + her gratitude to you. Now that she can go among them no longer, she + watches them through the window, and the little boys bring her + every morning the most beautiful blossoms. She enjoys their beauty + and fragrance, as she does everything which is reserved for her + enjoyment. There is but one thought which casts a shade upon that + tranquil spirit, and it is that she is such a helpless burden upon + us. The last time that she received a compensation for some slight + article which she had exerted herself to complete, she took the + money and sent Willy for some salt. 'Now, mother,' said she, with + the arch smile which so often illuminated her countenance in the + days of health, 'Now, mother you cannot say that I do not earn my + salt.' + + "But I must soon close, for in a short time she will awaken, and + suffer for hours from her agonizing cough.--No one need tell me now + that a consumption makes an easy path to the grave. I watched too + long by your father's bed-side, and have witnessed too minutely all + of Marcia's sufferings to be persuaded of this. + + "But she breathes less softly now, and I must hasten. I have said + little of the other members of the family, for I knew you would like + to hear particularly about her. The little boys are well--they are + obedient to me, and kind to their sister. Answer as soon as you + receive this, for Marcia's sake, unless you come and visit us. + + "And now, hoping that this will find you in good health, as, by the + blessing of God, it leaves me, (a good though an old-fashioned + manner of closing a letter,) I remain as ever, + + "Your affectionate mother." + +Rosina's reply was as follows:-- + + "DEAR MOTHER.--I have just received your long-expected letter, and + have seated myself to commence an answer, for I cannot go home. + + "I do wish very much to see you all, especially dear Marcia, once + more; but it is not best. I know you think so, or you would have + urged my return. I think I shall feel more contented here, earning + comforts for my sick sister and necessaries for you, than I should + be there, and unable to relieve a want. 'To-morrow is pay-day,' and + my earnings, amounting to ten dollars, I shall enclose in this + letter. Do not think I am suffering for anything, for I get a long + very well. But I am obliged to be extremely prudent, and the girls + here call me miserly. Oh, mother! it is hard to be so misunderstood; + but I cannot tell _them_ all. + + "But your kind letters are indeed a solace to me, for they assure me + that the mother whom I have always loved and reverenced approves of + my conduct. I shall feel happier to-morrow night, when I enclose + that bill to you, than my room-mates can be in the far different + disposal of theirs. + + "What a blessing it is that we can send money to our friends; and + indeed what a blessing that we can send them a letter. Last evening + you was penning the lines which I have just perused, in my + far-distant home; and not twenty-four hours have elapsed since the + rose-leaf before me was resting on the brow of my sister; but it is + now ten o'clock, and I must bid you good night, reserving for + to-morrow evening the remainder of my epistle, which I shall address + to Marcia." + +It was long before Rosina slept that night; and when she did, she was +troubled at first by fearful dreams. But at length it seemed to her that +she was approaching the quiet home of her childhood. She did not +remember where she had been, but had a vague impression that it was in +some scene of anxiety, sorrow, and fatigue; and she was longing to reach +that little cot, where it appeared so still and happy. She thought the +sky was very clear above it, and the yellow sunshine lay softly on the +hills and fields around it. She saw her rose-bushes blooming around it, +like a little wilderness of blossoms; and while she was admiring their +increased size and beauty, the door was opened, and a body arrayed in +the snowy robes of the grave, was carried beneath the rose-bushes. They +bent to a slight breeze which swept above them, and a shower of snowy +petals fell upon the marble face and shrouded form. It was as if nature +had paid this last tribute of gratitude to one who had been one of her +truest and loveliest votaries. + +Rosina started forward that she might remove the fragrant covering, and +imprint one last kiss upon the fair cold brow; but a hand was laid upon +her, and a well-known voice repeated her name. And then she started, for +she heard the bell ring loudly; and she opened her eyes as Dorcas again +cried out, "Rosina, the second bell is ringing."--Elizabeth and Lucy +were already dressed, and they exclaimed at the same moment, "Remember, +Rosina, that _to-day is pay-day_." + + LUCINDA. + + + + +THE INDIAN PLEDGE. + + +On the door-steps of a cottage in the land of "steady habits," some +ninety or an hundred years since, might, on a soft evening in June, have +been seen a sturdy young farmer, preparing his scythes for the coming +hay-making season. So intent was he upon his work that he heeded not the +approach of a tall Indian, accoutred for a hunting expedition, until, +"Will you give an unfortunate hunter some supper and lodging for the +night?" in a tone of supplication, caught his ear. + +The farmer raised his eyes from his work, and darting fury from beneath +a pair of shaggy eyebrows, he exclaimed, "Heathen, Indian dog, begone! +you shall have nothing here." + +"But I am very hungry," said the Indian; "give only a crust of bread and +a bone to strengthen me on my journey." + +"Get you gone, you heathen dog," said the farmer; "I have nothing for +you." + +"Give me but a cup of cold water," said the Indian, "for I am very +faint." + +This appeal was not more successful than the others.--Reiterated abuse, +and to be told to drink when he came to a river, was all he could obtain +from one who bore the name of Christian! But the supplicating appeal +fell not unheeded on the ear of one of finer mould and more sensibility. +The farmer's youthful bride heard the whole, as she sat hushing her +infant to rest; and from the open casement she watched the poor Indian +until she saw his dusky form sink, apparently exhausted, on the ground +at no great distance from her dwelling. Ascertaining that her husband +was too busied with his work to notice her, she was soon at the Indian's +side, with a pitcher of milk and a napkin filled with bread and cheese. +"Will my red brother slake his thirst with some milk?" said this angel +of mercy; and as he essayed to comply with her invitation, she untied +the napkin, and bade him eat and be refreshed. + +"Cantantowwit protect the white dove from the pounces of the eagle," +said the Indian; "for _her_ sake the unfledged young shall be safe in +their nest, and her red brother will not seek to be revenged." + +He then drew a bunch of feathers from his bosom, and plucking one of +the longest, gave it to her, and said, "When the white dove's mate +flies over the Indians' hunting grounds, bid him wear this on his +head." * * * * + +The summer had passed away. Harvest-time had come and gone, and +preparations had been made for a hunting excursion by the neighbors. Our +young farmer was to be one of the party; but on the eve of their +departure he had strange misgivings relative to his safety. No doubt his +imagination was haunted by the form of the Indian, whom, in the +preceding summer he had treated so harshly. + +The morning that witnessed the departure of the hunters was one of +surpassing beauty. Not a cloud was to be seen, save one that gathered on +the brow of Ichabod (our young farmer), as he attempted to tear a +feather from his hunting-cap, which was sewed fast to it. His wife +arrested his hand, while she whispered in his ear, and a slight quiver +agitated his lips as he said, "Well, Mary, if you think this feather +will protect me from the arrows of the red-skins, I'll e'en let it +remain." Ichabod donned his cap, shouldered his rifle, and the hunters +were soon on their way in quest of game. + +The day wore away as was usual with people on a like excursion; and at +nightfall they took shelter in the den of a bear, whose flesh served for +supper, and whose skin spread on bruin's bed of leaves, pillowed their +heads through a long November night. + +With the first dawn of morning, the hunters left their rude shelter and +resumed their chase. Ichabod, by some mishap, soon separated from his +companions, and in trying to join them got bewildered. He wandered all +day in the forest, and just as the sun was receding from sight, and he +was about sinking down in despair, he espied an Indian hut. With mingled +emotions of hope and fear, he bent his steps towards it; and meeting an +Indian at the door, he asked him to direct him to the nearest white +settlement. + +"If the weary hunter will rest till morning, the eagle will show him the +way to the nest of his white dove," said the Indian, as he took Ichabod +by the hand and led him within his hut. The Indian gave him a supper of +parched corn and venison, and spread the skins of animals, which he had +taken in hunting, for his bed. + +The light had hardly began to streak the east, when the Indian awoke +Ichabod, and after a slight repast, the twain started for the settlement +of the whites. Late in the afternoon, as they emerged from a thick wood, +Ichabod with joy espied his home. A heartfelt ejaculation had scarce +escaped his lips, when the Indian stepped before him, and turning +around, stared him full in the face, and inquired if he had any +recollection of a previous acquaintance with his red brother. Upon being +answered in the negative, the Indian said, "Five moons ago, when I was +faint and weary, you called me an Indian dog, and drove me from your +door. I might now be revenged; but Cantantowwit bids me tell you to go +home; and hereafter, when you see a red man in need of kindness, do to +him as you have been done by. Farewell." + +The Indian having said this, turned upon his heel, and was soon out of +sight. Ichabod was abashed. He went home purified in heart, having +learned a lesson of Christianity from an untutored savage. + + TABITHA. + + + + +THE FIRST DISH OF TEA. + + +Tea holds a conspicuous place in the history of our country; but it is +no part of my business to offer comments, or to make any remarks upon +the spirit of olden time, which prompted those patriotic defenders of +their country's rights to destroy so much tea, to express their +indignation at the oppression of their fellow citizens. I only intend to +inform the readers of the "Lowell Offering" that the first dish of tea +which was ever made in Portsmouth, N. H., was made by Abigail Van Dame, +my great-great-grandmother. + +Abigail was early in life left an orphan, and the care of her tender +years devolved upon her aunt Townsend, to whose store fate had never +added any of the smiling blessings of Providence; and as a thing in +course, Abigail became not only the adopted, but also the well-beloved, +child of her uncle and aunt Townsend. They gave her every advantage for +an education which the town of Portsmouth afforded; and at the age of +seventeen she was acknowledged to be the most accomplished young lady in +Portsmouth. + +Many were the worshippers who bowed at the shrine of beauty and learning +at the domicile of Alphonzo Townsend; but his lovely niece was unmoved +by their petitions, much to the perplexity of her aunt, who often +charged Abigail with carrying an obdurate heart in her bosom. In vain +did Mrs. Townsend urge her niece to accept the offers of a young student +of law; and equally vain were her efforts to gain a clue to the cause of +the refusal, until, by the return of an East India Merchantman, Mr. +Townsend received a small package for his niece, and a letter from +Captain Lowd, asking his consent to their union, which he wished might +take place the following year, when he should return to Portsmouth. + +Abigail's package contained a Chinese silk hat, the crown of which was +full of Bohea tea. A letter informed her that the contents of the hat +was the ingredient, which, boiled in water, made what was called the +"Chinese soup." + +Abigail, anxious to ascertain the flavor of a beverage, of which she had +heard much, put the brass skillet over the coals, poured in two quarts +of water, and added thereto a pint bason full of tea, and a gill of +molasses, and let it simmer an hour. She then strained it through a +linen cloth, and in some pewter basins set it around the supper table, +in lieu of bean-porridge, which was the favorite supper of the epicures +of the olden time. + +Uncle, aunt, and Abigail, seated themselves around the little table, and +after crumbling some brown bread into their basins, commenced eating the +Chinese soup. The first spoonful set their faces awry, but the second +was past endurance; and Mrs. Townsend screamed with fright, for she +imagined that she had tasted poison. The doctor was sent for, who +administered a powerful emetic; and the careful aunt persuaded her niece +to consign her hat and its contents to the vault of an outbuilding. + +When Capt. Lowd returned to Portsmouth, he brought with him a chest of +tea, a China tea-set, and a copper teakettle, and instructed Abigail in +the art of tea-making and tea drinking, to the great annoyance of her +aunt Townsend, who could never believe that Chinese soup was half so +good as bean-porridge. + +The _first dish of tea_ afforded a fund of amusement for Capt. Lowd and +lady, and I hope the narrative will be acceptable to modern +tea-drinkers. + + TABITHA. + + + + +LEISURE HOURS OF THE MILL GIRLS. + + +The leisure hours of the mill girls--how shall they be spent? As Ann, +Bertha, Charlotte, Emily, and others, spent theirs? as we spend ours? +Let us decide. + +No. 4 was to stop a day for repairs. Ann sat at her window until she +tired of watching passers-by. She then started up in search of one idle +as herself, for a companion in a saunter. She called at the chamber +opposite her own. The room was sadly disordered. The bed was not made, +although it was past nine o'clock. In making choice of dresses, collars, +aprons, _pro tempore_, some half dozen of each had been taken from their +places, and there they were, lying about on chairs, trunks, and bed, +together with mill clothes just taken off. Bertha had not combed her +hair; but Charlotte gave hers a hasty dressing before "going out +shopping;" and there lay brush, combs, and hair on the table. There were +a few pictures hanging about the walls, such as "You are the prettiest +Rose," "The Kiss," "Man Friday," and a miserable, soiled drawing of a +"Cottage Girl." Bertha blushed when Ann entered. She was evidently +ashamed of the state of her room, and vexed at Ann's intrusion. Ann +understood the reason when Bertha told her, with a sigh, that she had +been "hurrying all the morning to get through the 'Children of the +Abbey,' before Charlotte returned." + +"Ann, I wish you would talk to her," said she. "Her folks are very poor. +I have it on the best authority. Elinda told me that it was confidently +reported by girls who came from the same town, that her folks had been +known to jump for joy at the sight of a crust of bread. She spends every +cent of her wages for dress and confectionary. She has gone out now; and +she will come back with lemons, sugar, rich cake, and so on. She had +better do as I do--spend her money for books, and her leisure time in +reading them. I buy three volumes of novels every month; and when that +is not enough, I take some from the circulating library. I think it our +duty to improve our minds as much as possible, now the mill girls are +beginning to be thought so much of." + +Ann was a bit of a wag. Idle as a breeze, like a breeze she sported with +every _trifling_ thing that came in her way. + +"Pshaw!" said she. "And so we must begin to read silly novels, be very +sentimental, talk about tears and flowers, dews and bowers. There is +some poetry for you, Bertha. Don't you think I'd better 'astonish the +natives,' by writing a poetical rhapsody, nicknamed 'Twilight Reverie,' +or some other silly, inappropriate thing, and sending it to the +'Offering?' Oh, how fine this would be! Then I could purchase a few +novels, borrow a few more, take a few more from a circulating library; +and then shed tears and grow soft over them--all because we are taking a +higher stand in the world, you know, Bertha." + +Bertha again blushed. Ann remained some moments silent. + +"Did you ever read Pelham?" asked Bertha, by way of breaking the +silence. + +"No; I read no novels, good, bad, or indifferent. I have been thinking, +Bertha, that there may be danger of our running away from the reputation +we enjoy, as a class. For my part, I sha'n't ape the follies of other +classes of females. As Isabel Greenwood says--and you know she is always +right about such things--I think we shall lose our independence, +originality, and individuality of character, if we all take one standard +of excellence, and this the customs and opinions of others. This is a +jaw-cracking sentence for me. If any body had uttered it but Isabel, I +should, perhaps, have laughed at it. As it was, I treasured it up for +use, as I do the wise sayings of Franklin, Dudley, Leavitt, and Robert +Thomas. I, for one, shall not attempt to become so accomplished. I shall +do as near right as I can conveniently, not because I have a heavy +burden of gentility to support, but because it is quite as easy to do +right, + + 'And then I sleep so sweet at night.' + +"Good morning, Bertha." + +At the door she met Charlotte, on her return, with lemons, nuts, and +cake. + +"I am in search of a companion for a long ramble," said Ann. "Can you +recommend a _subject_?" + +"I should think Bertha would like to shake herself," said Charlotte. +"She has been buried in a novel ever since she was out of bed this +morning. It was her turn to do the chamber work this morning; and this +is the way she always does, if she can get a novel. She would not mind +sitting all day, with dirt to her head. It is a shame for her to do so. +She had better be wide awake, enjoying life, as I am." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Ann, in her usual _brusque_ manner. "There is not +a cent's choice between you this morning; both are doing wrong, and each +is condemning the other without mercy. So far you are both just like me, +you see. Good morning." + +She walked on to the next chamber. She had enough of the philosopher +about her to reason from appearances, and from the occupation of its +inmates, that she could succeed no better there. Every thing was in the +most perfect order. The bed was shaped, and the sheet hemmed down _just +so_. Their lines that hung by the walls were filled "jist." First came +starched aprons, then starched capes, then pocket handkerchiefs, folded +with the marked corner out. Then hose. This room likewise, had its +paintings, and like those of the other, they were in perfect keeping +with the general arrangements of the room and the dress of its +occupants. There was an apology for a lady. Her attitude and form were +of precisely that uncouth kind which is produced by youthful artificers, +who form head, body and feet from one piece of shingle; and wedge in two +sticks at right angles with the body, for arms. Her sleeves increased in +dimensions from the shoulders, and the skirt from the belt, but without +the semblance of a fold. This, with some others of the same school, and +two "profiles," were carefully preserved in frames, and the frames in +screens of green barage. Miss Clark was busily engaged in making +netting, and Miss Emily in making a dress. Ann made known her wants to +them, more from curiosity to hear their reply, than from a hope of +success. In measured periods they thanked her--would have been happy to +accompany her. "But, really, I must be excused," said Miss Clark. "I +have given myself a stint, and I always feel bad if I fall an inch short +of my plans." + +"Yes; don't you think, Ann," said Emily, "she has stinted herself to +make five yards of netting to-day. And mother says there is ten times as +much in the house as we shall ever need. Father says there is twenty +times as much; for he knows we shall both be old maids, ha! ha!" + +"Yes, and I always tell him that if I am an old maid I shall need the +more. Our folks make twenty or thirty yards of table linen every year. I +mean to make fringe for every yard; and have enough laid by for the next +ten years, before I leave the mill." + +"Well, Emily," said Ann, "you have no fringe to make, can't you +accompany me?" + +"I should be glad to, Ann; but I am over head and ears in work. I have +got my work all done up, every thing that I could find to do. Now I am +making a dress for Bertha." + +"Why, Emily, you are making a slave of yourself, body and mind," said +Ann. "Can't you earn enough in the mill to afford yourself a little time +for rest and amusement?" + +"La! I don't make but twelve dollars a month, besides my board. I have +made a great many dresses evenings, and have stinted myself to finish +this to-day. So I believe I can't go, any way. I should be terrible glad +to." + +"Oh, you are very excusable," answered Ann. "But let me ask if you take +any time to read." + +"No; not much. We can't afford to. Father owns the best farm in Burt; +but we have always had to work hard, and always expect to. We generally +read a chapter every day. We take turns about it. One of us reads while +the other works." + +"Yes; but lately we have only taken time to read a short psalm," said +Emily, again laughing. + +"Well, the Bible says, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first +stone,' or I might be tempted to remind you that there is such a thing +as laboring too much 'for the meat that perisheth.' Good morning, +ladies." + +Ann heard a loud, merry laugh from the next room, as she reached the +door. It was Ellinora Frothingham's; no one could mistake, who had heard +it once. It seemed the out-pouring of glee that could no longer be +suppressed. Ellinor sat on the floor, just as she had thrown herself on +her return from a walk. Her pretty little bonnet was lying on the floor +on one side, and on the other a travelling bag, whose contents she had +just poured into her lap. There were apples, pears, melons, a +mock-orange, a pumpkin, squash, and a crooked cucumber. Ellinora sprang +to her feet when Ann entered, and threw the contents of her lap on the +floor with such violence, as to set them to rolling all about. Then she +laughed and clapped her hands to see the squash chase the mock-orange +under the bed, a great russet running so furiously after a little fellow +of the Baldwin family, and finally pinning him in a corner. A pear +started in the chase; but after taking a few turns, he sat himself down +to shake his fat sides and enjoy the scene. Ellinora stepped back a few +paces to elude the pursuit of the pumpkin, and then, with well-feigned +terror, jumped into a chair. But the drollest personage of the group was +the ugly cucumber. There he sat, Forminius-like, watching the mad freaks +of his companions. + +"Ha! see that cucumber?" exclaimed Ellinora, laughing heartily. "If he +had hands, how he would raise them so! If he had eyes and mouth, how he +would open them so!" suiting action to her words. "Look, Ann! look, +Fanny! See if it does not look like the Clark girls, when one leaves any +thing in the shape of dirt on their table or stand!" + +Peace was at length restored among the _inanimates_. + +"I came to invite you to walk; but I find I am too late," said Ann. + +"Yes. Oh, how I wish you had been with us! You would have been so +happy!" said Ellinora. "We started out very early--before +sunrise--intending to take a brisk walk of a mile or two, and return in +season for breakfast. We went over to Dracut, and met such adventures +there and by the way, as will supply me with food for laughter years +after I get married, and trouble comes. We came along where some oxen +were standing, yoked, eating their breakfast while their owner was +eating his. They were attached to a cart filled with pumpkins. I took +some of the smallest, greenest ones, and stuck them fast on the tips of +the oxen's horns. I was so interested in observing how the ceremony +affected the Messrs. Oxen, that I did not laugh a bit until I had +crowned all four of them. I looked up to Fanny, as I finished the work, +and there she sat on a great rock, where she had thrown herself when she +could no longer stand. Poor girl! tears were streaming down her cheeks. +With one hand she was holding her lame side, and with the other filling +her mouth with her pocket handkerchief, that the laugh need not run out, +I suppose. Well, as soon as I looked at her, and at the oxen, I burst +into a laugh that might have been heard miles, I fancy. Oh! I shall +never forget how reprovingly those oxen looked at me. The poor +creatures could not eat with such an unusual weight on their horns, so +they pitched their heads higher than usual, and now and then gave them a +graceful cant, then stood entirely motionless, as if attempting to +conjecture what it all meant. + +"Well, that loud and long laugh of mine, brought a whole volley of folks +to the door--farmer, and farmer's wife, farmer's sons, and farmer's +daughters. 'Whoa hish!' exclaimed the farmer, before he reached the +door; and 'Whoa hish!' echoed all the farmer's sons. They all stopped as +soon as they saw me. I would remind you that I still stood before the +oxen, laughing at them. I never saw such comical expressions as those +people wore. Did you, Fanny? Even those pictures of mine are not so +funny. I thought we should raise the city police; for they had +tremendous voices, and I never saw any body laugh so. + +"As soon as I could speak, and they could listen to me, I walked up to +the farmer. 'I beg your pardon sir,' said I, 'but I did want to laugh +so! Came all the way from Lowell for something new to laugh at.' He was +a good, sensible man, and this proves it. He said it was a good thing to +have a hearty laugh occasionally--good for the health and spirits. Work +would go off easier all day for it, especially with the boys. As he said +'boys,' I could not avoid smiling as I looked at a fine young sprig of a +farmer, his oldest son, as he afterwards told us, full twenty-one." + +"And now, Miss Ellinora," said Fanny, "I shall avenge myself on you, for +certain saucy freaks, perpetrated against my most august commands, by +telling Ann, that as you looked at this 'young sprig of a farmer,' he +looked at you, and you both blushed. What made you, Nora? I never saw +you blush before." + +"What made you, Nora?" echoed Ellinora, laughing and blushing slightly. +"Well, the farmer's wife invited us to rest and breakfast with them. We +began to make excuses; but the farmer added his good natured commands, +so we went in; and after a few arrangements, such as placing more +plates, &c., a huge pumpkin pie, and some hot potatoes, pealed in the +cooking, we sat down to a full round table. There were the mealy +potatoes, cold boiled dish, warm biscuit and dough-nuts, pie, coffee, +pickles, sauce, cheese, and just such butter and brown bread as mother +makes--bread hot, just taken from the oven. They all appeared so +pleasant and kind, that I felt as if in my own home, with my own family +around me. Wild as I was, as soon as I began to tell them how it seemed +to me, I burst into tears in spite of myself, and was obliged to leave +the table. But they all pitied me so much, that I brushed off my tears, +went back to my breakfast, and have laughed ever since." + +"You have forgotten two very important items," said Fanny, looking +archly into Ellinora's face. "This 'fine young sprig of a farmer' +happened to recollect that he had business in town to-day; so he took +their carriage and brought us home, after Nora and a roguish sister of +his had filled her bag as you see. And more and better still, they +invited us to spend a day with them soon; and promised to send this +'fine young sprig,' &c., for us on the occasion." + +Ellinora was too busily engaged in collecting her fruit to reply. She +ran from the room; and in a few moments returned with several young +girls, to whom she gave generous supplies of apples, pears, and melons. +She was about seating herself with a full plate, when a new idea seemed +to flash upon her. She laughed, and started for the door. + +"Ellinora, where now?" asked Fanny. + +"To the Clark girls' room, to leave an apple peeling and core on their +table, a pear pealing on their stand, and melon, apple, and pear seeds +all about the floor," answered Ellinora, gaily snapping her fingers, and +nodding her head. + +"What for? Here, Nora; come back. For what?" + +"Why, to see them suffer," said the incorrigible girl. "You know I told +you this morning, that sport is to be the order of the day. So no +scoldings, my dear." + +She left the room, and Fanny turned to one of the ladies who had just +entered. + +"Where is Alice," said she. "Did not Ellinora extend an invitation to +her?" + +"Yes; but she is half dead with the _blues_, to-day. The Brown girls +came back last night. They called on Alice this morning, and left +letters and presents from home for her. She had a letter from her little +brother, ten years old. He must be a fine fellow, judging from that +letter, it was so sensible, and so witty too! One moment I laughed at +some of his lively expressions, and the next cried at his expressions of +love for Alice, and regret for her loss. He told her how he cried +himself to sleep the night after she left home; and his flowers seemed +to have faded, and the stars to have lost their brightness, when he no +longer had her by his side to talk to him about them. I find by his +letter that Alice is working to keep him at school. That part of it +which contained his thanks for her goodness was blistered with the +little fellow's tears. Alice cried like a child when she read it, and I +did not wonder at it. But she ought to be happy now. Her mother sent her +a fine pair of worsted hose of her own spinning and knitting, and a nice +cake of her own making. She wrote, that, trifling as these presents +were, she knew they would be acceptable to her daughter, because made by +her. When Alice read this, she cried again. Her sister sent her a pretty +little fancy basket, and her brother a bunch of flowers from her +mother's garden. They were enclosed in a tight tin box, and were as +fresh as when first gathered. Alice sent out for a new vase. She has +filled it with her flowers, and will keep them watered with her tears, +judging from present appearances. Alice is a good-hearted girl, and I +love her, but she is always talking or thinking of something to make her +unhappy. A letter from a friend, containing nothing but good news, and +assurances of friendship, that ought to make her happy, generally throws +her into a crying fit, which ends in a moping fit of melancholy. This +destroys her own happiness, and that of all around her.'" + +"You ought to talk to her, she is spoiling herself," said Mary Mason, +whose mouth was literally crammed with the last apple of a second +plateful. + +"I have often urged her to be more cheerful. But she answers me with a +helpless, hopeless, 'I can't Jane! you know I can't. I shall never be +happy while I live; and I often think that the sooner I go where "the +weary are at rest," the better.' I don't know how many times she has +given me an answer like this. Then she will sob as if her heart were +bursting. She sometimes wears me quite out; and I feel as I did when +Ellinora called me, as if released from a prison." + +"Would it improve her spirits to walk with me?" asked Ann. + +"Perhaps it would, if you can persuade her to go. Do try, dear Ann," +answered Jane. "I called at Isabel Greenwood's room as I came along, and +asked her to go in and see if she could rouse her up." + +Ann heard Isabel's voice in gentle but earnest expostulation, as she +reached Alice's room. Isabel paused when Ann entered, kissed her cheek, +and resigned her rocking-chair to her. Alice was sobbing too violently +to speak. She took her face from her handkerchief, bowed to Ann, and +again buried it. Ann invited them to walk with her. Isabel cheerfully +acceded to her proposal, and urged Alice to accompany them. + +"Don't urge me, Isabel," said Alice; "I am only fit for the solitude of +my chamber. I could not add at all to your pleasure. My thoughts would +be at my home, and I could not enjoy a walk in the least degree. But +Isabel, I do not want you to leave me so. I know that you think me very +foolish to indulge in these useless regrets, as you call them. You will +understand me better if you just consider the situation of my mother's +family. My mother a widow, my oldest brother at the West, my oldest +sister settled in New York, my youngest brother and sister only with +mother, and I a Lowell factory girl! And such I must be--for if I leave +the mill, my brother cannot attend school all of the time; and his heart +would almost break to take him from school. And how can I be happy in +such a situation; I do not ask for riches; but I would be able to gather +my friends all around me. Then I could be happy. Perhaps I am as happy +now as you would be in my situation, Isabel." + +Isabel's eyes filled, but she answered in her own sweet, calm manner: + +"We will compare lots, my dear Alice. I have neither father, mother, +sister, nor home in the world. Three years ago I had all of these, and +every other blessing that one could ask. The death of my friends, the +distressing circumstances attending them, the subsequent loss of our +large property, and the critical state of my brother's health at +present, are not slight afflictions, nor are they lightly felt." + +Isabel's emotions, as she paused to subdue them by a powerful mental +effort, proved her assertion. Alice began to dry her tears, and to look +as if ashamed of her weakness. + +"I, too, am a Lowell factory girl," pursued Isabel. "I, too, am laboring +for the completion of a brother's education. If that brother were well, +how gladly would I toil! But that disease is upon his vitals which laid +father, mother, and sister in their graves, in one short year. I can see +it in the unnatural and increasing brightness of his eye, and hear it in +his hollow cough. He has entered upon his third collegiate year; and is +too anxious to graduate next commencement, to heed my entreaties, or the +warning of his physician." + +She again paused. Her whole frame shook with emotion; but not a tear +mingled with Ann's, as they fell upon her hand. + +"You see, Alice," she at length added, "what reasons I have for regret +when I think of the past, and what for fear when I turn to the future. +Still I am happy, almost continually. My lost friends are so many +magnets, drawing heavenward those affections that would otherwise rivet +themselves too strongly to earthly loves. And those dear ones who are +yet spared to me, scatter so many flowers in my pathway, that I seldom +feel the thorns. I am cheered in my darkest hours by their kindness and +affection, animated at all times by a wish to do all in my power to make +them happy. If my brother is spared to me, I ask for nothing more. And +if he is first called, I trust I shall feel that it is the will of One +who is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind." + +"You are the most like my mother, Isabel, of any one I ever saw," said +Ann. "She is never free from pain, yet she never complains. And if Pa, +or any of us, just have a cold or head ache, she does not rest till 'she +makes us well.' You have more trouble than any other girl in the house; +but instead of claiming the sympathies of every one on that account, you +are always cheering others in their little, half-imaginary trials. +Alice, I think you and I ought to be ashamed to shed a tear, until we +have some greater cause than mere home-sickness, or low spirits." + +"Why, Ann, I can no more avoid low spirits, than I can make a world!" +exclaimed Alice, in a really aggrieved tone. "And I don't want you all +to think that I have no trouble. I want sympathy, and I can't live +without it. Oh that I was at home this moment!" + +"Why, Alice, there is hardly a girl in this house who has not as much +trouble, in some shape, as you have. You never think of pitying them; +and pray what gives you such strong claims on their sympathies? Do you +walk with us, or do you not?" + +Alice shook her head in reply. Isabel whispered a few words in her +ear--they might be of reproof, they might be of consolation--then +retired with Ann to equip for their walk. + +"What a beautiful morning this is!" exclaimed Ann, as they emerged from +the house. "_Malgre_ some inconveniences, factory girls are as happy as +any class of females. I sometimes think it hard to rise so early, and +work so many hours shut up in the house. But when I get out at night, on +the Sabbath, or at any other time, I am just as happy as a bird, and +long to fly and sing with them. And Alice will keep herself shut up all +day. Is it not strange that all will not be as happy as they can be? It +is so pleasant." + +Isabel returned Ann's smile. "Yes, Ann, it is strange that every one +does not prefer happiness. Indeed, it is quite probable that every one +does prefer it. But some mistake the modes of acquiring it through want +of judgment. Others are too indolent to employ the means necessary to +its attainment, and appear to expect it to flow in to them, without +taking any pains to prepare a channel. Others, like our friend Alice, +have constitutional infirmities, which entail upon them a deal of +suffering, that to us, of different mental organization, appears wholly +unnecessary." + +"Why, don't you think Alice might be as happy as we are, if she chose? +Could she not be as grateful for letters and love-tokens from home? +Could she not leave her room, and come out into this pure air, listen to +the birds, and catch their spirit? Could she not do all this, Isabel, as +well as we?" + +"Well, I do not know, Ann. Perhaps not. You know that the minds of +different persons are like instruments of different tones. The same +touch thrills gaily on one, mournfully on another." + +"Yes; and I know, Isabel, that different minds may be compared to the +same instrument _in_ and _out_ of tune. Now I have heard Alice say that +she loved to indulge this melancholy; that she loved to read Byron, Mrs. +Hemans, and Miss Landon, until her heart was as gloomy as the grave. +Isn't this strange--even silly?" + +"It is most unfortunate, Ann." + +"Isabel, you are the strangest girl! I have heard a great many say, that +one cannot make you say anything against anybody; and I believe they are +correct. And when you reprove one, you do it in such a mild, pretty way, +that one only loves you the better for it. Now, I smash on, pell-mell, +as if unconscious of a fault in myself. Hence, I oftener offend than +amend. Let me think.--This morning I have administered reproof in my own +blunt way to Bertha for reading novels, to Charlotte for eating +confectionary, to the Clark girls for their 'all work and no play,' and +to Alice for moping. I have been wondering all along how they can spend +their time so foolishly. I see that my own employment would scarcely +bear the test of close criticism, for I have been watching motes in +others' eyes, while a beam was in my own. Now, Isabel, I must ask a +favor. I do not want to be very fine and nice; but I would be gentle and +kind hearted--would do some good in the world. I often make attempts to +this end; but always fail, somehow. I know my manner needs correcting; +and I want you to reprove me as you would a sister, and assist me with +your advice. Will you not, dear Isabel?" + +She pressed Isabel's arm closer to her side, and a tear was in her eye +as she looked up for an answer to her appeal. + +"You know not what you ask, my beloved girl," answered Isabel, in a low +and tremulous tone. "You know not the weakness of the staff on which you +would lean, or the frailties of the heart to which you would look up, +for aid. Of myself, dear Ann, I can do nothing. I can only look to God +for protection from temptation, and for guidance in the right way. When +He keeps me, I am safe; when He withdraws His spirit, I am weak indeed. +And can I lead you, Ann? No! you must go to a higher than earthly +friend. Pray to Him in every hour of need, and He will be 'more to you +than you can ask, or even think.'" + +"How often I have wished that I could go to Him as mother does--just as +I would go to a father!" said Ann. "But I dare not. It would be mockery +in one who has never experienced religion." + +"Make prayer a _means_ of this experience, my dear girl. Draw near to +God by humble, constant prayer, and He will draw near to you by the +influences of His spirit, which will make you just what you wish to be, +a good, kind-hearted girl. You will learn to love God as a father, as +the author of your happiness and every good thing. And you will be +prepared to meet those trials which must be yours in life as the +'chastisements of a Father's hand, directed by a Father's love.' And +when the hour of death comes, dear Ann, how sweet, how soothing will be +the deep-felt conviction that you are going _home_! You will have no +fears, for your trust will be in One whom you have long loved and +served; and you will feel as if about to meet your best, and most +familiar friend." + +Ann answered only by her tears; and for some minutes they walked on in +silence. They were now some distance from town. Before them lay farms, +farm-houses, groves and scattering trees, from whose branches came the +mingled song of a thousand birds. Isabel directed Ann's attention to the +beauty of the scene. Ann loved nature; but she had such a dread of +sentimentalism that she seldom expressed herself freely. Now she had no +reserves, and Isabel found that she had not mistaken her capacities, in +supposing her possessed of faculties, which had only to develop +themselves more fully, which had only to become constant incentives to +action, to make her all she could wish. + +"You did not promise, Isabel," said Ann, with a happy smile, as they +entered their street, "you did not promise to be my sister; but you +will, will you not?" + +"Yes, dear Ann; we will be sisters to each other. I think you told me +that you have no sister." + +"I had none until now; and I have felt as if part of my affections could +not find a resting place, but were weighing down my heart with a burden +that did not belong to it. I shall no longer be like a branch of our +woodbine when it cannot find a clinging place, swinging about at the +mercy of every breeze; but like that when some kind hand twines it about +its frame, firm and trusting. See, Isabel!" exclaimed she, interrupting +herself, "there sits poor Alice, just as we left her. I wish she had +walked with us--she would have felt so much better. Do you think, +Isabel, that religion would make her happy?" + +"Most certainly. 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. +Take my yoke upon you; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye _shall_ +find rest for your souls,'--is as 'faithful a saying' and as 'worthy of +all acceptation' now, as when it was uttered, and when thousands came +and 'were healed of _all_ manner of diseases.' Yes, Alice may yet be +happy," she added musingly, "if she can be induced to read Byron less, +and her Bible more; to think less of her own gratification, and more of +that of others. And we will be very gentle to her, Ann; but not the less +faithful and constant in our efforts to win her to usefulness and +happiness." + +Ellinora met them at the door, and began to describe a frolic that had +occupied her during their absence. She threw her arms around Isabel's +waist, and entered the sitting-room with her. "Now, Isabel, I know you +don't think it right to be so giddy," said she. "I will tell you what I +have resolved to do. You shake your head, Isabel, and I do not wonder at +all. But this resolution was formed this morning, on my way back from +Dracut; and I feel in my 'heart of hearts' 'a sober certainty of waking' +energy to keep it unbroken. It is that I will be another sort of a girl, +altogether, henceforth; steady, but not gloomy; less talkative, but not +reserved; more studious, but not a bookworm; kind and gentle to others, +but not a whit the less independent, 'for a' that,' in my opinions and +conduct.--And, after this day, which I have dedicated to Momus, I want +you to be my Mentor. Now I am for another spree of some sort. Nay, +Isabel, do not remonstrate. You will make me weep with five tender +words." + +It needed not so much--for Isabel smiled sadly, kissed her cheek, and +Ellinora's tears fell fast and thick as she ran from the room. + +Ann went immediately to Alice's room on her return.--She apologized to +her for reproving her so roughly, described her walk, gave a synopsis of +Isabel's advice, and her consequent determinations. By these means she +diverted Alice's thoughts from herself, gave her nerves a healthy +spring, and when the bell summoned them to dinner, she had recovered +much of her happier humor. Ellinora sat beside her at table. She +laughingly proposed an exchange, offering a portion of her levity for as +much of her gravity. She thought the _equilibrium_ would be more +perfect. So Alice thought, and she heartily wished that the exchange +might be made. + +And this exchange seems actually taking place at this time. They are as +intimate as sisters. Together they are resolutely struggling against the +tide of habit. They meet many discouraging failures; but Isabel is ever +ready to cheer them by her sympathy, and to assist them by her advice. + +Ann's faults were not so deeply rooted; perhaps she brought more natural +energy to their extermination. Be that as it may, she is now an +excellent lady, a fit companion for the peerless Isabel. + +The Clark girls do not, as yet, coalesce in their system of +improvement. They still prefer making netting and dresses, to the +lecture-room, the improvement circle, and even to the reading of the +"Book of books." So difficult is it to turn from the worship of Plutus! + +The delusion of Bertha and Charlotte is partially broken. Bertha is +beginning to understand that much reading does not naturally result in +intellectual or moral improvement, unless it be well regulated. +Charlotte is learning that "to enjoy is to obey;" and that to pamper her +own animal appetites, while her father and mother are suffering for want +of the necessaries of life, is not in obedience to Divine command. + +And, dear sisters, how is it with each one of _us_? How do we spend our +leisure hours? Now, "in the stilly hour of night," let us pause, and +give our consciences time to render faithful answers. + + D. + + + + +THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON. + + + "He sleeps there in the midst of the very simplicities of Nature." + + There let him sleep, in Nature's arms, + Her well-beloved, her chosen child-- + There 'mid the living, quiet charms + Of that sequestered wild. + He would have chosen such a spot, + 'Twas fit that they should lay him there, + Away from all the haunts of care; + The world disturbs him not.-- + He sleeps full sweet in his retreat-- + The place is consecrated ground, + It is not meet unhallowed feet + Should tread that sacred mound. + + He lies in pomp--not of display-- + No useless trappings grace his bier, + Nor idle words--they may not say + What treasures cluster here. + The pomp of nature, wild and free, + Adorns our hero's lowly bed, + And gently bends above his head + The weeping laurel tree. + In glory's day he shunned display, + And ye may not bedeck him now, + But Nature may, in her own way, + Hang garlands round his brow. + + He lies in pomp--not sculptured stone, + Nor chiseled marble--vain pretence-- + The glory of his deeds alone + Is his magnificence. + His country's love the meed he won, + He bore it with him down to death, + Unsullied e'en by slander's breath-- + His country's sire and son. + Her hopes and fears, her smiles and tears, + Were each his own.--He gave his land + His earliest cares, his choicest years, + And led her conquering band. + + He lies in pomp--not pomp of war-- + He fought, but fought not for renown; + He triumphed, yet the victor's star + Adorned no regal crown. + His honor was his country's weal; + From off her neck the yoke he tore-- + It was enough, he asked no more; + His generous heart could feel + No low desire for king's attire;-- + With brother, friend, and country blest, + He could aspire to honors higher + Than kingly crown or crest. + + He lies in pomp--his burial place + Than sculptured stone is richer far; + For in the heart's deep love we trace + His name, a golden star. + Wherever patriotism breathes, + His memory is devoutly shrined + In every pure and gifted mind: + And history, with wreaths + Of deathless fame, entwines that name, + Which evermore, beneath all skies, + Like vestal flame, shall live the same, + For virtue never dies. + + There let him rest--'t is a sweet spot; + Simplicity becomes the great--But + Vernon's son is not forgot, + Though sleeping not in state. + There, wrapt in his own dignity, + His presence makes it hallowed ground, + And Nature throws her charms around, + And o'er him smiles the sky. + There let him rest--the noblest, best; + The labors of his life all done-- + There let him rest, the spot is blessed-- + The grave of WASHINGTON. + + ADELAIDE. + + + + +LIFE AMONG FARMERS. + + +There is much complaint among farmers' wives and daughters, of want of +time for rest, recreation, and literary pursuits. "It is cook, eat, and +scrub--cook, eat, and scrub, from morning till night, and from year to +year," says many a farmer's wife. And so it is in many families. But how +far this results from the very nature of the situation, and how far from +injudicious domestic management, is a query worthy of our attention. A +very large proportion of my readers, who are now factory girls, will in +a few months or years be the busy wives of busy farmers; and if by a few +speculations on the subject before us, and an illustration to the point, +we can reach _one_ hint that may hereafter be useful to us, our labor +and "search of thought" will not have been in vain. + +Mr. Moses Eastman was what is technically called a wealthy farmer. Every +one in the country knows what this means. He had a farm of some hundred +or more acres, a large two-story dwelling house, a capacious yard, in +which were two large barns, sheds, a sheep-cote, granary, and hen-coop. +He kept a hundred sheep, ten cows, horses and oxen in due proportion. +Mr. Eastman often declared that no music was half so sweet to him as +that of the inmates of this yard. I think we shall not quarrel with his +taste in this manifestation; for it is certainly delightful, on a warm +day, in early spring, to listen to them, the lambs, hens--Guinea and +American--turkeys, geese, and ducks and peacocks. + +Mr. Eastman was unbending in his adherence to the creed, prejudices, and +customs of his fathers. It was his boast that his farm had passed on +from father to son, to the fourth generation; and everybody could see +that it was none the worse for wear. He kept more oxen, sheep, and cows +than his father kept. He had "pulled down his barns and built larger." +He had surrounded his fields and pastures with stone wall, in lieu of +Virginian, stump, brush, and board fence. And he had taught his sons and +daughters, of whom he had an abundance, to walk in his footsteps--all +but Mary. He should always rue the day that he consented to let Mary go +to her aunt's; but he acted upon the belief that it would lessen his +expenses to be rid of her during her childhood. He had all along +intended to recall her as soon as she was old enough to be serviceable +to him. But he said he believed that would never be, if she lived as +long as Methuselah. She could neither spin nor weave as she ought; for +she put so much material in her yarn, and wove her cloth so thick, that +no profit resulted from its manufacture and sale. Now Deborah, his +oldest daughter, had just her mother's _knack_ of making a good deal out +of a little.--And Mary had imbibed some very dangerous ideas of +religion,--she did not even believe in ghosts!--dress, and reading. For +his part, he would not, on any account, attend any other meeting than +old Mr. Bates's. His father and grandfather always attended there, and +they prospered well. But Mary wanted to go to the other meeting +occasionally, all because Mr. Morey happened to be a bit of an orator. +True, Mr. Bates was none of the smartest; but there was an advantage in +this. He could sleep as soundly, and rest as rapidly, when at his +meeting, as in his bed; and by this means he could regain the sleep lost +during the week by rising early and working late. And Mary had grown so +proud that she would not wear a woolen home-manufactured dress +visiting, as Deborah did. She must flaunt off to meeting every Sabbath, +in white or silk, while _chintz_ was good enough for Deborah. Deborah +seldom read anything but the Bible, Watts's Hymn Book, "Pilgrim's +Progress," and a few tracts they had in the house. Mary had hardly laid +off her finery, on her return from her aunt's, before she inquired about +books and newspapers. Her aunt had heaps of books and papers. These had +spoilt Mary. True, papers were sometimes useful; he would have lost five +hundred dollars by the failure of the ---- Bank, but for a newspaper he +borrowed of Captain Norwood. But the Captain had enough of them--was +always ready to lend to him--and he saved no small sum in twenty years +by borrowing papers of him. + +How Captain Norwood managed to add to his property he could not +conceive. So much company, fine clothing, and schooling! he wondered +that it did not ruin him. And 'twas all folly--'twas a sin; for they +were setting extravagant examples, and every body thought they must do +as the Norwoods did. Mr. Norwood ought to remember that his father wore +home-made; and what was good enough for his good old father was good +enough for _him_. But alas! times were dreadfully altered. + +As for Mary, she must turn over a new leaf, or go back to her aunt. He +would not help one who did not help herself. Mary was willing, nay, +anxious to return. To spend one moment, except on the Sabbath, in +reading, was considered a crime; to gather a flower or mineral, absurd; +and Mary begged that she might be permitted to return to Mrs. Barlow. As +there was no prospect of reforming her, Mr. Eastman and his wife readily +consented. Mr. Eastman told her, at the same time, that she must be +preparing for a wet day; and repeatedly charged her to remember that +those who folded their hands in the summer, must "beg in harvest, and +have nothing." + +Mary had often visited the Norwoods and other young friends, during the +year spent at home; but she had not been permitted to give a party in +return. Why, Deborah had never thought of doing such a thing! Mary +begged the indulgence of her mother, with the assurance that it was the +last favor she would ever ask at her hand. The _mother_ in her at last +yielded; and she promised to use her influence with her husband. After a +deal of cavilling, he consented, on the condition that the strictest +economy should attend the expenditures on the occasion, and that they +should exercise more prudence in the family, until their loss was made +gain. So the party was given. + +"You find yourself thrown on barren ground, Miss Norwood," said Mary, as +she saw Miss Norwood looking around the room; "neither papers, books, +plants, plates, nor minerals." + +"Where are those rocks you brought in, Molly!" said Deborah, with a +loud, grating laugh. + +Mary attempted to smile, but her eyes were full of tears. + +"What rocks, Deborah!" asked Clarina Norwood. + +"Them you see stuffed into the garden wall, there.--Mary fixed them all +in a row on the table. I think as father does, that nothing is worth +saving that can't be used; so I put them in the wall to keep the hens +out of the garden. The silly girl cried when she see them; should you +have thought it?" + +"What were they, Mary?" asked Clarina. + +"Very pretty specimens of white, rose, and smoky quartz, black and white +mica, gneiss, hornblende, and a few others, that I collected on that +very high hill, west of here." + +"How unfortunate to lose them!" said Miss Norwood, in a soothing tone. +"Could not we recover them, dear Mary?" + +"There is no room for them," said Deborah. "We want to spread currants +and blueberries on the tables to be dried. Besides, I think as father +does, that there is enough to do, without spending the time in such +flummery. As father says, 'time is our estate,' and I think we ought to +improve every moment of it, except Sundays, in work." + +"I must differ from you, Miss Eastman," said Miss Norwood. "I cannot +think it the duty of any one to labor entirely for the 'meat that +perisheth.' Too much, vastly too much time is spent thus by almost all." + +"The mercy! you would have folks prepare for a wet day, wouldn't you?" + +"I would have every one make provision for a comfortable subsistence; +and this is enough. The mind should be cared for, Deborah. It should not +be left to starve, or feed on husks." + +"I don't know about this mind, of which you and our Mary make such a +fuss. My concern is for my body. Of this I know enough." + +"Yes; you know that it is dust, and that to dust it must return in a +little time, while the mind is to live on for ever, with God and His +holy angels. Think of this a moment, Deborah; and say, should not the +mind be fed and clothed upon, when its destiny is so glorious? Or should +we spend our whole lives in adding another acre to our farms, another +dress to our wardrobe, and another dollar to our glittering heap?" + +"Oh, la! all this sounds nicely; but I _do_ think that every man who has +children should provide for them." + +"Certainly--intellectual food and clothing. It is for this I am +contending. He should provide a comfortable bodily subsistence, and +educate them as far as he is able and their destinies require." + +"And he should leave them a few hundreds, or thousands, to give them a +kind of a start in the world." + +"He does this in giving them a liberal education, and he leaves them in +banks that will always discount. But farther than education of intellect +and propensity is concerned, I am for the self-made man. I think it +better for sons to carve their own way to eminence with little pecuniary +aid by way of a settlement; and for daughters to be 'won and wedded' for +their own intrinsic excellence, not for the dowry in store for them from +a rich father." + +"There is no arguing with you, everybody says; so I'll go and see how my +cakes bake." + +Mr. Eastmam came in to tea, contrary to his usual custom. + +"Clarina, has your father sold that great calf of his?" he inquired, as +he seated himself snugly beside his "better half." + +"Indeed, I do not know, sir," answered Clarina, biting her lip to avoid +laughing. + +"I heard Mr. Montgomery ask him the same question, this morning; and Pa +said 'yes,' I believe," said Miss Norwood, smiling. + +"How much did he get for it?" + +Miss Norwood did not know. + +"Like Mary, I see," said Mr. Eastman. "Now I'll warrant you that Debby +can tell the price of every creature I've sold this year." + +"Yes, father; I remember as plain as day, how much you got from that +simple Joe Slater, for the white-faced calf--how much you got for the +black-faced sheep, Rowley and Jumble, and for Star and Bright. Oh, how I +want to see Bright! And then there is the black colt--you got forty +dollars for him, didn't you, father?" + +"Yes, Debby; you are a keen one," said Mr. Eastman triumphantly. "Didn't +I tell you so, Julia?" + +"I do not burden my memory with superfluities," answered Miss Norwood. +"I can scarcely find room for necessaries." + +"And do you rank the best way of making pies, cakes, and puddings, with +necessaries or superfluities?" + +"Among necessaries in household economy, certainly," answered Miss +Norwood. "But Mrs. Child's 'Frugal Housewife' renders them superfluities +as a part of memory's storage." + +"Oh, the book costs something, you know; and if this can be saved by a +little exercise of the memory, it is well, you know." + +"The most capacious and retentive memory would fail to treasure up and +retain all that one wishes to know of cooking and other matters," said +Clarina. + +"Well, then, one may copy from her book," said Mr. Eastman. + +"Indeed, Mr. Eastman, to spend one's time in copying her recipes, when +the work can be purchased for twenty-five cents, would be 'straining out +a gnat, and swallowing a camel,'" remarked the precise and somewhat +pedantic Miss Ellinor Gould Smith. "And then the peculiar disadvantages +of referring to manuscript! I had my surfeit of this before the +publication of her valuable work." + +"Ah! it is every thing but valuable," answered Mr. Eastman. "Just think +of her pounds of sugar, her two pounds of butter, her dozen eggs, and +ounces of nutmegs. Depend upon it, they are not very valuable in the +holes they would make in our cash-bags." He said this with precisely the +air of one who imagines he has uttered a poser. + +"But you forget her economical and wholesome prescriptions for disease, +her directions for repairing and preserving clothing and provisions, +that would be lost without them," answered Miss Smith. + +"But one should always be prying into these things, and learn them for +themselves," said Mr. Eastman. + +"On the same principle, extended in its scale, every man might make his +own house, furniture, and clothing," said Miss Norwood. "With the +expenditure of much labor and research, she has supplied us with +directions; and I think it would be vastly foolish for every wife and +daughter to expend just as much, when they can be supplied with the +fruits of hers, for the product of half a day's labor." + +"Does your mother use it much?" asked Mrs. Eastman. + +"Yes; she acknowledges herself much indebted to it." + +"I shouldn't think she'd need it; she is so notable. Has she made many +cheeses this summer?" + +"About the usual number, I believe." + +"Well, I've made more than I ever did a year afore--thirty in my largest +hoop, all new milk, and twenty in my next largest, part skimmed milk. +Our cheese press is terribly out of order, now. It must be fixed, Mr. +Eastman. And I have made more butter, or else our folks haven't ate as +much as common. I've made it salter, and there's a great saving in +this." + +"There's a good many ways to save in the world, if one will take pains +to find them out," said Mr. Eastman. + +"Doubtless; but I think the best method of saving in provisions is to +eat little," said Clarina, as she saw Mr. Eastman _putting down_ his +third biscuit. + +"Why, as to that, I think we ought to eat as much as the appetite calls +for," answered Mr. Eastman. + +"Yes; if the appetite is not depraved by indulgence." + +"Yes; it is an awful thing to pinch in eating," said Deborah. + +"I never knew one to sin in doing it," said Miss Norwood. "But many +individuals and whole families make themselves excessively +uncomfortable, and often incur disease, by eating too much. There is, +besides, a waste of food, and of labor in preparing it. In such +families, there is a continual round of eating, cooking, and sleeping, +with the female portion; and no time for rest, recreation, or literary +pursuits." + +"I have told our folks a great many times, that I did not believe that +you lived by eating, over to your house," said Mr. Eastman. "I have been +over that way before our folks got breakfast half ready; and your men +would be out to work, and you women folks sewing, reading, or watering +plants, or weeding your flower garden. I don't see how you manage." + +"We do not find it necessary to manage at all, our breakfasts are so +simple. We have only to make cocoa, and arrange the breakfast." + +"Don't you cook meat for breakfast?" asked Mrs. Eastman. + +"Never; our breakfast invariably consists of cocoa, or water, cold white +bread and butter." + +"Why, our men folks will have meat three times a day--warm, morning and +noon, and cold at night. We have warm bread for breakfast and supper, +always. When they work very hard, they want luncheon at ten, and again +at three. I often tell our folks that it is step, step, from morning +till night." + +"Of course, you find no time to read," said Miss Norwood. + +"No; but I shouldn't mind this, if I didn't get so dreadful tired. I +often tell our folks that it is wearing me all out," said Mrs. Eastman, +in a really aggrieved tone. + +"Well, it is quite the fashion to starve, now-a-days, I know; but it is +an awful sin," said Mr. Eastman. + +Miss Norwood saw that she might as well spend her time in rolling a +stone up hill, as in attempting to convince him of fallacy in reasoning. + +"Clarina," said she, "did you ask Frederic to call for the other volume +of the 'Alexandrian?'" + +"Why, I should think that you had books enough at home, without +borrowing," said Mr. Eastman, stopping by the way to rinse down his +fifth dough-nut. "For my part, I find no time for reading anything but +the Bible." And the deluded man started up with a gulp and a grunt. He +had eaten enough for three full meals, had spent time enough for eating +one meal, and reading several pages; yet he left the room with a smile, +so self-satisfied in its expression, that it was quite evident that he +thought himself the wisest man in New Hampshire, except Daniel Webster. + +This is rather a sad picture of life among farmers. But many of my +readers will bear me witness that it is a correct one, as far as it +goes. Many of them have left their homes, because, in the quaint but +appropriate language of Mrs. Eastman, it was "step, step, from morning +till night." But there are other and brighter pictures, of more +extensive application, _perhaps_, than that already drawn. + +Captain Norwood had as large a farm as Mr. Eastman. His family was as +large, yet the existence of the female portion was paradisiacal, +compared with that of Mrs. Eastman and her daughters. Their meals were +prepared with the most perfect elegance and simplicity. Their table +covers and their China were of the same dazzling whiteness. Their +cutlery, from the unfrequency of its contact with acids, with a little +care, wore a constant polish. Much prettier these, than the dark +oiled-cloth cover and corresponding _et cetera_ of table appendages, at +Mr. Eastman's. Mrs. Norwood and her daughters carried _system_ into +every department of labour. While one was preparing breakfast, another +put things in nice order all about the house, and another was occupied +in the dairy. + +Very different was it at Mr. Eastman's. Deborah must get potatoes, and +set Mary to washing them, while she made bread. Mrs. Eastman must cut +brown bread, and send Deborah for butter, little Sally for sauce, and +Susan for pickles. One must cut the meat and set it to cook; then it was +"Mary, have you seen to that meat? I expect it wants turning. Sally, run +and salt this side, before she turns it." And then, in a few moments, +"Debby, do look to that meat. I believe that it is all burning up. How +do them cakes bake? look, Sally. My goodness! all burnt to a cinder, +nearly. Debby, why didn't you see to them?" + +"La, mother! I thought Mary was about the lot, somewhere. Where is she, +I wonder?" + +"In the other room, reading, I think likely. Oh! I forgot: I sent her +after some coffee to burn." + +"What! going to burn coffee now? We sha'nt have breakfast to-day." + +"You fuss, Debby. We can burn enough for breakfast in five minutes. I +meant to have had a lot burned yesterday; but we had so much to do. +There, Debby, you see to the potatoes. I wonder what we are going to +have for dinner." + +"Don't begin to talk about dinner yet, for pity's sake," said Deborah. +"Sally, you ha'nt got the milk for the coffee. Susan, go and sound for +the men folks: breakfast will be ready by the time they get here. Mary, +put the pepper, vinegar, and salt on the table, if you can make room for +them." + +"Yes; and Debby, you go and get one of them large pumpkin pies," said +Mrs. Eastman. "And Sally, put the chairs round the table; the men folks +are coming upon the run." + +"Oh, mother! I am so glad you are going to have pie! I do love it _so_ +well," said Susan, seating herself at the table, without waiting for her +parents. + +Such a _rush!_ such a clatter of knives, forks, plates, cups, and +saucers! It "realized the phrase of ----," and was absolutely appalling +to common nerves. + +After breakfast came the making of beds and sweeping, baking and boiling +for dinner, making and turning cheese, and so on, until noon. Occasional +bits of leisure were _seized_ in the afternoon, for sewing and knitting +that must be done, and for visiting. + +The situation of such families is most unpleasant, but it is not +irremediable. Order may be established and preserved in the entire +household economy. They may restrict themselves to a simpler system of +dietetics. With the money and time thus saved, they may purchase books, +subscribe for good periodicals, and find ample leisure to read them. +Thus their intellects will be expanded and invigorated. They will have +opportunities for social intercourse, for the cultivation of +friendships; and thus their affections will be exercised and warmed. +Then, happy the destiny of the farmer, the farmer's wife, and the +farmer's daughters. + + A. F. D. + + + + +A WEAVER'S REVERIE. + + +It was a sunny day, and I left for a few moments the circumscribed spot +which is my appointed place of labor, that I might look from an +adjoining window upon the bright loveliness of nature. Yes, it was a +sunny day; but for many days before, the sky had been veiled in gloomy +clouds; and joyous indeed was it to look up into that blue vault, and +see it unobscured by its sombre screen; and my heart fluttered, like a +prisoned bird, with its painful longings for an unchecked flight amidst +the beautiful creation around me. + +Why is it, said a friend to me one day, that the factory girls write so +much about the beauties of nature? + +Oh! why is it, (thought I, when the query afterwards recurred to me,) +why is it that visions of thrilling loveliness so often bless the +sightless orbs of those whose eyes have once been blessed with the power +of vision? + +Why is it that the delirious dreams of the famine-stricken, are of +tables loaded with the richest viands, or groves, whose pendent boughs +droop with their delicious burdens of luscious fruit? + +Why is it that haunting tones of sweetest melody come to us in the deep +stillness of midnight, when the thousand tongues of man and nature are +for a season mute? + +Why is it that the desert-traveller looks forward upon the burning +boundless waste, and sees pictured before his aching eyes, some verdant +oasis, with its murmuring streams, its gushing founts, and shadowy +groves--but as he presses on with faltering step, the bright _mirage_ +recedes, until he lies down to die of weariness upon the scorching +sands, with that isle of loveliness before him? + +Oh tell me why is this, and I will tell why the factory girl sits in the +hour of meditation, and thinks--not of the crowded clattering mill, nor +of the noisy tenement which is her home, nor of the thronged and busy +street which she may sometimes tread,--but of the still and lovely +scenes which, in bygone hours, have sent their pure and elevating +influence with a thrilling sweep across the strings of the spirit-harp, +and then awaken its sweetest, loftiest notes; and ever as she sits in +silence and seclusion, endeavoring to draw from that many-toned +instrument a strain which may be meet for another's ear, that music +comes to the eager listener like the sound with which the sea-shell +echoes the roar of what was once its watery home. All her best and +holiest thoughts are linked with those bright pictures which call them +forth, and when she would embody them for the instruction of others, she +does it by a delineation of those scenes which have quickened and +purified her own mind. + +It was this love of nature's beauties, and a yearning for the pure +hallowed feelings which those beauties had been wont to call up from +their hidden springs in the depths of the soul, to bear away upon their +swelling tide the corruption which had gathered, and I feared might +settle there,--it was this love, and longing, and fear, which made my +heart throb quickly, as I sent forth a momentary glance from the factory +window. + +I think I said there was a cloudless sky; but it was not so. It was +clear, and soft, and its beauteous hue was of "the hyacinth's deep +blue"--but there was one bright solitary cloud, far up in the cerulean +vault; and I wished that it might for once be in my power to lie down +upon that white, fleecy couch, and there, away and alone, to dream of +all things holy, calm, and beautiful. Methought that better feelings, +and clearer thoughts than are often wont to visit me, would there take +undisturbed possession of my soul. + +And might I not be there, and send my unobstructed glance into the +depths of ether above me, and forget for a little while that I had ever +been a foolish, wayward, guilty child of earth? Could I not then cast +aside the burden of error and sin which must ever depress me here, and +with the maturity of womanhood, feel also the innocence of infancy? And +with that sense of purity and perfection, there would necessarily be +mingled a feeling of sweet uncloying bliss--such as imagination may +conceive, but which seldom pervades and sanctifies the earthly heart. +Might I not look down from my aerial position, and view this little +world, and its hills, valleys, plains, and streamlets, and its thousands +of busy inhabitants, and see how puerile and unsatisfactory it would +look to one so totally disconnected from it? Yes, there, upon that soft +snowy cloud could I sit, and gaze upon my native earth, and feel how +empty and "vain are all things here below." + +But not motionless would I stay upon that aerial couch. I would call +upon the breezes to waft me away over the broad blue ocean, and with +nought but the clear bright ether above me, have nought but a boundless, +sparkling, watery expanse below me. Then I would look down upon the +vessels pursuing their different courses across the bright waters; and +as I watched their toilsome progress, I should feel how blessed a thing +it is to be where no impediment of wind or wave might obstruct my onward +way. + +But when the beams of a midday sun had ceased to flash from the foaming +sea, I should wish my cloud to bear away to the western sky, and +divesting itself of its snowy whiteness, stand there, arrayed in the +brilliant hues of the setting sun. Yes, well should I love to be +stationed there, and see it catch those parting rays, and, transforming +them to dyes of purple and crimson, shine forth in its evening vestment, +with a border of brightest gold. Then could I watch the king of day as +he sinks into his watery bed, leaving behind a line of crimson light to +mark the path which led him to his place of rest. + +Yet once, O only once, should I love to have that cloud pass on--on--on +among the myriads of stars; and leaving them all behind, go far away +into the empty void of space beyond. I should love, for once, to be +_alone_. Alone! where _could_ I be alone? But I would fain be where +there is no other, save the INVISIBLE, and there, where not even one +distant star should send its feeble rays to tell of a universe beyond, +there would I rest upon that soft light cloud, and with a fathomless +depth below me, and a measureless waste above and around me, there would +I---- + +"Your looms are going without filling," said a loud voice at my elbow; +so I ran as fast as possible and changed my shuttles. + + ELLA. + + + + +OUR DUTY TO STRANGERS. + + "Deal gently with the stranger's heart."--MRS. HEMANS. + + +The factory girl has trials, as every one of the class can testify. It +was hard for thee to leave + + "Thy hearth, thy home, thy vintage land. + The voices of thy hindred band,"-- + +was it not, my sister? Yes, there was a burden at your heart as you +turned away from father, mother, sister, and brother, to meet the cold +glance of strange stage-companions. There was the mournfulness of the +funeral dirge and knell, in the crack of the driver's whip, and in the +rattling of the coach-wheels. And when the last familiar object receded +from your fixed gaze, there was a sense of utter desolation at your +heart. There was a half-formed wish that you could lie down on your own +bed, and die, rather than encounter the new trials before you. + +Home may be a capacious farm-house, or a lowly cottage, it matters not. +It is _home_. It is the spot around which the dearest affections and +hopes of the heart cluster and rest. When we turn away, a thousand +tendrils are broken, and they bleed.--Lovelier scenes _might_ open +before us, but that only "the loved are lovely." Yet until new +interests are awakened, and new loves adopted, there is a constant +heaviness of heart, more oppressive than can be imagined by those who +have never felt it. + +The "kindred band" may be made up of the intelligent and elegant, or of +the illiterate and vulgar; it matters not. Our hearts yearn for their +companionship. We would rejoice with them in health, or watch over them +in sickness. + +In all seasons of trial, whether from sickness, fatigue, unkindness, or +_ennui_, there is one bright _oasis_. It is + + ----"the hope of return to the mother, whose smile + Could dissipate sadness and sorrow beguile; + To the father, whose glance we've exultingly met-- + And no meed half so proud hath awaited us yet; + To the sister whose tenderness, breathing a charm, + No distance could lessen, no danger disarm; + To the friends, whose remembrances time cannot chill, + And whose home in the heart not the stranger can fill." + +This hope is invaluable; for it, + + "like the ivy round the oak, + Clings closer in the storm." + +Alas! that there are those to whom this hope comes not! those whose +affections go out, like Noah's dove, in search of a resting place; and +return without the olive-leaf. + +"Death is in the world," and it has made hundreds of our factory girls +orphans. Misfortunes are abroad, and they have left as many destitute of +homes. This is a melancholy fact, and one that calls loudly for the +sympathy and kind offices of the more fortunate of the class. It is not +a light thing to be alone in the world. It is not a light thing to meet +only neglect and selfishness, when one longs for disinterestedness and +love. Oh, then, let us + + "Deal gently with the stranger's heart," + +especially if the stranger be a destitute orphan. Her garb may be +homely, and her manners awkward; but we will take her to our heart, and +call her sister. Some glaring faults may be hers; but we will remember +"who it is that maketh us to differ," and if possible, by our kindness +and forbearance, win her to virtue and peace. + +There are many reasons why we should do this. It is a part of "pure and +undefiled religion" to "visit the fatherless in their afflictions." And +"mercy is twice blest; blest in him that gives, and him that takes." In +the beautiful language of the simple Scotch girl, "When the hour o' +trouble comes, that comes to mind and body, and when the hour o' death +comes, that comes to high and low, oh, my leddy, then it is na' what we +ha' done for ourselves, but what we ha' done for others, that we think +on maist pleasantly." + + E. + + + + +ELDER ISAAC TOWNSEND. + + +Elder Townsend was a truly meek and pious man. He was not what is called +_learned_, being bred a farmer, and never having had an opportunity of +attending school but very little--for school privileges were very +limited when Elder Townsend was young. His chief knowledge was what he +had acquired by studying the Bible (which had been his constant +companion from early childhood,) and a study of human nature, as he had +seen it exemplified in the lives of those with whom he held intercourse. + +Although a Gospel preacher for more than forty years, he never received +a salary. He owned a farm of some forty acres, which he cultivated +himself; and when, by reason of ill health, or from having to attend to +pastoral duties, his farming-work was not so forward as that of his +neighbors, he would ask his parishioners to assist him for a day, or a +half-day, according to his necessities. As this was the only pay he ever +asked for his continuous labors with them, he never received a denial, +and a pittance so trifling could not be given grudgingly. The days which +were spent on Elder Townsend's farm were not considered by his +parishioners as days of toil, but as holydays, from whose recreations +they were sure to return home richly laden with the blessings of their +good pastor. + +The sermons of Elder T. were always _extempore_; and if they were not +always delivered with the elocution of an orator, they were truly +excellent, inasmuch as they consisted principally of passages of +Scripture, judiciously selected, and well connected. + +The Elder's intimate knowledge of his flock, and their habits and +propensities, their joys and their sorrows, together with his thorough +acquaintance with the Scriptures, enabled him to be ever in readiness to +give reproof or consolation (as need might be,) in the language of Holy +Writ. His reproofs were received with meekness, and the recipients would +resolve to profit thereby; and when he offered the cup of consolation, +it was received with gratitude by those who stood in need of its healing +influences. But when he dwelt on the loving-kindness of our God, all +hearts would rejoice and be glad. Often, while listening to his +preaching, have I sat with eyes intently gazing on the speaker, until I +fancied myself transported back to the days of the "beloved disciple," +and on the Isle of Patmos was hearing him say, "My little children, love +one another." + +When I last saw Elder Townsend, his head was white with the frosts of +more than seventy winters. It is many years since. I presume, ere this, +he sleeps beneath the turf on the hill-side, and is remembered among the +worthies of the olden time. + + B. N. + + + + +HARRIET GREENOUGH. + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The day is come I never thought to see, + Strange revolutions in my farm and me." + + DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. + +Harriet Greenough had always been thought a spoiled child, when she left +home for Newburyport. Her father was of the almost obsolete class of +farmers, whose gods are their farms, and whose creed--"Farmers are the +most independent folks in the world." This latter was none the less +absolute in its power over Mr. Greenough, from its being entirely +traditionary. He often repeated a vow made in early life, that he would +never wear other than "homespun" cloth. When asked his reasons, he +invariably answered, "Because I won't depend on others for what I can +furnish myself. Farmers are the most independent class of men; and I +mean to be the most independent of farmers."--If for a moment he felt +humbled by the presence of a genteel well-educated man, it was only for +a moment. He had only to recollect that farmers are the most independent +class of people, and his head resumed its wonted elevation, his manner +and tone their usual swaggering impudence. + +While at school he studied nothing but reading, spelling, arithmetic, +and writing. Latterly, his reading had been restricted to a chapter in +the Bible per day, and an occasional examination of the almanac. He did +not read his Bible from devotional feeling--for he had none; but that he +might puzzle the "book men" of the village with questions like the +following:--"Now I should like to have you tell me one thing: How +_could_ Moses write an account of his own death and burial? Can you just +tell me where Cain and Abel found their wives? What verse is there in +the Bible that has but two words in it? Who was the father of Zebedee's +children? How many chapters has the New Testament?--How many verses, and +how many words?" Inability or disinclination to answer any and all of +these, made the subject of a day's laughter and triumph. + +Nothing was so appalling to him as innovations on old customs and +opinions. "These notions, that the earth turns round, and the sun stands +still; that shooting stars are nothing but little meteors, I think they +call them, are turning the heads of our young folks," he was accustomed +to say to Mr. Curtis, the principal of the village academy, every time +they met. "And then these new-fangled books, filled with jaw-cracking +words and falsehoods, chemistry, philosophy, and so on--why, I wonder if +they ever made any man a better farmer, or helped a woman to make better +butter and cheese? Now, Mr. Curtis, it is _my_ opinion that young folks +had better read their Bibles more. Now I'll warrant that not one in ten +can tell how many chapters there are in it. My father knew from the time +he was eight till he was eighty. Can _you_ tell, Mr. Curtis?" + +Mr. Curtis smiled a negative; and Mr. Greenough went laughing about all +day. Indeed, for a week, the first thing that came after his blunt +salutation, was a loud laugh; and in answer to consequent inquiries +came the recital of his victory over "the great Mr. Curtis." He would +not listen a moment to arguments in favor of sending Harriet to the +academy, or of employing any other teachers in his district than old +Master Smith, and Miss Heath, a superanuated spinster. + +Mrs. Greenough was a mild creature, passionless and gentle in her nature +as a lamb. She acquiesced in all of her husband's measures, whether from +having no opinions of her own, or from a deep and quiet sense of duty +and propriety, no one knew. Harriet was their pet. As rosy, laughing, +and healthy as a Hebe, she flew from sport to sport all the day long. +Her mother attempted, at first, to check her romping propensity; but it +delighted her father, and he took every opportunity to strengthen and +confirm it. He was never so happy as when watching her swift and eager +pursuit of a butterfly; never so lavish of his praises and caresses as +when she succeeded in capturing one, and all breathless with the chase, +bore her prize to him. + +"Do stay in the house with poor ma, to-day, darling; she is very +lonely," her mother would say to her, as she put back the curls from the +beautiful face of her child, and kissed her cheek. One day a tear was in +her eye and a sadness at her heart; for she had been thinking of the +early childhood of her Harriet, when she turned from father, little +brother, playthings and all, for her. Harriet seemed to understand her +feelings; for instead of answering her with a spring and laugh as usual, +she sat quietly down at her feet, and laid her head on her lap. Mr. +Greenough came in at this moment. + +"How? What does this mean, wife and Hatty?" said he.--"Playing the baby, +Hat? Wife, this won't do. Harriet has your beauty; and to this I have no +objections, if she has my spirits and independence. Come, Hatty; we want +you to help us make hay to-day; and there are lots of butterflies and +grasshoppers for you to catch. Come," he added; for the child still kept +her eyes on her mother's face, as if undecided whether to go or stay. +"Come, get your bonnet--no; you may go without it. You look too much +like a village girl. You must get more tan." + +"Shall I go, ma?" Harriet asked, still clinging to her mother's dress. + +"Certainly, if pa wishes it," answered Mrs. Greenough with a strong +effort to speak cheerfully. + +She went, and from that hour Mrs. Greenough passively allowed her to +follow her father and his laborers as she pleased; to rake hay, ride in +the cart, husk corn, hunt hen's eggs, jump on the hay, play ball, +prisoner, pitch quoits, throw dice, cut and saw wood, and, indeed, to +run into every amusement which her active temperament demanded. She went +to school when she pleased; but her father was constant in his hints +that her spirits and independence were not to be destroyed by poring +over books. She was generally left to do as she pleased, although she +was often pleased to perpetrate deeds, for which her school-mates often +asserted they would have been severely chastised. There was an +expression of fun and good humor lurking about in the dimples of her fat +cheeks and in her deep blue eye, that effectually shielded her from +reproof. Master Smith had just been accused of partiality to her, and he +walked into the school considerably taller than usual, all from his +determination to punish Harriet before night. He was not long in +detecting her in a rogueish act. He turned from her under the pretence +of looking some urchins into silence, and said, with uncommon sternness +and precision, "Harriet Greenough, walk out into the floor." Harriet +jumped up, shook the hands of those who sat near her, nodded a farewell +to others, and walked gaily up to the master. He dreaded meeting her +eye; for he knew that his gravity would desert him in such a case. She +took a position behind him, and in a moment the whole house was in an +uproar of laughter. Master Smith turned swiftly about on his heel, and +confronted the culprit. She only smiled and made him a most graceful +courtesy. This was too much for his risibles. He laughed almost as +heartily as his pupils. + +"Take your seat, you, he! he! you trollop, you, he! he! and I will +settle with you by and bye," he said. + +She only thanked him, and then returned to her sport. + +So she passed on. When sixteen, she was a very child in everything but +years and form. Her forehead was high and full, but a want of taste and +care in the arrangement of her beautiful hair destroyed its effect. Her +complexion was clear, but sunburnt. Her laugh was musical, but one +missed that _tone_ which distinguishes the laugh of a happy feeling girl +of sixteen from that of a child of mere frolic. As to her form, no one +knew what it was; for she was always putting herself into some strange +but not really uncouth attitude; and besides, she could never _stop_ to +adjust her dress properly. + +Such was Harriet Greenough, when a cousin of hers paid them a visit on +her return to the Newburyport mills. She was of Harriet's age; but one +would have thought her ten years her senior, judging from her superior +dignity and intelligence. Her father died when she was a mere child, +after a protracted illness, which left them penniless. By means of +untiring industry, and occasional gifts from her kind neighbors, Mrs. +Wood succeeded in keeping her children at school, until her daughter was +sixteen and her son fourteen. They then went together to Newburyport, +under the care of a very amiable girl who had spent several years there. +They worked a year, devoting a few hours every day to study; then +returned home, and spent a year at school in their native village. + +They were now on their return to the mills. It was arranged that at the +completion of the present year Charles should return to school, and +remain there until fitted for the study of a profession, if Jane's +health was spared that she might labor for his support. + +Jane was a gentle affectionate girl; and there was a new feeling at the +heart of Harriet from the day in which she came under her influence. +Before the week had half expired which Jane was to spend with them, +Harriet, with characteristic decision, avowed her determination to +accompany her. Her father and mother had opposed her will in but few +instances. In these few she had laughed them into an easy compliance. In +the present case she found her task a more difficult one. But they +consented at last; and with her mother's tearful blessing, and an +injunction from her father not to bear any insolence from her employers, +but to remember always that she was the independent daughter of an +independent farmer, she left her home. + + +CHAPTER II. + +A year passed by, and our Harriet was a totally changed being, in +intellect and deportment. Her cousins boarded in a small family, that +they might have a better opportunity of pursuing their studies during +their leisure hours. She was their constant companion. At first she did +not open a book; and numberless were the roguish artifices she employed +to divert the attention of her cousins from theirs. They often laid them +aside for a lively chat with her; and then urged her to study with +them. She loved them ardently. To her affection she at last yielded, and +not to any anticipations of pleasure or profit in the results, for she +had been _educated_ to believe that there was none of either. + +Charles had been studying Latin and mathematics; Jane, botany, geology, +and geography of the heavens. She instructed Charles in these latter +sciences; he initiated her as well as he might, into the mysteries of +_hic, haec, hoc_, and algebra. At times of recitation, Harriet sat and +laughed at their "queer words." When she accompanied them in their +search for flowers, she amused herself by bringing mullen, yarrow, and, +in one instance, a huge sunflower.--When they had traced constellations, +she repeated to them a satire on star-gazers, which she learned of her +father. + +The _histories_ of the constellations and flowers first arrested her +attention, and kindled a romance which had hitherto lain dormant. A new +light was in her eye from that hour, and a new charm in her whole +deportment. She commenced study under very discouraging circumstances. +Of this she was deeply sensible. She often shed a few tears as she +thought of her utter ignorance, then dashed them off, and studied with +renewed diligence and success. She studied two hours every morning +before commencing labor and until half past eleven at night. She took +her book and her dinner to the mill, that she might have the whole +intermission for study. This short season, with the reflection she gave +during the afternoon, was sufficient for the mastery of a hard lesson. +She was close in her attendance at the sanctuary. She joined a Bible +class; and the teachings there fell with a sanctifying influence on her +spirit, subduing but not destroying its vivacity, and opening a new +current to her thoughts and affections. Although tears of regret for +misspent years often stole down her cheeks, she assured Jane that she +was happier at the moment than in her hours of loudest mirth. + +Her letters to her friends had prepared them for a change, but not for +_such_ a change--so great and so happy. She was now a very beautiful +girl, easy and graceful in her manners, soft and gentle in her +conversation, and evidently conscious of her superiority, only to feel +more humble, more grateful to Heaven, her dear cousins, her minister, +her Sabbath school teacher, and other beloved friends, who by their +kindness had opened such new and delightful springs of feeling in her +heart. + +She flung her arms around her mother's neck, and wept tears of gratitude +and love. Mrs. Greenough felt that she was no longer alone in the world; +and Mr. Greenough, as he watched them--the wife and the +daughter--inwardly acknowledged that there was that in the world dearer +to his heart than his farm and his independence. + +Amongst Harriet's baggage was a rough deal box. This was first opened. +It contained her books, a few minerals and shells. There were fifty +well-selected volumes, besides a package of gifts for her father, +mother, and brother.--There was no book-case in the house; and the +kitchen shelf was full of old almanacs, school books, sermons, and jest +books. Mr. Greenough rode to the village, and returned with a rich +secretary, capacious enough for books, minerals, and shells. He brought +the intelligence, too, that a large party of students and others were to +spend the evening with them. Harriet's heart beat quick, as she thought +of young Curtis, and wondered if he was among the said students.--Before +she left Bradford, struck with the beauty and simplicity of her +appearance, he sought and obtained an introduction to her, but left her +side, after sundry ineffectual attempts to draw her into conversation, +disappointed and disgusted. He _was_ among Harriet's visitors. + +"Pray, Miss Curtis, what may be your opinion of our belle, Miss +Greenough?" asked young Lane, on the following morning, as Mr. Curtis +and his sister entered the hall of the academy. + +"Why, I think that her improvement has been astonishingly rapid during +the past year; and that she is now a really charming girl." + +"Has she interfered with your heart, Lane?" asked his chum. + +"As to that, I do not feel entirely decided. I think I shall renew my +call, however--nay, do not frown, Curtis; I was about to add, if it be +only to taste her father's delicious melons, pears, plums, and apples." + +Curtis blushed slightly, bowed, and passed on to the school room. He +soon proved that he cared much less for Mr. Greenough's fruit than for +his daughter: for the fruit remained untasted if Harriet was at his +side. He was never so happy as when Mr. Greenough announced his purpose +of sending Harriet to the academy two or three years. Arrangements were +made accordingly, and the week before Charles left home for college, +she was duly installed in his father's family. + +She missed him much; but the loss of his society was partially +counterbalanced by frequent and brotherly letters from him, and by +weekly visits to her home, which by the way, is becoming quite a +paradise under her supervision.--She has been studying painting and +drawing. Several well-executed specimens of each adorn the walls and +tables of their sitting-room and parlor. She has no "regular built" +centre-table, but in lieu thereof she has removed from the garret an old +round table that belonged to her grandmother. This she has placed in the +centre of the sitting-room; and what with its very pretty covering +(which falls so near the floor as to conceal its uncouth legs), and its +books, it forms no mean item of elegance and convenience. + +Mr. Greenough and his help have improved a few leisure days in removing +the trees that entirely concealed the Merrimac. By the profits resulting +from their sale, he has built a neat and tasteful enclosure for his +house and garden. This autumn shade-trees and shrubbery are to be +removed to the yard, and fruit-trees and vines to the garden. Next +winter a summer-house is to be put in readiness for erection in the +spring. + +All this, and much more, Mr. Greenough is confident he can accomplish, +without neglecting his _necessary_ labors, or the course of reading he +has marked out, "by and with the advice" of his wife and Harriet. And +more, and better still, he has decided that his son George shall attend +school, at least two terms yearly. He will board at home, and will be +accompanied by his cousin Charles, whom Mr. Greenough has offered to +board gratis, until his education is completed. By this generosity on +the part of her uncle, Jane will be enabled to defray other expenses +incidental to Charles's education, and still have leisure for literary +pursuits. + +Most truly might Mr. Greenough say,-- + + "The day is come I never thought to see, + Strange revolutions in my farm and me." + + A. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +FANCY. + + + O Swiftly flies the shuttle now, + Swift as an arrow from the bow: + But swifter than the thread is wrought, + Is soon the flight of busy thought; + For Fancy leaves the mill behind, + And seeks some novel scenes to find. + And now away she quickly hies-- + O'er hill and dale the truant flies. + Stop, silly maid! where dost thou go? + Thy road may be a road of woe: + Some hand may crush thy fairy form, + And chill thy heart so lately warm. + "Oh no," she cries in merry tone, + "I go to lands before unknown; + I go in scenes of bliss to dwell, + Where ne'er is heard a factory bell." + + Away she went; and soon I saw, + That Fancy's wish was Fancy's law; + For where the leafless trees were seen, + And Fancy wished them to be green, + Her wish she scarcely had made known, + Before green leaves were on them grown. + She spake--and there appear'd in view, + Bright manly youths, and maidens, too. + And Fancy called for music rare-- + And music filled the ravished air. + + And then the dances soon began, + And through the mazes lightly ran + The footsteps of the fair and gay-- + For this was Fancy's festal day. + On, on they move, a lovely group! + Their faces beam with joy and hope; + Nor dream they of a danger nigh, + Beneath their bright and sunny sky. + One of the fair ones is their queen, + For whom they raise a throne of green; + And Fancy weaves a garland now, + To place upon the maiden's brow; + And fragrant are the blooming flowers, + In her enchanted fairy-bowers. + + And Fancy now away may slip, + And o'er the green-sward lightly skip, + And to her airy castle hie-- + For Fancy hath a castle nigh. + The festal board she quick prepares, + And every guest the bounty shares,-- + And seated at the festal board, + Their merry voices now are heard, + As each youth places to his lips, + And from the golden goblet sips + A draught of the enchanting wine + That came from Fancy's fruitful vine. + + But hark! what sound salutes mine ear? + A distant rumbling now I hear. + Ah, Fancy! 'tis no groundless fear, + The rushing whirlwind draweth near! + Thy castle walls are rocking fast,-- + The glory of thy feast is past; + Thy guests are now beneath the wave,-- + Oblivion is their early grave, + Thy fairy bower has vanished--fled: + Thy leafy tree are withered--dead! + Thy lawn is now a barren heath, + Thy bright-eyed maids are cold in death! + Those manly youth that were so gay, + Have vanished in the self-same way! + + Oh Fancy! now remain at home, + And be content no more to roam; + For visions such as thine are vain, + And bring but discontent and pain. + Remember, in thy giddy whirl, + That _I_ am but a factory girl: + And be content at home to dwell, + Though governed by a "factory bell." + + FIDUCIA. + + + + +THE WIDOW'S SON. + + +Among the multitudes of females employed in our manufacturing +establishments, persons are frequently to be met with, whose lives are +interspersed with incidents of an interesting and even thrilling +character. But seldom have I met with a person who has manifested so +deep devotion, such uniform cheerfulness, and withal so determined a +perseverance in the accomplishment of a cherished object, as Mrs. Jones. + +This inestimable lady was reared in the midst of affluence, and was +early married to the object of her heart's affection. A son was given +them, a sweet and lovely boy. With much joy they watched the development +of his young mind, especially as he early manifested a deep devotional +feeling, which was cultivated with the most assiduous attention. + +But happiness like this may not always continue. Reverses came. That +faithful husband and affectionate father was laid on a bed of +languishing. Still he trusted in God; and when he felt that the time of +his departure approached, he raised his eyes, and exclaimed, "Holy +Father! Thou hast promised to be the widow's God and judge, and a Father +to the fatherless; into Thy care I commit my beloved wife and child. +Keep Thou them from evil, as they travel life's uneven journey. May +their service be acceptable in thy sight." He then quietly fell asleep. + +Bitter indeed were the tears shed over his grave by that lone widow and +her orphan boy; yet they mourned not as those who mourn without hope. +Instead of devoting her time to unavailing sorrow, Mrs. Jones turned her +attention to the education of her son, who was then in his tenth year. +Finding herself in reduced circumstances, she nobly resolved to support +her family by her own exertions, and keep her son at school. With this +object, she procured plain needle-work, by which, with much economy, she +was enabled to live very comfortably, until Samuel had availed himself +of all the advantages presented him by the common schools and high +school. He was then ready to enter college--but how were the necessary +funds to be raised to defray his expenses? + +This was not a new question to Mrs. Jones. She had pondered it long and +deeply, and decided upon her course; yet she had not mentioned it to her +son, lest it should divert his mind from his studies. But as the time +now rapidly approached when she was to carry her plan into operation, +she deemed it proper to acquaint Samuel with the whole scheme. + +As they were alone in their neat little parlor, she aroused him from a +fit of abstraction, by saying, "Samuel, my dear son, before your father +died we solemnly consecrated you to the service of the Lord; and that +you might be the better prepared to labor in the gospel vineyard, your +father designed to give you a liberal education. He was called home; yet +through the goodness of our Heavenly Father, I have been enabled thus +far to prosecute his plan. It is now time for you to enter college, and +in order to raise the necessary funds, I have resolved to sell my little +stock of property, and engage as an operative in a factory." + +At this moment, neighbor Hall, an old-fashioned, good-natured sort of a +man, entered very unceremoniously, and having heard the last sentence, +replied: "Ah! widow, you know that I do not like the plan of bringing up +our boys in idleness. But then Samuel is such a good boy, and so fond of +reading, that I think it a vast pity if he cannot read all the books in +the state. Yes, send him to college, widow; there he will have reading +to his heart's content. You know there is a gratuity provided for the +education of indigent and pious young men." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Jones, "I know it; but I am resolved that if my son +ever obtains a place among the servants of the Prince of Peace, he shall +stand forth unchained by the bondage of men, and nobly exert the +energies of his mind as the Lord's freeman." + +Samuel, who had early been taught the most perfect obedience, now +yielded reluctant consent to this measure.--Little time was requisite +for arrangements; and having converted her little effects into cash, +they who had never before been separated, now took an affectionate and +sorrowful leave of each other, and departed--the one to the halls of +learning, and the other to the power-looms. + +We shall now leave Samuel Jones, and accompany his mother to Dover. On +her arrival, she assumed her maiden name, which I shall call Lucy +Cambridge; and such was her simplicity and quietness of deportment, +that she was never suspected of being other than she seemed. She readily +obtained a situation in a weave-room, and by industry and close +application, she quickly learned the grand secret of a successful +weaver--namely, "Keep the filling running, and the web clear." + +The wages were not then reduced to the present low standard, and Lucy +transmitted to her son, monthly, all, saving enough to supply her +absolute necessities. + +As change is the order of the day in all manufacturing places, so, in +the course of change, Lucy became my room-mate; and she whom I had +before admired, secured my love and ardent friendship. Upon general +topics she conversed freely; but of her history and kindred, never. Her +respectful deportment was sufficient to protect her from the inquiries +of curiosity; and thus she maintained her reserve until one evening when +I found her sadly perusing a letter. I thought she had been weeping. All +the sympathies of my nature were aroused, and throwing my arms around +her neck, I exclaimed, "Dear Lucy, does your letter bring you bad news, +or are any of your relatives"----I hesitated and stopped; for, thought +I, "perhaps she _has_ no relatives. I have never heard her speak of any: +she may be a lone orphan in the world." It was then she yielded to +sympathy, what curiosity had never ventured to ask. From that time she +continued to speak to me of her history and hopes. As I have selected +names to suit myself, she has kindly permitted me to make an extract +from her answer to that letter, which was as follows: + +"My Dear Son,--in your letter of the 16th, you entreat me to leave the +mill, saying, 'I would rather be a scavenger, a wood-sawyer, or +anything, whereby I might honestly procure a subsistence for my mother +and myself, than have you thus toil, early and late. Mother, the very +thought is intolerable! O come away--for dearly as I love knowledge, I +cannot consent to receive it at the price of my mother's happiness.' + +"My son, it is true that factory life is a life of toil--but I am +preparing the way for my only son to go forth as a herald of the cross, +to preach repentance and salvation to those who are out of the way. I am +promoting an object which was very near the heart of my dear husband. +Wherefore I desire that you will not again think of pursuing any other +course than the one already marked out for you; for you perceive that my +agency in promoting your success, forms an important part of _my_ +happiness." + +Often have I seen her eyes sparkle with delight as she mentioned her son +and his success. And after the labor and toil of attending "double work" +during the week, very often have I seen her start with all the +elasticity of youth, and go to the Post Office after a letter from +Samuel. And seldom did she return without one, for he was ever +thoughtful of his mother, who was spending her strength for him. And he +knew very well that it was essential to her happiness to be well +informed of his progress and welfare. + +Nearly three years had elapsed since Lucy Cambridge first entered the +mill, when the stage stopped in front of her boarding house, and a young +gentleman sprang out, and inquired if Miss Lucy Cambridge was in. +Immediately they were clasped in each other's arms. This token of mutual +affection created no small stir among the boarders. One declared, "she +thought it very singular that such a pretty young man should fancy so +old a girl as Lucy Cambridge." Another said, "she should as soon think +that he would marry his mother." + +Samuel Jones was tall, but of slender form. His hair, which was of the +darkest brown, covered an unusually fine head. His eyes, of a clear dark +grey, beaming with piety and intelligence, shed a lustre over his whole +countenance, which was greatly heightened by being overshadowed by a +deep, broad forehead. + +He visited his mother at this time, to endeavor to persuade her to leave +the mill, and spend her time in some less laborious occupation. He +assured her that he had saved enough from the stock she had already sent +him, to complete his education. But she had resolved to continue in her +present occupation, until her son should have a prospect of a permanent +residence; and he departed alone. + +Intelligence was soon conveyed to Lucy that a young student had preached +occasionally, and that his labors had been abundantly blessed. And ere +the completion of another year, Samuel Jones went forth a licentiate, to +preach the everlasting gospel. + +I will not attempt to describe the transports of that widowed heart, +when she received the joyful tidings that her son had received a +unanimous call to take the pastoral charge of a small but well-united +society in the western part of Ohio, and only waited for her to +accompany him thither. + +Speedily she prepared to leave a place which she really loved; "for," +said she, "have I not been blessed with health and strength to perform a +great and noble work in this place?" + +Ay, undoubtedly thou hast performed a blessed work; and now, go forth, +and in the heartfelt satisfaction that thou hast performed thy duty, +reap the rich reward of all thy labors. + +Samuel Jones and his mother have departed for the scene of their future +labors, with their hearts filled with gratitude to God, and an humble +desire to be of service in winning many souls to the flock of our Savior +and Lord. + + ORIANNA. + + + + +WITCHCRAFT. + + +It may not, perhaps, be generally known that a belief in witchcraft +still prevails, to a great extent, in some parts of New England. Whether +this is owing to the effect of early impressions on the mind, or to some +defect in the physical organization of the human system, is not for me +to say; my present purpose being only to relate, in as concise a manner +as may be, some few things which have transpired within a quarter of a +century; all of which happened in the immediate neighborhood of my early +home, and among people with whom I was well acquainted. + +My only apology for so doing is, that I feel desirous to transmit to +posterity, something which may give them an idea of the superstition of +the present age--hoping that when they look back upon its dark page, +they will feel a spirit of thankfulness that they live in more +enlightened times, and continue the work of mental illumination, till +the mists of error entirely vanish before the light of all-conquering +truth. + +In a little glen between the mountains, in the township of B., stands a +cottage, which, almost from time immemorial, has been noted as the +residence of some one of those ill-fated beings, who are said to take +delight in sending their spirits abroad to torment the children of men. +These beings, it is said, purchase their art of his satanic majesty--the +price, their immortal souls, and when Satan calls for his due, the +mantle of the witch is transferred to another mortal, who, for the sake +of exercising the art for a brief space of time, makes over the soul to +perdition. + +The mother of the present occupant of this cottage lived to a very +advanced age; and for a long series of years, all the mishaps within +many miles were laid to her spiritual agency; and many were the +expedients resorted to to rid the neighborhood of so great a pest. But +the old woman, spite of all exertions to the contrary, lived on, till +she died of sheer old age. + +It was some little time before it was ascertained who inherited her +mantle; but at length it was believed to be a fact that her daughter +Molly was duly authorized to exercise all the prerogatives of a witch; +and so firmly was this belief established, that it even gained credence +with her youngest brother; and after she was married, and had removed to +a distant part of the country, a calf of his, that had some strange +actions, was pronounced by the _knowing ones_, to be bewitched; and this +inhuman monster chained his calf in the fire place of his cooper-shop, +and burned it to death--hoping thereby to kill his sister, whose spirit +was supposed to be in the body of the calf. + +For several years it went current that Molly fell into the fire, and was +burned to death, at the same time in which the calf was burned. But she +at length refuted this, by making her brother a visit, and spending some +little time in the neighborhood. + +Some nineteen or twenty years since, two men, with whom I was well +acquainted, had an action pending in the Superior Court, and it was +supposed that the testimony of the widow Goodwin in favor of the +plaintiff, would bear hard upon the defendant. A short time previous to +the sitting of the court, a man by the name of James Doe, offered +himself as an evidence for the defendant to destroy the testimony of the +widow Goodwin, by defaming her character. Doe said that he was willing +to testify that the widow Goodwin was a witch--he knew it to be a fact; +for, once on a time she came to his bed-side, and flung a bridle over +his head, and he was instantly metamorphosed into a horse. The widow +then mounted and rode him nearly forty miles; she stopped at a tavern, +which he named, dismounted, tied him to the sign-post and left him. +After an absence of several hours, she returned, mounted, and rode him +home; and at the bed-side took off the bridle, when he resumed his +natural form. + +No one acquainted with Doe thought that he meant to deviate from the +truth. Those naturally superstitious thought that the widow Goodwin was +in reality a witch; but the more enlightened believed that their +neighbor Doe was under the influence of spirituous liquor when he went +to bed; and that whatever might be the scene presented to his +imagination, it was owing to false vision, occasioned by derangement in +his upper story; and they really felt a sympathy for him, knowing that +he belonged to a family who were subject to mental aberration. + +A scene which I witnessed in part, in the autumn of 1822, shall close my +chapter on witchcraft. It was between the hours of nine and ten in the +morning, that a stout-built, ruddy-faced man confined one of his cows, +by means of bows and iron chains, to an apple-tree and then beat her +till she dropped dead--saying that the cow was bewitched, and that he +was determined to kill the witch. His mother, and some of the neighbors +witnessed this cruel act without opposing him, so infatuated were they +with a belief in witchcraft. + +I might enlarge upon this scene, but the recollection of what then took +place recalls so many disagreeable sensations, that I forbear. Let it +suffice to state that the cow was suffering in consequence of having +eaten a large quantity of potatoes from a heap that was exposed in the +field where she was grazing. + + TABITHA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +CLEANING UP. + + +There is something to me very interesting in observing the +manifestations of animal instinct--that unerring prompter which guides +its willing disciple into the ever straight path, and shows him, with +unfailing sagacity, the easiest and most correct method of accomplishing +each necessary design. + +But to enter here, upon a philosophical dissertation, respecting the +nature and developments of instinct, is not my design, and I will now +detain you with but one or two instances of it, which have fallen under +my own observation. + +One warm day in the early spring, I observed a spider, very busily +engaged upon a dirty old web, which had for a long time, curtained a +pane of my factory window. Where Madame Arachne had kept herself during +the winter, was not in my power to ascertain; but she was in a very good +condition, plump, spry, and full of energy. The activity of her +movements awakened my curiosity, and I watched with much interest the +commotion in the old dwelling, or rather slaughter house, for I doubted +not that many a green head and blue bottle had there met an untimely +end. + +I soon found that madam was very laboriously engaged in that very +necessary part of household exercises, called, CLEANING UP; and she had +chosen precisely the season for her labors which all good housewives +have by common consent appropriated to paint-cleaning, white-washing, +&c. With much labor, and a prodigal expenditure of steps, she removed, +one by one, the tiny bits of dirt, sand &c., &c., which had accumulated +in this net during the winter; but it was not done, as I at first +thought, by pushing and poking, and thrusting the intruders out, but by +gradually destroying their _location_, as a western emigrant would +say.--Whether this was done, as I at one time imagined, by devouring the +fibre as she passed over it, or by winding it around some under part of +her body, or whether she left it at the centre of the web, to which +point she invariably returned after every peregrination to the +outskirts, I could not satisfy myself. It was to me a cause of great +marvel, and awakened my perceptive as well as reflective faculties from +a long winter nap. + +To the first theory there was no objection, excepting that I had never +heard of its being done; but then it might be so, and in this case I had +discovered what had escaped the observation of all preceding +naturalists. To the second there was this objection, that when I +occasionally caught a front view of "my lady," she showed no distaff, +upon which she might have re-wound her unravelled thread. The third +suggestion was also objectionable, because, though the centre looked +somewhat thicker, or I surmised that it did, yet it was not so much so +as it must have been, had it been the depot of the whole concern. + +Of one thing I was at length assured--that there was to be an entire +demolition of the whole fabric, with the exception of the main beams, +(or sleepers, I think is the technical term,) which remained as usual, +when all else had been removed. Then I went away for the night, and when +I returned the next morning, expecting to behold a blank--a void, an +evacuation of premises--a removal--a disappearance--a destruction most +complete, without even a wreck left behind--lo! there was again the +rebuilt mansion--the restored fabric, the reversed Penelopian labor: and +madam was rejoicing like the patient man of Uz, when more than he had +lost was restored to him. + +My feelings, (for I have a large bump of sympathy) were of that +pleasurable kind which Jack must have experienced, when he saw the +castle, which in a single night had established itself on the top of his +bean-pole; or which enlivened the bosom of Aladdin, when he saw the +beautiful palace, which in a night had travelled from the genii's +dominions to the waste field, which it then beautified; and I felt truly +rejoiced that my industrious neighbor's works of darkness were not +always deeds of evil. But alack for the poor _spinster_, when it came +_my_ turn to be _cleaning up_! + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +VISITS TO THE SHAKERS. + + +A FIRST VISIT. + +Sometime in the summer of 18--, I paid a visit to one of the Shaker +villages in the State of New York. Previously to this, many times and +oft had I (when tired of the noise and contention of the world, its +erroneous opinions, and its wrong practices) longed for some retreat, +where, with a few chosen friends, I could enjoy the present, forget the +past, and be free from all anxiety respecting any future portion of +time. And often had I pictured, in imagination, a state of happy +society, where one common interest prevailed--where kindness and +brotherly love were manifested in all of the every-day affairs of +life--where liberty and equality would live, not in name, but in very +deed--where idleness, in no shape whatever, would be tolerated--and +where vice of every description would be banished, and neatness, with +order, would be manifested in all things. + +Actually to witness such a state of society was a happiness which I +never expected. I thought it to be only a thing among the airy castles +which it has ever been my delight to build. But with this unostentatious +and truly kind-hearted people, the Shakers, I found it; and the reality, +in beauty and harmony, exceeded even the picturings of imagination. + +No unprejudiced mind could, for a single moment, resist the conviction +that this singular people, with regard to their worldly possessions, +lived in strict conformity to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. There +were men in this society who had added to the common stock thousands and +tens of thousands of dollars; they nevertheless labored, dressed, and +esteemed themselves as no better, and fared in all respects like those +who had never owned, neither added to the society, any worldly goods +whatever. The cheerfulness with which they bore one another's burdens +made even the temporal calamities, so unavoidable among the inhabitants +of the earth, to be felt but lightly. + +This society numbered something like six hundred persons, who in many +respects were differently educated, and who were of course in +possession of a variety of prejudices, and were of contrary dispositions +and habits. Conversing with one of their elders respecting them, he +said, "You may say that these were rude materials of which to compose a +church, and speak truly: but here (though strange it may seem) they are +worked into a building, with no sound of axe or hammer. And however +discordant they were in a state of nature, the square and the plumb-line +have been applied to them, and they now admirably fit the places which +they were designed to fill. Here the idle become industrious, the +prodigal contracts habits of frugality, the parsimonious become generous +and liberal, the intemperate quit the tavern and the grog-shop, the +debauchee forsakes the haunts of dissipation and infamy, the swearer +leaves off the habits of profanity, the liar is changed into a person of +truth, the thief becomes an honest man, and the sloven becomes neat and +clean." + +The whole deportment of this truly singular people, together with the +order and neatness which I witnessed in their houses, shops, and +gardens, to all of which I had free access for the five days which I +remained with them, together with the conversations which I held with +many of the people of both sexes, confirmed the words of the +Elder.--Truly, thought I, there is not another spot in the wide earth +where I could be so happy as I could be here, provided the religious +faith and devotional exercises of the Shakers were agreeable to my own +views. Although I could not see the utility of their manner of worship, +I felt not at all disposed to question that it answered the end for +which spiritual worship was designed, and as such is accepted by our +heavenly Father. That the Shakers have a love for the Gospel exceeding +that which is exhibited by professing Christians in general, cannot be +doubted by any one who is acquainted with them. For on no other +principle could large families, to the number of fifty or sixty, live +together like brethren and sisters. And a number of these families could +not, on any other principles save those of the Gospel, form a society, +and live in peace and harmony, bound together by no other bond than that +of brotherly love, and take of each other's property, from day to day +and from year to year, using it indiscriminately, as every one hath +need, each willing that his brother should use his property, as he uses +it himself, and all this without an equivalent. + +Many think that a united interest in all things temporal is contrary to +reason. But in what other light, save that of common and united +interest, could the words of Christ's prophecy or promise be fulfilled? +According to the testimony of Mark, Christ said, "There is no man who +hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, +or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, but he shall +receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and +sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in +the world to come eternal life." Not only in fact, but in theory, is an +hundredfold of private interest out of the question. For a believer who +forsook all things could not possess an hundredfold of all things only +on the principle in which he could possess _all that_ which his brethren +possessed, while they also possessed the same in an united capacity. + +In whatever light it may appear to others, to me it appears beautiful +indeed, to see a just and an impartial equality reign, so that the rich +and the poor may share an equal privilege, and have all their wants +supplied. That the Shakers are in reality what they profess to be, I +doubt not. Neither do I doubt that many, very many lessons of wisdom +might be learned of them, by those who profess to be wiser. And to all +who wish to know if "any good thing can come out of Nazareth," I would +say, you had better "go and see." + + +A SECOND VISIT. + +I was so well pleased with the appearance of the Shakers, and the +prospect of quietness and happiness among them, that I visited them a +second time. I went with a determination to ascertain as much as I +possibly could of their forms and customs of worship, the every-day +duties devolving on the members, &c.; and having enjoyed excellent +opportunities for acquiring the desired information, I wish to present a +brief account of what "I verily do know" in relation to several +particulars. + +First of all, justice will not permit me to retract a word in relation +to the industry, neatness, order, and general good behavior, in the +Shaker settlement which I visited. In these respects, that singular +people are worthy of all commendation--yea, they set an example for the +imitation of Christians everywhere. Justice requires me to say, also, +that their hospitality is proverbial, and deservedly so. They received +and entertained me kindly, and (hoping perhaps that I might be induced +to join them) they extended extra-civilities to me. I have occasion to +modify the expression of my gratitude in only one particular--and that +is, one of the female elders made statements to me concerning the +requisite confessions to be made, and the forms of admission to their +society, which statements she afterwards denied, under circumstances +that rendered her denial a most aggravated insult. Declining farther +notice of this matter, because of the indelicacy of the confessions +alluded to, I pass to notice, + +1st. The domestic arrangements of the Shakers. However strange the +remark may seem, it is nevertheless true, that our factory population +work fewer hours out of every twenty-four than are required by the +Shakers, whose bell to call them from their slumbers, and also to warn +them that it is time to commence the labors of the day, rings much +earlier than our factory bells; and its calls were obeyed, in the family +where I was entertained, with more punctuality than I ever knew the +greatest "workey" among my numerous acquaintances (during the fourteen +years in which I have been employed in different manufacturing +establishments) to obey the calls of the factory-bell. And not until +nine o'clock in the evening were the labors of the day closed, and the +people assembled at their religious meetings. + +Whoever joins the Shakers with the expectation of relaxation from toil, +will be greatly mistaken, since they deem it an indispensable duty to +have every moment of time profitably employed. The little portions of +leisure which the females have, are spent in knitting--each one having a +basket of knitting-work for a constant companion. + +Their habits of order are, in many things, carried to the extreme. The +first bell for their meals rings for all to repair to their chambers, +from which, at the ringing of the second bell, they descend to the +eating-room. Here, all take their appropriate places at the tables, and +after locking their hands on their breasts, they drop on their knees, +close their eyes, and remain in this position about two minutes. Then +they rise, seat themselves, and with all expedition swallow their food; +then rise on their feet, again lock their hands, drop on their knees, +close their eyes, and in about two minutes rise and retire. Their meals +are taken in silence, conversation being prohibited. + +Those whose chambers are in the fourth story of one building, and whose +work-shops are in the third story of another building, have a daily task +in climbing stairs which is more oppressive than any of the rules of a +manufacturing establishment. + +2d. With all deference, I beg leave to introduce some of the religious +views and ceremonies of the Shakers. + +From the conversation of the elders, I learned that they considered it +doing God service to sever the sacred ties of husband and wife, parent +and child--the relationship existing between them being contrary to +their religious views--views which they believe were revealed from +heaven to "Mother Ann Lee," the founder of their sect, and through whom +they profess to have frequent revelations from the spiritual world. +These communications, they say, are often written on gold leaves, and +sent down from heaven to instruct the poor simple Shakers in some new +duty. They are copied, and perused, and preserved with great care. I one +day heard quite a number of them read from a book, in which they were +recorded, and the names of several of the brethren and sisters to whom +they were given by the angels, were told me. One written on a gold leaf, +was (as I was told) presented to Proctor Sampson by an angel, so late as +the summer of 1841. These "revelations" are written partly in English, +and partly in some unintelligible jargon, or unknown tongue, having a +spiritual meaning, which can be understood only by those who possess the +spirit in an eminent degree. They consist principally of songs, which +they sing at their devotional meetings, and which are accompanied with +dancing, and many unbecoming gestures and noises. + +Often in the midst of a religious march, all stop, and with all their +might set to stamping with both feet. And it is no uncommon thing for +many of the worshipping assembly to crow like a parcel of young +chanticleers, while others imitate the barking of dogs; and many of the +young women set to whirling round and round--while the old men shake and +clap their hands; the whole making a scene of noise and confusion which +can be better imagined than described. The elders seriously told me +that these things were the outward manifestations of the spirit of God. + +Apart from their religious meetings, the Shakers have what they call +"union meetings." These are for social converse, and for the purpose of +making the people acquainted with each other. During the day, the elders +tell who may visit such and such chambers. A few minutes past nine, work +is laid aside; the females change, or adjust, as best suits their fancy, +their caps, handkerchiefs, and pinners, with a precision which indicates +that they are not _altogether_ free from vanity. The chairs, perhaps to +the number of a dozen, are set in two rows, in such a manner that those +who occupy them may face each other. At the ringing of a bell each one +goes to the chamber where either he or she has been directed by the +elders, or remains at home to receive company, as the case may be. They +enter the chambers _sans ceremonie_, and seat themselves--the men +occupying one row of chairs, the women the other. Here, with their clean +checked home-made pocket-handkerchiefs spread in their laps, and their +spit-boxes standing in a row between them, they converse about raising +sheep and kine, herbs and vegetables, building walls and raising corn, +heating the oven and paring apples, killing rats and gathering nuts, +spinning tow and weaving sieves, making preserves and mending the +brethren's clothes,--in short, every thing they do will afford some +little conversation. But beyond their own little world they do not +appear to extend scarcely a thought. And why should they? Having so few +sources of information, they know not what is passing beyond them. They +however make the most of their own affairs, and seem to regret that they +can converse no longer, when, after sitting together from half to +three-quarters of an hour, the bell warns them that it is time to +separate, which they do by rising up, locking their hands across their +breasts, and bowing. Each one then goes silently to his own chamber. + +It will readily be perceived, that they have no access to libraries, no +books, excepting school-books, and a few relating to their own +particular views; no periodicals, and attend no lectures, debates, +Lyceums, &c. They have none of the many privileges of manufacturing +districts--consequently their information is so very limited, that their +conversation is, as a thing in course, quite insipid. The manner of +their life seems to be a check to the march of mind and a desire for +improvement; and while the moral and perceptive faculties are tolerably +developed, the intellectual, with a very few exceptions, seem to be +below the average. + +I have considered it my duty to make the foregoing statement of facts, +lest the glowing description of the Shakers, given in the story of my +first visit, might have a wrong influence. I then judged by outward +appearances only--having a very imperfect knowledge of the true state of +the case. Nevertheless, the _facts_ as I saw them in my first visit, are +still facts; my error is to be sought only in my inferences. Having +since had greater opportunities for observation, I am enabled to judge +more righteous judgment. + + C. B. + + + + +THE LOCK OF GRAY HAIR. + + +Touching and simple memento of departed worth and affection! how +mournfully sweet are the recollections thou awakenest in the heart, as I +gaze upon thee--shorn after death had stamped her loved features with +the changeless hue of the grave. How vividly memory recalls the time +when, in childish sportiveness and affection, I arranged this little +tress upon the venerable forehead of my grandmother! Though Time had +left his impress there, a majestic beauty yet rested upon thy brow; for +age had no power to quench the light of benevolence that beamed from +thine eye, nor wither the smile of goodness that animated thy features. +Again do I seem to listen to the mild voice, whose accents had ever +power to subdue the waywardness of my spirit, and hush to calmness the +wild and turbulent passions of my nature.--Though ten summers have made +the grass green upon thy grave, and the white rose burst in beauty above +thine honored head, thy name is yet green in our memory, and thy virtues +have left a deathless fragrance in the hearts of thy children. + +Though she of whom I tell claimed not kindred with the "high-born of +earth"--though the proud descent of titled ancestry marked not her +name--yet the purity of her spotless character, the practical usefulness +of her life, her firm adherence to duty, her high and holy submission to +the will of Heaven, in every conflict, shed a radiance more resplendent +than the glittering coronet's hues, more enduring than the wreath that +encircles the head of genius. It was no lordly dome of other climes, nor +yet of our far-off sunny south, that called her mistress; but among the +granite hills of New Hampshire (my own father-land) was her humble home. + +Well do I remember the morning when she related to me (a sportive girl +of thirteen) the events of her early days.--At her request, I was her +companion during her accustomed morning walk about her own homestead. +During our ramble, she suddenly stopped, and looked intently down upon +the green earth, leaving me in silent wonder at what could so strongly +rivet her attention. At length she raised her eyes, and pointing to an +ancient hollow in the earth, nearly concealed by rank herbage, she said, +"that spot is the dearest to me on earth." I looked around, then into +her face for an explanation, seeing nothing unusually attractive about +the place. But ah! how many cherished memories came up at that moment! +The tear of fond recollection stood in her eye as she spoke:--"On this +spot I passed the brightest hours of my existence." To my eager inquiry, +Did you not always live in the large white house yonder? She replied, +"No, my child. Fifty years ago, upon this spot stood a rude dwelling, +composed of logs. Here I passed the early days of my marriage, and here +my noble first-born drew his first breath." In answer to my earnest +entreaty to tell me all about it, she seated herself upon the large +broad stone which had been her ancient hearth, and commenced her story. + +"It was a bright midsummer eve when your grandfather, whom you never +saw, brought me here, his chosen and happy bride. On that morning had we +plighted our faith at the altar--that morning, with all the feelings +natural to a girl of eighteen, I bade adieu to the home of my childhood, +and with a fond mother's last kiss yet warm upon my cheek, commenced my +journey with my husband towards his new home in the wilderness. Slowly +on horseback we proceeded on our way, through the green forest path, +whose deep winding course was directed by incisions upon the trees left +by the axe of the sturdy woodsman. Yet no modern bride, in her splendid +coach, decked in satin, orange-flowers, and lace--on the way to her +stately city mansion, ever felt her heart beat higher than did my own on +that day. For as I looked upon the manly form of him beside me, as with +careful hand he guided my bridal rein--or met the fond glance of his +full dark eye, I felt that his was a changeless love. + +"Thus we pursued our lonely way through the lengthening forest, where +Nature reigned almost in her primitive wildness and beauty. Now and then +a cultivated patch, with a newly-erected cottage, where sat the young +mother, hushing with her low wild song the babe upon her bosom, with the +crash of the distant falling trees, proclaimed it the home of the +emigrant. + +"Twilight had thrown her soft shade over the earth: the bending foliage +assumed a deeper hue; the wild wood bird singing her last note, as we +emerged from the forest to a spot termed by the early settlers 'a +clearing.' It was an enclosure of a few acres, where the preceding year +had stood in its pride the stately forest-tree. In the centre, +surrounded by tall stalks of Indian corn, waving their silken tassels in +the night-breeze, stood the lowly cot which was to be my future home. +Beneath yon aged oak, which has been spared to tell of the past, we +dismounted from our horses, and entered our rude dwelling. All was +silent within and without, save the low whisper of the wind as it swept +through the forest. But blessed with youth, health, love, and hope, what +had we to fear? Not that the privations and hardships incident to the +early emigrant were unknown to us--but we heeded them not. + +"The early dawn and dewy eve saw us unremitting in our toil, and Heaven +crowned our labors with blessings. 'The wilderness began to blossom as +the rose,' and our barns were filled with plenty. + +"But there was coming a time big with the fate of these then infant +colonies. The murmur of discontent, long since heard in our large +commercial ports, grew longer and louder, beneath repeated acts of +British oppression. We knew the portentous cloud every day grew darker. +In those days our means of intelligence were limited to the casual +visitation of some traveller from abroad to our wilderness. + +"But uncertain and doubtful as was its nature, it was enough to rouse +the spirit of patriotism in many a manly heart; and while the note of +preparation loudly rang in the bustling thoroughfares, its tones were +not unheard among these granite rocks. The trusty firelock was +remounted, and hung in polished readiness over each humble door. The +shining pewter was transformed to the heavy bullet, awaiting the first +signal to carry death to the oppressor. + +"It was on the memorable 17th of June, 1775, that your grandfather was +at his usual labor in a distant part of his farm: suddenly there fell +upon his ear a sound heavier than the crash of the falling tree: echo +answered echo along these hills; he knew the hour had come--that the +flame had burst forth which blood alone could extinguish. His was not a +spirit to slumber within sound of that battle-peal. He dropped his +implements, and returned to his house. Never shall I forget the +expression of his face as he entered.--There was a wild fire in his +eye--his cheek was flushed--the veins upon his broad forehead swelled +nigh to bursting. He looked at me--then at his infant-boy--and for a +moment his face was convulsed. But soon the calm expression of high +resolve shone upon his features. + +"Then I felt that what I had long secretly dreaded was about to be +realized. For awhile the woman struggled fearfully within me--but the +strife was brief; and though I could not with my lips say 'go,' in my +heart I responded, 'God's will be done'--for as such I could but regard +the sacred cause in which all for which we lived was staked. I dwell not +on the anguished parting, nor on the lonely desolation of heart which +followed. A few hasty arrangements, and he, in that stern band known as +the Green Mountain Boys, led by the noble Stark, hurried to the post of +danger. On the plains of Bennington he nobly distinguished himself in +that fierce conflict with the haughty Briton and mercenary foe. + +"Long and dreary was the period of my husband's absence; but the God of +my fathers forsook me not. To Him I committed my absent one, in the +confidence that He would do all things well. Now and then, a hurried +scrawl, written perhaps on the eve of an expected battle, came to me in +my lonely solitude like the 'dove of peace' and consolation--for it +spoke of undying affection and unshaken faith in the ultimate success of +that cause for which he had left all. + +"But he did return. Once more he was with me. I saw him press his +first-born to his bosom, and receive the little dark-eyed one, whom he +had never yet seen, with new fondness to his paternal arms. He lived to +witness the glorious termination of that struggle, the events of which +all so well know; to see the 'stars and stripes' waving triumphantly in +the breeze, and to enjoy for a brief season the rich blessings of peace +and independence. But ere the sere and yellow leaf of age was upon his +brow, the withering hand of disease laid his noble head in the dust. As +the going down of the sun, which foretells a glorious rising, so was his +death. Many years have gone by, since he was laid in his quiet +resting-place, where, in a few brief days, I shall slumber sweetly by +his side." + +Such was her unvarnished story; and such is substantially the story of +many an ancient mother of New England. Yet while the pen of history +tells of the noble deeds of the patriot fathers, it records little of +the days of privation and toil of the patriot mothers--of their nights +of harassing anxiety and uncomplaining sorrow. But their virtues remain +written upon the hearts of their daughters, in characters that perish +not. Let not the rude hand of degeneracy desecrate the hallowed shrine +of their memory. + + THERESA. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +LAMENT OF THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK. + + + Oh, ladies, will you listen to a little orphan's tale? + And pity her whose youthful voice must breathe so sad a wail; + And shrink not from the wretched form obtruding on your view. + As though the heart which in it dwells must be as loathsome too. + + Full well I know that mine would be a strange repulsive mind, + Were the outward form an index true of the soul within it shrined; + But though I am so all devoid of the loveliness of youth, + Yet deem me not as destitute of its innocence and truth. + + And ever in this hideous frame I strive to keep the light + Of faith in God, and love to man, still shining pure and bright; + Though hard the task, I often find, to keep the channel free + Whence all the kind affections flow to those who love not me. + + I sometimes take a little child quite softly on my knee, + I hush it with my gentlest tones, and kiss it tenderly; + But my kindest words will not avail, my form cannot be screened, + And the babe recoils from my embrace, as though I were a fiend. + + I sometimes, in my walks of toil, meet children at their play; + For a moment will my pulses fly, and I join the band so gay; + But they depart with nasty steps, while their lips and nostrils curl, + Nor e'en their childhood's sports will share with the little crooked + girl + + But once it was not thus with me: I was a dear-loved child; + A mother's kiss oft pressed my brow, a father on me smiled; + No word was ever o'er me breathed, but in affection's tone, + For I to them was very near--their cherish'd, only one. + + But sad the change which me befel, when they were laid to sleep, + Where the earth-worms o'er their mouldering forms their noisome + revels keep; + For of the orphan's hapless fate there were few or none to care, + And burdens on my back were laid a child should never bear. + + And now, in this offensive form, their cruelty is viewed-- + For first upon me came disease--and deformity ensued: + Woe! woe to her, for whom not even this life's earliest stage + Could be redeemed from the bended form and decrepitude of age. + + And yet of purest happiness I have some transient gleams; + 'Tis when, upon my pallet rude, I lose myself in dreams: + The gloomy present fades away; the sad past seems forgot; + And in those visions of the night mine is a blissful lot. + + The dead then come and visit me: I hear my father's voice; + I hear that gentle mother's tones, which makes my heart rejoice; + Her hand once more is softly placed upon my aching brow, + And she soothes my every pain away, as if an infant now. + + But sad is it to wake again, to loneliness and fears; + To find myself the creature yet of misery and tears; + And then, once more, I try to sleep, and know the thrilling bliss + To see again my father's smile, and feel my mother's kiss. + + And sometimes, then, a blessed boon has unto me been given-- + An entrance to the spirit-world, a foretaste here of heaven; + I have heard the joyous anthems swell, from voice and golden lyre, + And seen the dearly loved of earth join in that gladsome choir. + + And I have dropped this earthly frame, this frail disgusting clay, + And, in a beauteous spirit-form, have soared on wings away; + I have bathed my angel-pinions in the floods of glory bright, + Which circle, with their brilliant waves, the throne of living light. + + I have joined the swelling chorus of the holy glittering bands + Who ever stand around that throne, with cymbals in their hands: + But the dream would soon be broken by the voices of the morn, + And the sunbeams send me forth again, the theme of jest and song. + + I care not for their mockery now--the thought disturbs me not, + That, in this little span of life, contempt should be my lot; + But I would gladly welcome here some slight reprieve from pain, + And I'd murmur of my back no more, if it might not ache again. + + Full well I know this ne'er can be, till I with peace am blest, + Where the heavy-laden sweetly sleep, and the weary are at rest; + For the body shall commingle with its kindred native dust, + And the soul return for evermore to the "Holy One and Just." + + LETTY. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +THIS WORLD IS NOT OUR HOME. + + +How difficult it is for the wealthy and proud to realize that they must +die, and mingle with the common earth! Though a towering monument may +mark the spot where their lifeless remains repose, their heads will lie +as low as that of the poorest peasant. All their untold gold cannot +reprieve them for one short day. + +When Death places his relentless hand upon them, and as their spirit is +fast passing away, perhaps for the first time the truth flashes upon +their mind, that this world is not their home; and a thrill of agony +racks their frame at the thought of entering that land where all is +uncertainty to them. It may be that they have never humbled themselves +before the great Lawgiver and Judge, and their hearts, alas! have not +been purified and renewed by that grace for which they never +supplicated. And as the vacant eye wanders around the splendidly +furnished apartment, with its gorgeous hangings and couch of down, how +worthless it all seems, compared with that peace of mind which attends +"the pure in heart!" + +The aspirant after fame would fain believe this world was his home, as +day by day he twines the laurel-wreath for his brow, and fondly trusts +it will be unfading in its verdure; and as the applause of a world, that +to him appears all bright and beautiful, meets his ear, he thinks not of +Him who resigned his life on the cross for suffering humanity--he thinks +of naught but the bubble he is seeking; and when he has obtained it, it +has lost all its brilliancy--for the world has learned to look with +indifference upon the bright flowers he has scattered so profusely on +all sides, and his friends, one by one, become alienated and cold, or +bestow their praise upon some new candidate who may have entered the +arena of fame. How his heart shrinks within him, to think of the long +hours of toil by the midnight lamp--of health destroyed--of youth +departed--of near and dear ties broken by a light careless word, that +had no meaning! How bitterly does he regret that he has thrown away all +the warm and better feelings of his heart upon the fading things of +earth! How deeply does he feel that he has slighted God's holy law--for, +in striving after worldly honors, he had forgotten that this world was +not his home; and while the rainbow tints of prosperity gleamed in his +pathway, he had neglected to cultivate the fadeless wreath that cheers +the dying hour! And now the low hollow cough warns him of the near +approach of that hour beyond which all to him is darkness and gloom; and +as he tosses on the bed of pain and languishing, lamenting that all the +bright visions of youth had so soon vanished away, the cold world +perchance passes in review before him. + +He beholds the flushed cheek of beauty fade, and the star of fame fall +from the brow of youth. He marks the young warrior on the field of +battle, fighting bravely, while the banner of stars and stripes waves +proudly over his head; and while thinking of the glory he shall win, a +ball enters his heart.--He gazes upon an aged sire, as he bends over the +lifeless form of his idolized child, young and fair as the morning, just +touched by the hand of death; she was the light of his home, the last of +many dear ones; and he wondered why he was spared, and the young taken. +Though the cup was bitter, he drank it. + +Again he turned his eyes from the world, whereon everything is written, +"fading away." Yes, wealth, beauty, fame, glory, honor, friendship, and +oh! must it be said that even love, too, fades? Almost in despair, he +exclaimed, "Is there aught that fades not?" And a voice seemed to +whisper in his ear, "There is God's love which never fades; this world +is not your home; waste not the short fragment of your life in vain +regrets, but rather prepare for that dissolution which is the common lot +of all; be ready, therefore, to pass to that bourne from which there is +no return, before you enter the presence of Him whose name is Love." + + "Then ask not life, but joy to know + That sinless they in heaven shall stand; + That Death is not a cruel foe, + To execute a wise command. + 'Tis ours to ask, 'tis God's to give.-- + We live to die--and die to live." + + BEATRICE. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +DIGNITY OF LABOR. + + +From whence originated the idea, that it was derogatory to a lady's +dignity, or a blot upon the female character, to labor? and who was the +first to say sneeringly, "Oh, she _works_ for a living?" Surely, such +ideas and expressions ought not to grow on republican soil. The time has +been when ladies of the first rank were accustomed to busy themselves in +domestic employment. + +Homer tells us of princesses who used to draw water from the springs, +and wash with their own hands the finest of the linen of their +respective families. The famous Lucretia used to spin in the midst of +her attendants; and the wife of Ulysses, after the siege of Troy, +employed herself in weaving, until her husband returned to Ithaca. And +in later times, the wife of George the Third, of England, has been +represented as spending a whole evening in hemming pocket-handkerchiefs, +while her daughter Mary sat in the corner, darning stockings. + +Few American fortunes will support a woman who is above the calls of her +family; and a man of sense, in choosing a companion to jog with him +through all the up-hills and down-hills of life, would sooner choose one +who _had_ to work for a living, than one who thought it beneath her to +soil her pretty hands with manual labor, although she possessed her +thousands. To be able to earn one's own living by laboring with the +hands, should be reckoned among female accomplishments; and I hope the +time is not far distant when none of my countrywomen will be ashamed to +have it known that they are better versed in useful than they are in +ornamental accomplishments. + + C. B. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + +THE VILLAGE CHRONICLE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"Come, Lina, dear," said Mr. Wheeler to his little daughter, "lay by +your knitting, if you please, and read me the paper." + +"What, pa, this old paper, 'The Village Chronicle?'" + +"Old, Lina!--why, it is damp from the press. Not so old, by more than a +dozen years, as you are." + +"But, pa, the _news_ is _olds_. Our village mysteries are all worn +threadbare by the gossiping old maids before the printer can get them in +type; and the foreign information is more quickly obtained from other +sources. And, pa, I wish you wouldn't call me Lina--it sounds so +childish, and I begin to think myself quite a young lady--almost in my +teens, you know; and Angeline is not so very long." + +"Well, Angeline, as you please; but see if there is not something in the +paper." + +"Oh, yes, pa; to please you I will read the stupid old (_new_, I mean) +concern.--Well, in the first place, we have some poetry--some of our +village poets' (genius, you know, admits not of distinction of sex) +effusions, or rather confusions. Miss Helena (it used to be Ellen once) +Carrol's sublime sentiments upon 'The Belvidere Apollo,'--which she +never saw, nor anything like it, and knows nothing about. She had better +write about our penny-post, and then we might feel an interest in her +lucubrations, even if not very intrinsically valuable. But if she does +not want to be an old maid, she might as well leave off writing +sentimental poetry for the newspapers; for who will marry a _bleu_?" + +"There is much that I might say in reply, but I will wait until you are +older. And now do not let me hear you say anything more about old maids, +at least deridingly; for I have strong hopes that my little girl will be +one herself." + +"No, pa, never!--I will not marry, at least while you, or Alfred, or +Jimmy, are alive; but I cannot be an old maid--not one of those +tattling, envious, starched-up, prudish creatures, whom I have always +designated as old maids, whether they are married or single--on the +sunny or shady side of thirty." + +"Well, child, I hope you never will be metamorphosed into an old maid, +then. But now for the Chronicle--I will excuse you from the poetry, if +you will read what comes next." + +"Thank you, my dear father, a thousand times. It would have made me as +sick as a cup-full of warm water would do. You know I had rather take so +much hot drops.--But the next article is Miss Simpkins's very original +tale, entitled 'The Injured One,'--probably all about love and despair, +and ladies so fair, and men who don't care, if the mask they can wear, +and the girls must beware. Now ain't I literary? But to be a heroine +also, I will muster my resolution, and commence the story: + +"'Madeline and Emerilla were the only daughters of Mr. Beaufort, of H., +New Hampshire.' + +"Now, pa, I can't go any farther--I would as lieve travel through the +deserts of Sahara, or run the gauntlet among the Seminoles, as to wade +through this sloshy story. Miss Simpkins always has such names to her +heroines; and they would do very well if they were placed anywhere but +in the unromantic towns of our granite State. H., I suppose, stands for +Hawke, or Hopkinton. Miss Simpkins is so soft that I do not believe Mr. +Baxter would publish her stories, if he were not engaged to her sister. +She makes me think of old 'deaf uncle Jeff,' in the story, who wanted +somebody to love." + +"And she does love--she loves everybody; and I am sorry to hear you talk +so of this amiable and intellectual girl. But I do not wish to hear you +read her story now--as for her names, she would not find one +unappropriated by our towns-folks. What comes next?" + +"The editorial, pa, and the caption is, 'Our Representatives.' I had ten +times rather read about the antediluvians, and I wish sometimes they +might go and keep them company. And now for the items: Our new bell got +cracked, in its winding way to this 'ere town; and the meeting-house at +the West Parish, has been fired by an incendiary; and the old elm, near +the Central House, has been blown down; and Widow Frye has had a yoke of +oxen struck by lightning; and old Col. Morton fell down dead, in a fit +of apoplexy; and the bridge over the Branch needs repairing; and 'a +friend of good order' wishes that our young men would not stand gaping +around the meeting-house doors, before or after service; and 'a friend +of equal rights' wishes that people might sell and drink as much rum as +they please, without interference, &c., &c.; and all these things we +knew before, as well as we did our A B C's. Next are the cards: The +ladies have voted their thanks to Mr. K., for his lecture upon +phrenology--the matrimonial part, I presume, included; and the +Anti-Slavery Society is to have a fair, at which will be sold all sorts +of abolition things, such as anti-slavery paper, wafers, and all such +important articles. I declare I will make a nigger doll for it. And Mr. +P., of Boston, is to deliver a lecture upon temperance; and the trustees +of the Academy have chosen Mr. Dalton for the Preceptor, and here is his +long advertisement; and the Overseers of the Poor are ready to receive +proposals for a new alms-house; and all these things, pa, which have +been the town talk this long time. But here is something new. Our +minister, dear Mr. Olden, has been very seriously injured by an accident +upon the Boston and Salem Railroad. The news must be very recent, for we +had not heard of it; and it is crowded into very fine type. Oh, how +sorry I am for him!" + +"Well, Lina, or Miss Angeline, there is something of sufficient +importance to repay you for the trouble of reading it, and I am very +glad that you have done so--for I will start upon my intended journey to +Boston to-day, and can assist him to return home. Anything else?" + +"Oh, yes, pa! a long list of those who have taken advantage of the +Bankrupt Act, and the Deaths and Marriages; but all mentioned here, with +whose names we were familiar, have been subjects for table-talk these +several days." + +"Well, is there no foreign news?" + +"Yes, pa; Queen Victoria has given another ball at Buckingham Palace; +and Prince Albert has accepted a very fine blood-hound, from Major +Sharp, of Houston; and Sir Howard Douglas has been made a Civil Grand +Cross of the Bath, &c., &c. Are not these fine things to fill up our +republican papers with?" + +"Well, my daughter, look at the doings in Congress--that will suit you." + +"You know better, pa. They do nothing there but scold, and strike, and +grumble--then pocket their money, and go home. See, here it begins, 'The +proceedings of the House can hardly be said to have been _important_. An +instructive and delightful _scene_ took place between Mr. Wise of +Virginia, and Mr. Stanly, of South Carolina.' Yes, pa, that's the way +they spend their time. In this _act_ of the farce, or tragedy, one +called t' other a _bull-dog_, t' other called one a _coward_. Do you +wish to hear any more?" + +"You are somewhat out of humor, my child; but are there no new notices?" + +"Yes, here is an 'Assessors' Notice,' and an 'Assignee's Notice,' and a +'Contractors' Notice;' but you do not care anything about them. And here +is an 'Auction Notice.'" + +"What auction? Read it, my love." + +"Why, the late old Mr. Gardner's farm-house, and all his furniture, are +to be sold at auction. And here is a notice of a meeting of the +Directors of the Pentucket Bank, to be held this very afternoon." + +"I am very glad to have learned of it, for I must be there. Is that +all?" + +"All?--no, indeed! Here are some long articles, full of _Whereases_, and +_Resolved's_, and _Be it enacted's_; but I know you will excuse me from +reading them. And now for the advertisements: Here is a fine new lot of +_Chenie-de-Laines_, 'just received' at Grosvenor's--oh, pa! do let me +have a new dress, won't you?" + +"No, I can't--at least, I do not see how I can. But if you will promise +to read my paper through patiently for the future, and will prepare my +valise for my journey to Boston, I will see what I may do. Meantime I +must be off to the directors' meeting. And now let me remind you that +two items, at least, in this paper, have been of much importance to me; +and one, it seems, somewhat interesting to you. So no more fretting +about the Chronicle, if you want a _new gown_." + +Mr. Wheeler left the room, and Angeline seated herself at the +work-table, to repair his vest. She was sorry she had fretted so much +about the Chronicle; but she did wish her father would take the "Ladies' +Companion," or something else, in its stead. + +While seated there, her little brother came running into the room, all +out of breath, and but just able to gasp out, "Oh, Lina! there is a man +at the Central House, who has just stopped in the stage, and he is going +right on to Kentucky, and straight through the town where Alfred lives, +for I heard him say so; and I asked him if he would carry anything for +us, and he said, 'Yes, willingly.' So I ran home as fast as I could +come, to tell you to write a note, or do up a paper, or something, +because he will be so sure to get it--and right from us, too, as fast as +it can go. Now do be quick, or the stage will start off." + +"Oh, dear me," exclaimed Angeline, "how I do wish we had a New York +Mirror, or a Philadelphia Courier, or a Boston Gazette, or anything but +this stupid Chronicle! Do look, Jimmy! is there nothing in this pile of +papers?" + +"No, nothing that will do--so fold up the Chronicle, quick, for the +stage is starting." + +Angeline, who had spent some moments in looking for another paper, now +had barely time to scrawl the short word "Lina" on the paper, wrap it in +an envelop, and direct it. Jimmy snatched it as soon as it was ready, +and ran out "_full tilt_," in knightly phrase, or, as he afterwards +said, "_lickity split_." + +The stage was coming on at full speed, and he wished to stop it. Many a +time had he stood by the road-side, with his school companions, and, +waving his cap, and stretching out his neck, had hallooed, "Hurrah for +Jackson!" and he feared that, like the boy in the fable, who called +"Wolves! wolves!" if he now shouted to them from the road-side, they +would not heed him. So he ran into the middle of the road, threw up his +arms, and stood still. The driver barely reined in his horses within a +few feet of the daring boy. + +"Where is the man who is going straight ahead to Kentucky?" + +"Here, my lad," replied a voice, as a head popped out of the window, to +see what was the matter. + +"Well, here is a paper which I wish you to carry to my brother; and if +you stop long enough where he is, you must go and see him, and tell him +you saw me too." + +"Well done, my lad! you are a keen one. I'll do your bidding--but don't +you never run under stage-horses again." + +He took the packet, while the driver cracked his whip; and the horses +started as the little boy leaped upon the bank, shouting, "Hurra for +Yankee Land and old Kentucky!" + + +CHAPTER II. + +In a rude log hut of Western Kentucky was seated an animated and +intelligent-looking young man. A bright moon was silvering the +forest-tops, which were almost the only prospect from his window; but +in that beauteous light the rough clearing around seemed changed to +fairy land; and even his rude domicile partook of the transient +renovation. His lone walls, his creviced roof, and ragged floor, were +transformed beneath that silvery veil; and truly did it look as though +it might well be the abode of peaceful happiness. + +"I feel as though I could write poetry now," said Alfred to himself. +"Let me see--'The Spirit's Call to the Absent,' or something like that; +but if I should strike my light, and really get pens, ink, and paper, it +would all evaporate, vanish, abscond, make tracks, become scarce, be o. +p. h. Ah, yes! the poetry would go, but the feeling, the deep affection, +which would find some other language than simple prose, can never +depart. + +"How I wish I could see them all! There is not a codger in my native +town--not a crusty fusty old bachelor--not an envious tattling old +maid--not a flirt, sot, pauper, idiot, or sainted hypocrite, but I could +welcome with an embrace. But if I could only see my father, or Jimmy, or +Lina, dear girl! how much better I should feel! It would make me ten +years younger, to have a chat with Lina; and, to tell the truth, I +should like to see any woman, just to see how it would seem. I'd go a +quarter of a mile, now, to look at a row of aprons hung out to dry. But +there! it's no use to talk. + +"An evening like this is such an one as might entice me to my mother's +grave, were I at home. Oh! if she were but alive--if I could only know +that she was still somewhere on the wide earth, to think and pray for +me--I might be better, as well as happier. Methinks it must be a blessed +thing to be a mother, if all sons cherish that parent's memory as I have +mine--and they do. It cheers and sustains the exile in a stranger's +land; it invigorates him in trial, and lights him through adversity; it +warns the felon, and haunts and harrows the convict; it strengthens the +captive, and exhilarates the homeward-bound. Truly must it be a blessed +thing to be a mother!" + +He stopped--for in the moonlight was distinctly seen the figure of a +horseman, emerging from the public road, and galloping across the +clearing. He turned towards the office of the young surveyor, and in a +few moments the carrier had related the incident by which he obtained +the paper, and placed "The Village Chronicle" in Alfred's hand. + +He struck a light, tore off the wrapper, and the only written word which +met his eye was "Lina." "Dear name!" said he, "I could almost kiss it, +especially as there is none to see me. She must have been in a +prodigious hurry! and how funny that little rascal, Jimmy, must have +looked! Well, 'when he next doth run a race, may I be there to see.'" + +He took the paper to read. It was a very late one--he had never before +received one so near the date; and even that line of dates was now so +pleasing. First was Miss Helena Carroll's poetry. "Dear girl!" said he, +"what a beautiful writer she is! Really, this is poetry! This is +something which carries us away from ourselves, and more closely +connects us with the enduring, high, and beautiful. Methinks I see her +now--more thin, pale, and ethereal in her appearance than when we were +gay school-mates; but I wonder that, with all her treasures of heart and +intellect, she is still Helena Carroll. + +"And now here is Miss Simpkin's story of 'The injured One'--beautiful, +interesting, and instructive, I am confident; and I will read it, every +word; but she italicises too much; she throws too lavishly the bright +robes of her prolific fancy upon the forms she conjures up from +New-England hills and vales. I wonder if she remembers now the time when +she made me shake the old-apple tree, near the pound, for her, and in +jumping down, I nearly broke my leg. Well, if I read her story, I will +try that it does not break my heart. + +"And here is an excellent editorial about 'Our Representatives'--I will +read it again, and now for the ITEMS." + +These were all highly interesting to the _absentee_, and on each did he +expatiate to himself. How different were his feelings from his sister's, +as he read of the cracked bell, the burned meeting-house, the dead oxen, +the apoplectic old Colonel, the decayed bridge, the hints of the friends +of "good order" and "equal rights." Then there was a little scene +suggested by every card; he wondered who had their heads examined at the +Phrenological lecture; and if the West Parish old farmers were now as +stiffly opposed to the science. And how he would like to see Lina's +chart, and to know if Jimmy had brains--he was sure he had legs, and a +big heart for a little boy; and he wondered what girls ran up to have +their heads felt of in public; and what the man said about +matrimony--an affair which in old times was thought to have more to do +with the heart than the head. + +Then his imagination went forward to the fair of the Anti-Slavery +Society, and he wondered where it would be, and who would go, and what +Lina would make, and whether so much fuss about slavery was right or +wrong, and if "father" approved of it. Then the temperance lecture was +the theme for another self-disquisition. He wondered who had joined the +society, and how the Washingtonians held out, and if Mr. Hawkins was +ever coming to the West. + +Then he was glad the trustees were determined to resuscitate the old +academy. What grand times he had enjoyed there, especially at the +exhibitions! and he wondered where all the pretty girls were who used to +go to school with his bachelorship. Then they were to have a new +alms-house; and forty more things were mentioned, of equal interest--not +forgetting Mr. Olden's accident, for which "father would be so sorry." +Then there were the Marriages and Deaths--each a subject of deep +interest, as was also the list of Bankrupts. The foreign news was news +to him; and Congress matters were not passed unheeded by. + +Then he read with deep interest every "Assessor's Notice," also those of +"Assignees," "Contractors," and "Auctioneers." There was not a single +"Whereas" or "Resolved," but was most carefully perused; and every "Be +it enacted" stared him in the face like an old familiar friend. + +Then there were the advertisements; and Grosvenor's first attracted his +attention from its _big_ letters. "CHENIE-DE-LAINES!" said he, "What in +the name of common sense are they? Something for gal's gowns, _I guess_; +and what will they next invent for a name?" + +But each advertisement told its little history. Some of the old +"_pillars_" of the town were still in their accustomed places. The same +signatures, places, and almost the same goods--nothing much changed but +the dates. Another advertisement informed him of the dissolution of an +old copartnership, and another showed the formation of a new one. Some +old acquaintances had changed their location or business, and others +were about to retire from it. Those whom he remembered as almost boys, +were now just entering into active life, and those who should now be +preparing for another world were still laying up treasures on earth. +One, who had been a farmer, was now advertising himself as a _doctor_. +A lawyer had changed into a miller, and old Capt Prouty was post-master. +The former cobler now kept the bookstore, and the young major had turned +printer. The old printer was endeavoring to collect his debts--for he +said his devil had gone to Oregon, and he wished to go to the devil. + +Not a single puff did Alfred omit; he noticed every new book, and +swallowed every new nostrum. "Old rags," "Buffalo Oil," "Bear's Grease," +"Corn Plaster," "Lip Salve," "Accordions," "Feather Renovators," "Silk +Dye-Houses," "Worm Lozenges," "Ready-made Clothing," "Ladies' Slips," +"Misses' Ties," "Christmas Presents," "Sugar-house Molasses," "Choice +Butter," "Shell Combs," "New Music," "Healing Lotions," "Last Chance," +"Hats and Caps," "Prime Cost," "Family Pills," "Ladies' Cuff Pins," +"Summer Boots," "Vegetable Conserve," "Muffs and Boas," "Pease's +Horehound Candy," "White Ash Coal," "Bullard's Oil-Soap," "Universal +Panacea," "Tailoress Wanted," "Unrivalled Elixir," "Excellent Vanilla," +"Taylor's Spool Cotton," "Rooms to Let," "Chairs and Tables," "Pleasant +House," "Particular notice," "Family Groceries," "A Removal," +"Anti-Dyspeptic Bitters," &c., &c., down to "One Cent Reward--Ran away +from the Subscriber," &c.--Yes; he had read them all, and all with much +interest, but one with a deeper feeling than was awakened by the others. +It was the notice of the sale of the late Mr. Gardner's House, farm, &c. + +"And so," said Alfred, "Cynthia Gardner is now free. She used to love me +dearly--at least she said so in every thing but words; but the old man +said she should never marry a harum-scarum scape-grace like me. Well! +it's no great matter if I did sow all my wild oats then, for there is +too little cleared land to do much at it here. The old gentleman is +dead, and I'll forgive him; but I will write this very night to Cynthia, +and ask her to-- + + ----'come, and with me share + Whate'er my hut bestows; + My cornstalk bed, my frugal fare, + My labor and repose.'" + + LUCINDA. + + + + +AMBITION AND CONTENTMENT. + + +It has been said that all virtues, carried to their extremes, become +vices, as firmness may be carried to obstinacy, gentleness to weakness, +faith to superstition, &c., &c.; and that while cultivating them, a +perpetual care is necessary that they may not be resolved into those +kindred vices. But there are other qualities of so opposite a character, +that, though we may acknowledge them both to be virtues, we can hardly +cherish them at the same time. + +Contentment is a virtue often urged upon us, and too often neglected. It +is essential to our happiness; for how can we experience pleasure while +dissatisfied with the station which has been allotted us, or the +circumstances which befall us? but when contentment degenerates into +that slothful feeling which will not exert itself for a greater +good--which would sit, and smile at ease upon the gifts which Providence +has forced upon its possessor, and turns away from the objects, which +call for the active spring and tenacious grasp--when, I repeat, +contentment is but another excuse for indolence, it then has ceased to +be a virtue. + +And Ambition, which is so often denounced as a vice--which _is_ a vice +when carried to an extent that would lead its votary to grasp all upon +which it can lay its merciless clutch, and which heeds not the rights or +possessions of a fellow-being when conflicting with its own domineering +will, which then becomes so foul a vice--this same ambition, when kept +within its proper bounds, is then a virtue; and not only a virtue, but +the parent of virtues. The spirit of laudable enterprise, the noble +desire for superior excellence, the just emulation which would raise +itself to an equality with the highest--all this is the fruit of +ambition. + +Here then are two virtues, ambition and contentment, both to be +commended, both to be cherished, yet at first glance at variance with +each other; at all events, with difficulty kept within those proper +bounds which will prevent a conflict between them. + +We are not metaphysicians, and did we possess the power to draw those +finely-pencilled mental and moral distinctions in which the acute +reasoner delights so often to display his power, this would be no place +for us to indulge our love for nicely attenuated theories. We are aware, +that to cherish ambition for the good it may lead us to acquire, for the +noble impulses of which it may be the fountain-spring, and yet to +restrain those waters when they would gush forth with a tide which would +bear away all better feelings of the heart--this, we know, is not only +difficult, but almost impossible. + +To strive for a position upon some loftier eminence, and yet to remain +unruffled if those strivings are in vain; to remain calm and cheerful +within the little circle where Providence has stationed us, yet actively +endeavoring to enlarge that circle, if not to obtain admittance to a +higher one; to plume the pinions of the soul for an upward flight, yet +calmly sink again to the earth if these efforts are but useless +flutterings; all this seems contradictory, though essential to +perfection of character. + +Thankfulness for what we have, yet longings for a greater boon; +resignation to a humble lot, and a determination that it shall not +always be humble; ambition and contentment--how wide the difference, and +how difficult for one breast to harbor them both at the same time! + +Nothing so forcibly convinces us of the frailty of humanity as the +tendency of all that is good and beautiful to corruption. As in the +natural world, earth's loveliest things are those which yield most +easily to blighting and decay, so in the spiritual, the noblest feelings +and powers are closely linked to some dark passion. + +How easily does ambition become rapacity; and if the heart's yearnings +for the unattainable are forcibly stilled, and the mind is governed by +the determination that no wish shall be indulged but for that already in +its power, how soon and easily may it sink into the torpor of inaction! +To keep all the faculties in healthful exercise, yet always to restrain +the feverish glow, must require a constant and vigilant self-command. + +How soon, in that long-past sacred time when the Savior dwelt on earth, +did the zeal of one woman in her Master's cause become tainted with the +earth-born wish that her sons might be placed, the one upon his right +and the other upon his left hand, when he should sit upon his throne of +glory; and how soon was _their_ ardent love mingled with the fiery zeal +which would call down fire from heaven upon the heads of their +fellow-men! + +Here was ambition, but not a justifiable desire for elevation; an +ambition, also, which had its source in some of the noblest feelings of +the soul, and which, when directed by the pure principles which +afterwards guided their conduct, was the heart-spring of deeds which +shall claim the admiration, and spur to emulous exertions, the men of +all coming time. + +"Be content with what ye have," but never with what ye are; for the wish +to be perfect, "even as our Father in heaven is perfect," must ever be +mingled with regrets for the follies and frailties which our weak nature +seems to have entailed upon us. + +And while we endeavor to be submissive, cheerful, and contented with the +lot marked out for us, may gratitude arouse us to the noble desire to +render ourselves worthy of a nobler station than earth can ever present +us, even to a place upon our Savior's right hand in his heavenly +kingdom. + + H. F. + + + + +A CONVERSATION ON PHYSIOLOGY. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Physiology, Astronomy, Geology, Botany, and kindred sciences, are not +now, as formerly, confined to our higher seminaries of learning. They +are being introduced into the common schools, not only of our large +towns and cities, but of our little villages throughout New-England. +Hence a knowledge of these sciences is becoming general. It needs not +Sibylline wisdom to predict that the time is not far distant when it +will be more disadvantageous and more humiliating to be ignorant of +their principles and technicalities, than to be unable to tell the +length and breadth of Sahara, the rise, course and fall of little rivers +in other countries, which we shall never see, never hear mentioned--and +the latitude and longitude of remote or obscure cities and towns. If a +friend would describe a flower, she would not tell us that it has so +many flower-leaves, so many of those shortest things that rise from the +centre of the flower, and so many of the longest ones; but she will +express herself with more elegance and rapidity by using the technical +names of these parts--petals, stamens, and pistils. She will not tell us +that the green leaves are formed some like a rose-leaf, only that they +are rounder, or more pointed, as the case may be; or if she can find no +similitudes, she will not use fifty words in conveying an idea that +might be given in one little word. We would be able to understand her +philosophical description. And scientific lectures, the sermons of our +best preachers, and the conversation of the intelligent, presuppose some +degree of knowledge of the most important sciences; and to those who +have not this knowledge, half their zest is lost. + +If we are so situated that we cannot attend school, we have, by far the +greater part of us, hours for reading, and means to purchase books. We +should be systematic in our expenditures. They should be regulated by +the nature of the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed,--by +our wages, state of health, and the situation of our families. After a +careful consideration of these, and other incidentals that may be, we +can make a periodical appropriation of any sum we please, for the +purchase of books. Our readings, likewise, should be systematic. If we +take physiology, physiology should be read exclusively of all others, +except our Bibles and a few well-chosen periodicals, until we acquire a +knowledge of its most essential parts. Then let this be superseded by +others, interrupted in their course only by occasional reviews of those +already studied. + +But there are those whose every farthing is needed to supply themselves +with necessary clothing, their unfortunate parents, or orphan brothers +and sisters with a subsistence. And forever sacred be these duties. +Blessings be on the head of those who faithfully discharge them, by a +cheerful sacrifice of selfish gratification. Cheerful, did I say? Ah! +many will bear witness to the pangs which such a sacrifice costs them. +It is a hard lot to be doomed to live on in ignorance, when one longs +for knowledge, "as the hart panteth after the water brook." My poor +friend L.'s complaint will meet an answering thrill of sympathy in many +a heart. "Oh, why is it so?" said she, while tears ran down her cheeks. +"Why have I such a thirst for knowledge, and not one source of +gratification?" We may not know _why_, my sister, but faith bids us +trust in God, and "rest in his decree,"--to be content "when he refuses +more." Yet a spirit of _true_ contentment induces no indolent yieldings +to adverse circumstances; no slumbering and folding the hands in sleep, +when there is so much within the reach of every one, worthy of our +strongest and most persevering efforts. Mrs. Hale says,-- + + "There is a charm in knowledge, _best_ when bought + _By vigorous toil of frame and earnest search of thought_." + +And we will toil. Morning, noon, and evening shall witness our exertions +to prepare for happiness and usefulness here, and for the exalted +destiny that awaits us hereafter. But proper attention should be paid to +physical comfort as well as to mental improvement. It is only by +retaining the former that we can command the latter. The mind cannot be +vigorous while the body is weak. Hence we should not allow our toils to +enter upon those hours which belong to repose. We should not allow +ourselves, however strong the temptation, to visit the lecture-room, +&c., if the state of the weather, or of our health, renders the +experiment hazardous. Above all, we should not forget our dependence on +a higher Power. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God alone giveth +the increase." + + * * * * * + +_Ann._ Isabel, before we commence our "big talk," let me ask you to +proceed upon the inference that we are totally ignorant of the subject +under discussion. + +_Ellinora._ Yes, Isabel, proceed upon the _fact_ that I am ignorant even +of the meaning of the term _physiology_. + +_Isabel._ It comes from the Greek words _phusis_, nature, and _logia_, a +collection, or _logos_, discourse; and means a collection of facts or +discourse relating to nature. Physiology is divided, first, into +Vegetable and Animal; and the latter is subdivided into Comparative and +Human. We shall confine our attention to Human Physiology, which treats +of the organs of the human body, their mutual dependence and relation, +their functions, and the laws by which our physical constitution is +governed. + +_A._ And are you so heretical, dear Isabel, as to class this science, on +the score of utility, with Arithmetic and Geography--the alpha and omega +of common school education? + +_I._ Yes. It is important, inasmuch as it is necessary that we know how +to preserve the fearfully delicate fabric which our Creator has +entrusted to our keeping. We gather many wholesome rules and cautions +from maternal lips; we learn many more from experiencing the painful +results that follow their violation. But this kind of knowledge comes +tardily; it may be when an infringement of some organic law, of which we +were left in ignorance, has fastened upon us painful, perhaps fatal, +disease. + +_A._ We may not always avoid sickness and premature death by a knowledge +and observance of these laws; for there are hereditary diseases, in +whose origin we are not implicated, and whose effects we cannot +eradicate from our system by "all knowledge, all device." + +_I._ But a knowledge of Physiology is none the less important in this +case. If the chords of our existence are shattered, they must be touched +only by the skilful hand, or they break. + +_E._ Were it not for this, were there no considerations of utility in +the plea, there are others sufficiently important to become impulsive. +It would be pleasant to be able to trace the phenomena which we are +constantly observing within ourselves to their right causes. + +_I._ Yes; we love to understand the springs of disease, even though "a +discovery of the cause" neither "suspends the effect, nor heals it." We +rejoice in health, and we love to know why it sits so strongly within +us. The warm blood courses its way through our veins; the breath comes +and goes freely in and out; the nerves, those subtle organs, perform +their important offices; the hand, foot, brain--nay, the whole body +moves as we will: we taste, see, hear, smell, feel; and the inquiring +mind delights in knowing by what means these wonderful processes are +carried on,--how far they are mechanical, how far chemical, and how far +resolvable into the laws of vitality. This we may learn by a study of +Physiology, at least as far as is known. We may not satisfy ourselves +upon all points. There may be, when we have finished our investigations, +a longing for a more perfect knowledge of ourselves; for "some points +must be greatly dark," so long as mind is fettered in its rangings, and +retarded in its investigations by its connection with the body. And this +is well. We love to think of the immortal state as one in which longings +for moral and intellectual improvement will _all_ be satisfied. + +_A._ Yes; it would lose half its attractions if we might attain +perfection here. + +_E._ And now permit me to bring you at once to our subject. What is this +life that I feel within me? Does Physiology tell us? It ought. + +_I._ It does not, however; indeed, it cannot. It merely develops its +principles. + +_E._ The principles of life--what are they? + +_I._ The most important are _contractibility_ and _sensibility_. + +_E._ Let me advertise you that I am particularly hostile to technical +words--all because I do not understand them, I allow, but please humor +this ignorance by avoiding them. + +_I._ And thus perpetuate your ignorance, my dear Ellinora? No; this will +not do; for my chief object in these conversations is that you may be +prepared to profit by lectures, essays and conversation hereafter. You +will often be thrown into the company of those who express themselves in +the easiest and most proper manner, that is, by the use of technical +words and phrases. These will embarrass you, and prevent that +improvement which would be derived, if these terms were understood. +Interrupt me as often as you please with questions; and if we spend the +remainder of the evening in compiling a physiological glossary, we may +all reap advantage from the exercise. To return to the vital +principles--vital is from _vita_, life--_contractibility_ and +_sensibility_. The former is the property of the muscles. The muscles, +you know, are what we call flesh. They are composed of fibres, which +terminate in tendons. + +_Alice._ Please give form to my ideas of the tendons. + +_I._ With the muscles, they constitute the agents of all motion in us. +Place your hand on the inside of your arm, and then bend your elbow. You +perceive that cord, do you not? That is a tendon. You have observed them +in animals, doubtless. + +_Ann._ I have. They are round, white, and lustrous; and these are the +muscular terminations. + +_I._ Yes; this tendon which you perceive, is the termination of the +muscles of the fore-arm, and it is inserted into the lower arm to assist +in its elevation. + +_E._ Now we are coming to it. Please tell me how I move a finger--how I +raise my hand in this manner. + +_I._ It is to the contractile power of the muscles that you are indebted +for this power. I will read what Dr. Paley says of muscular contraction; +it will make it clearer than any explanation of mine. He says, "A muscle +acts only by contraction. Its force is exerted in no other way. When +the exertion ceases, it relaxes itself, that is, it returns by +relaxation to its former state, but without energy." + +_E._ Just as this India-rubber springs back after extension, for +illustration. + +_I._ Very well, Ellinora. He adds, "This is the nature of the muscular +fibre; and being so, it is evident that the reciprocal _energetic_ +motion of the limbs, by which we mean _with force_ in opposite +directions, can only be produced by the instrumentality of opposite or +antagonist muscles--of flexors and extensors answering to each other. +For instance, the biceps and brachiaeus _internus_ muscles, placed in the +front part of the upper arm, by their contraction, bend the elbow, and +with such a degree of force as the case requires, or the strength +admits. The relaxation of these muscles, after the effort, would merely +let the fore-arm drop down. For the _back stroke_ therefore, and that +the arm may not only bend at the elbow, but also extend and straighten +itself with force, other muscles, the longus, and brevis brachiaeus +_externus_, and the aconaeus, placed on the hinder part of the arms, by +their contractile twitch, fetch back the fore-arm into a straight line +with the cubit, with no less force than that with which it was bent out. +The same thing obtains in all the limbs, and in every moveable part of +the body. A finger is not bent and straightened without the +_contraction_ of two muscles taking place. It is evident, therefore, +that the animal functions require that particular disposition of the +muscles which we describe by the name of antagonist muscles." + +_A._ Thank you, Isabel. This does indeed make the subject very plain. +These muscles contract at will. + +_E._ But how can the will operate in this manner? I have always wished +to understand. + +_I._ And I regret that I cannot satisfy you on this point. If we trace +the cause of muscular action by the nerves to the brain, we are no +nearer a solution of the mystery; for we cannot know what power sets the +organs of the brain at work--whether it be foreign to or of itself. + +We will come now, if you please to _sensibility_, which belongs to the +nerves. + +_A._ I have a very indefinite idea of the nerves. + +_E._ My _ideal_ is sufficiently definite in its shape, but so droll! I +do not think of them as "being flesh of my flesh," but as a _species_ of +the _genus_ fairy. They are to us, what the Nereides are to the green +wave, the Dryades to the oak, and the Hamadryades to the little flower. +They are quite omnipotent in their operations. They make us cry or they +make us laugh; thrill us with rapture or woe as they please. And, my +dear Isabel, I shall not allow you to cheat me out of this pleasing +fancy. You may tell us just what they are, but I shall be as incredulous +as possible. + +_I._ They are very slender white cords, extending from the brain and +spinal marrow--twelve pairs from the former, and thirty from the latter. +These send out branches so numerous that we cannot touch the point of a +pin to a spot that has not its nerve. The mucous membrane is-- + +_F._ Oh, these technicals! What is the mucous membrane? + +_I._ It is a texture, or web of fibres, which lines all cavities exposed +to the atmosphere--for instance, the mouth, windpipe and stomach. It is +the seat of the senses of taste and smell. + +_E._ And the nerves are the little witches that inform the brain how one +thing is sweet, another bitter; one fragrant, another nauseous. +Alimentiveness ever after frowns or smiles accordingly. So it seems that +the actions of the brain, and of the external senses, are reciprocated +by the nerves, or something of this sort. How is it, Isabel? Oh, I see! +You say sensibility belongs to the nerves. So sights by means of--of +what? + +_I._ Of the optical nerves. + +_E._ Yes; and sounds by means of the-- + +_I._ Auditory nerves. + +_E._ Yes; convey impressions of externals to the brain. And "Upon this +hint" the brain acts in its consequent reflections, and in the nervous +impulses which induce muscular contractibility. And this muscular +contractibility is a contraction of the fibres of the muscles. This +contraction, of course, shortens them, and this latter _must_ result in +the bending of the arm. I think I understand it. What are the brain and +spine, Isabel? How are they connected? + +_I._ You will get correct ideas of the texture of the brain by observing +that of animals. It occupies the whole cavity of the skull, is rounded +and irregular in its form, full of prominences, _alias_ bumps. These +appear to fit themselves to the skull; but doubtless the bone is moulded +by the brain. The brain is divided into two parts; the upper and +frontal part is called the _cerebrum_, the other the _cerebellum_. The +former is the larger division, and is the seat of the moral sentiments +and intellectual faculties. The latter is the seat of the propensities, +domestic and selfish. + +_A._ I thank you, Isabel. Now, what is this spine, of which there is so +much "complaint" now-a-days? + +_I._ I will answer you from Paley: "The spine, or backbone, is a chain +of joints of very wonderful construction. It was to be firm, yet +flexible; _firm_, to support the erect position of the body; _flexible_, +to allow of the bending of the the trunk in all degrees of curvature. It +was further, also, to become a pipe or conduit for the safe conveyance +from the brain of the most important fluid of the animal frame, that, +namely, upon which _all voluntary motion depends, the spinal marrow_; a +substance not only of the first necessity to action, if not to life, but +of a nature so delicate and tender, so susceptible and impatient of +injury, that any unusual pressure upon it, or any considerable +obstruction of its course, is followed by paralysis or death. Now, the +spine was not only to furnish the main trunk for the passage of the +medullary substance from the brain, but to give out, in the course of +its progress, small pipes therefrom, which, being afterwards +indefinitely subdivided, might, under the name of nerves, distribute +this exquisite supply to every part of the body." + +_Alice._ I understand now why disease of the spine causes such +involuntary contortions and gestures, in some instances. Its connection +with the brain and nerves is so immediate, that it cannot suffer disease +without affecting the whole nervous system. + +_I._ It cannot. The spinal cord or marrow is a continuation of the +brain. But we must not devote any more time to this subject. + +_Bertha._ I want to ask you something about the different parts of the +eye, Isabel. When ---- ---- lectured on optics, I lost nearly all the +benefit of his lecture, except a newly awakened desire for knowledge on +this subject. He talked of the retina, cornea, iris, &c.; please tell me +precisely what they are. + +_I._ The retina is a nervous membrane; in other words a thin net-work, +formed of very minute sensitive filaments. It is supposed by some to be +an expansion of the optic nerve; and on this the images of objects we +see are formed. It is situated at the back part of the eye. Rays pass +through the round opening in the iris, which we call the pupil. + +_B._ What did the lecturer say is the cause of the color of the pupil? + +_I._ He said that its _want of color_ is to be imputed to the fact that +rays of light which enter there are not returned; they fall on the +retina, forming there images of objects. And you recollect he said that +"absence of rays is blackness." The iris is a kind of curtain, covering +the aqueous humor--aqueous is from the Latin _aqua_, water. It is +confined only at its outer edge, or circumference; and is supplied with +muscular fibres which confer the power of adjustment to every degree of +light. It contracts or dilates involuntarily, as the light is more or +less intense, as you must have observed. The rays of light falling on +that part of the iris which immediately surrounds the pupil, cause it to +be either black, blue, or hazel. We will not linger on this ground, for +it belongs more properly to Natural Philosophy. We will discuss the +other four senses as briefly as possible. "The sense of taste," says +Hayward, "resides in the mucus membrane of the tongue, the lips, the +cheeks, and the fauces." Branches of nerves extend to every part of the +mouth where the sense of taste resides. The fluid with which the mouth +is constantly moistened is called mucus, and chiefly subserves to the +sense of taste. + +_Ann._ I have observed that when the mucus is dried by fever, food is +nearly tasteless. I now understand the reason. + +_E._ _Apropos_ to the senses, let me ask if feeling and touch are the +same. Alfred says they are; I contend they are not, precisely. + +_I._ Hayward thinks a distinction between them unnecessary. He says they +are both seated in the same organs, and have the same nerves. But the +sense of feeling is more general, extending over the whole surface of +the skin and mucus membrane, while that of touch is limited to +particular parts, being in man most perfect in the hand; and the sense +of feeling is passive, while that of touch is active. This sense is in +the skin, and is most perfect where the epidermis, or external coat, is +the thinnest. We will look through this little magnifying glass at the +skin on my hand. You will see very minute prominences all over the +surface. These points are called papillae. They are supposed to be the +termination of the nerves, and the _locale_ of sensation. + +_E._ Will you _shape_ my ideas of sensation? + +_I._ According to Lord Brougham, one of the English editors of this +edition of Paley, it is "the effect produced upon the mind by the +operation of the senses; and involves nothing like an exertion of the +mind itself." + +Of the sense of hearing, I can tell you but little. Physiologists have +doubts relative to many parts of the ear; and I do not understand the +subject well enough to give you much information. I will merely name +some of the parts and their relative situations. We have first the +external ear, which projecting as it does from the head, is perfectly +adapted to the office of gathering sounds, and transmitting them to the +membrane of the tympanum, commonly called the drum of the ear, from its +resembling somewhat, in its use and structure, the head of a drum. The +tympanum is a cavity, of a cylindrical or tunnel form, and its office is +supposed to be the transmission to the internal ear of the vibrations +made upon the membrane. These vibrations are first communicated to the +malleus or hammer. This is the first of four bones, united in a kind of +chain, extending and conveying vibrations from the tympanum to the +labyrinth of the ear beyond. The other bones are the incus, or anvil, +the round bone, and the stapes, or stirrup--the latter so called from +its resemblance to a stirrup-iron. It is placed over an oval aperture, +which leads to the labyrinth, and which is closed by means of a +membranous curtain. These bones are provided with very small muscles, +and move with the vibrations of the tympanum. The equilibrium of the air +in the tympanum and atmosphere is maintained by the means of the +Eustachian tube, which extends from the back part of the fauces, or +throat, to the cavity of the tympanum. The parts last mentioned +constitute the middle ear. Of the internal ear little is known. It has +its semicircular canals, vestibules, and cochlea; but their agencies are +not ascertained. + +The organ of smell is more simple. This sense lies, or is supposed to +lie, in the mucous membrane which lines the nostrils and the openings in +connection. Particles are constantly escaping from odorous bodies; and, +by being inhaled in respiration, they are thrown in contact with the +mucous membrane. + +_A._ Before leaving the head, will you tell us something of the organs +of voice? + +_I._ By placing your finger on the top of your windpipe, you will +perceive a slight prominence. In males this is very large. This is the +thorax. It is formed of four cartilages, two of which are connected with +a third, by means of four chords, called vocal chords, from their +performing an important part in producing the voice. Experiments have +been made, which prove that a greater part of the larynx, except these +chords, may be removed without destroying the voice. Magendie thus +accounts for the production of the voice. He says, "The air, in passing +from the lungs in expiration, is forced out of small cavities, as the +air-cells and the minute branches of the windpipe, into a large canal; +it is thence sent through a narrow passage, on each side of which is a +vibratory chord, and it is by the action of the air on these chords, +that the sonorous undulations are produced which are called voice." + +_E._ Do not the lips and tongue contribute essentially to speech? + +_I._ They do not. Hayward says he can bear witness to the fact that the +articulation remains unimpaired after the tongue has been removed. The +labials, _f_ and _v_, cannot be perfectly articulated without the action +of the lips.--What subject shall we take next? + +_A._ A natural transition would be from the head to the heart, and, in +connection, the circulation of the blood. + +_I._ Yes. I will give you an abstract of the ideas I gained in the study +of Hayward's Physiology, and the reading of Dr. Paley's Theology. The +heart, arteries, and veins are the agents of circulation. The heart is +irregular and conical in its shape; and it is hollow and double. + +_A._ There is no channel of communication between these parts, is there? + +_I._ None; but each side has its separate office to perform. By the +right, circulation is carried on in the lungs; and by the left through +the rest of the body. I will mark a few passages in Paley, for you to +read to us, Ann. They will do better than any descriptions of mine. + +_A._ I thank you, Isabel, for giving me an opportunity to lend you +temporary relief.--"The disposition of the blood-vessels, as far as +regards the supply of the body, is like that of the water-pipes in a +city, viz. large and main trunks branching off by smaller pipes (and +these again by still narrower tubes) in every direction and towards +every part in which the fluid which they convey can be wanted. So far, +the water-pipes which serve a town may represent the vessels which +carry the blood from the heart. But there is another thing necessary to +the blood, which is not wanted for the water; and that is, the carrying +of it back again to its source. For this office, a reversed system of +vessels is prepared, which, uniting at their extremities with the +extremities of the first system, collects the divided and subdivided +streamlets, first by capillary ramifications into larger branches, +secondly by these branches into trunks; and thus returns the blood +(almost exactly inverting the order in which it went out) to the +fountain whence its motion proceeded. The body, therefore, contains two +systems of blood-vessels, arteries and veins. + +"The next thing to be considered is the engine which works this +machinery, viz., the _heart_. There is provided in the central part of +the body a hollow muscle invested with spiral fibres, running in both +directions, the layers intersecting one another. By the contraction of +these fibres, the sides of the muscular cavity are necessarily squeezed +together, so as to force out from them any fluid which they may at that +time contain: by the relaxation of the same fibres, the cavities are in +their turn dilated, and, of course, prepared to admit every fluid which +may be poured into them. Into these cavities are inserted the great +trunks both of the arteries which carry out the blood, and of the veins +which bring it back. As soon as the blood is received by the heart from +the veins of the body, and _before_ that is sent out again into its +arteries, it is carried, by the force of the contraction of the heart, +and by means of a separate and supplementary artery, to the lungs, and +made to enter the vessels of the lungs, from which, after it has +undergone the action, whatever it may be, of that viscus, it is brought +back, by a large vein, once more to the heart, in order, when thus +concocted and prepared, to be thence distributed anew into the system. +This assigns to the heart a double office. The pulmonary circulation is +a system within a system; and one action of the heart is the origin of +both. For this complicated function four cavities become necessary, and +four are accordingly provided; two called ventricles, which _send out_ +the blood, viz., one into the lungs in the first instance, the other +into the mass, after it has returned from the lungs; two others also, +called auricles, which receive the blood from the veins, viz. one as it +comes from the body; the other, as the same blood comes a second time +after its circulation through the lungs." + +_I._ That must answer our purpose, dear Ann. Of the change which takes +place in the blood, and of the renewal of our physical system, which is +effected by circulation, I shall say nothing. We will pass to +respiration. + +_E._ Whose popular name is breathing? + +_I._ Yes. The act of inhaling air, is called inspiration; that of +sending it out, expiration. Its organs are the lungs and windpipe. The +apparatus employed in the mechanism of breathing is very complex. The +windpipe extends from the mouth to the lungs. + +_A._ How is it that air enters it so freely, while food and drink are +excluded? + +_I._ By a most ingenious contrivance. The opening to the pipe is called +glottis. This is closed, when necessary, by a little valve, or lid, +called the epiglottis (_epi_ means _upon_.) + +_E._ And this faithful sentinel is none other than that perpendicular +little body which we can see in our throats, and which we have _dubbed_ +palate. + +_I._ You are right, Ellinora. Over this, food and drink pass on their +way to the road to the stomach, the gullet. The pressure of solids or +liquids tends to depress this lid on the glottis; and its muscular +action in deglutition, or swallowing, tends to the same effect. As soon +as the pressure is removed, the lid springs to its erect position, and +the air passes freely. Larynx and trachea are other names for the +windpipe, and pharynx is another for the gullet. The larynx divides into +two branches at the lungs, and goes to each side. Hence, by +subdivisions, it passes off in numerous smaller branches, to different +parts of the lungs, and terminates in air-cells. The lungs, known in +animals by the name of lights, consist of three parts, or lobes, one on +the right side, and two on the left. + +_Alice._ The lights of inferior animals are very light and porous--do +our lungs resemble them in this? + +_I._ Yes; they are full of air-tubes and air-cells. These, with the +blood vessels and the membrane which connects (and this is cellular, +that is, composed of cells,) form the lungs. The process of respiration +involves chemical, mechanical, and vital or physiological principles. Of +the mechanism I shall say but little more. You already know that the +lungs occupy the chest. Of this, the breast bone forms the front, the +spine, the back wall. Attached to this bone are twelve ribs on each +side. These are joined by muscles which are supposed to assist in +elevating them in breathing, thus enlarging the cavity of the chest. The +lower partition is formed by a muscle of great power, called the +diaphragm, and by the action of this organ alone common inspiration can +be performed. Hayward says, "The contraction of this muscle necessarily +depresses its centre, which was before elevated towards the lungs. The +instant this takes place, the air rushes into the lungs through the +windpipe, and thus prevents a vacuum, which would otherwise be produced +between the chest and lungs." Expiration is the reverse of this. The +chemistry of respiration regards the change produced in the blood by +respiration. To this change I have before alluded. + +_Ann._ When we consider the offices of the heart and lungs, their +importance in vital economy, how dangerous appears the custom of +pressing them so closely between the ribs by tight lacing? + +_I._ Yes; fearful and fatal beyond calculation! And one great advantage +in a general knowledge of our physical system, is the tendency this +knowledge must have to correct this habit. + +_A._ To me there is not the weakest motive for tight lacing. Everything +but pride _must_ revolt at the habit; and there is something positively +disgusting and shocking in the wasp-like form, labored breathing, purple +lips and hands of the tight lacer. + +_E._ They indicate such a pitiful servitude to fashion, such an utter +disregard of comfort, when it comes in collision with false notions of +elegance! Well for our sex, as we could not be induced to act from a +worthier motive, popular opinion is setting in strongly against this +practice. Many of our authors and public lecturers are bringing strong +arms and benevolent hearts to the work. + +_A._ Yes; but to be perfectly consistent, should not the fashions of the +"Lady's Book," the "Ladies' Companion," and of "Graham's Magazine," be +more in keeping with the general sentiment? Their contributors furnish +essays, deprecating the evils of tight lacing, and tales illustrative of +its evil effects, yet the figures of the plates of fashions are +uniformly most unnaturally slender. And these are offered for national +standards! + +_E._ "And, more's the pity," followed as such. + +_I._ I think the improvements you mention would only cause a temporary +suspension of the evil. They might indeed make it the _fashion_ to wear +natural waists; but like all other fashions, it must unavoidably give +way to new modes. They might lop off a few of the branches; but science, +a knowledge of physiology alone, is capable of laying the axe at the +root of the tree.--What is digestion, Ellinora? + +_E._ It is the dissolving, pulverizing, or some other _ing_, of our +food, isn't it? + +_I._ Hayward says that "it is an important part of that process by which +aliment taken into the body is made to nourish it." He divides the +digestive apparatus into "the mouth and its appendages, the stomach and +the intestines." The teeth, tongue, jaws, and saliva, perform their +respective offices in mastication. Then the food passes over the +epiglottis, you recollect, down the gullet to the stomach. The saliva is +an important agent in digestion. It is secreted in glands, which pour it +into the mouth by a tube about the size of a wheat straw. + +_Alice._ I heard our physician say that food should be so thoroughly +masticated before deglutition (you see I have caught your technicals, +Isabel,) that every particle would be moistened with the saliva. Then +digestion would be easy and perfect. He says that dyspepsia is often +incurred and perpetuated by eating too rapidly. + +_I._ Doubtless this is the case. As soon as the food reaches the +stomach, the work of digestion commences; and the food is converted to a +mass, neither fluid or solid, called chyme. With regard to this process, +there have been many speculative theories. It has been imputed to animal +heat, to putrefaction, to a mechanical operation (something like that +carried on in the gizzard of a fowl,) to fermentation, and maceration. +It is now a generally adopted theory, that the food is _dissolved_ by +the gastric juices. + +_Ann._ If these juices are such powerful solvents, why do they not act +on the stomach, when they are no longer supplied with _subjects_ in the +shape of food? + +_I._ According to many authorities, they do. Comstock says that "hunger +is produced by the action of the gastric juices on the stomach." This +theory does not prevail, however; for it has been proved by experiment, +that these juices do not act on anything that has life. + +_Alice._ How long does it take the food to digest? + +_I._ Food of a proper kind will digest in a healthy stomach, in four or +five hours. It then passes to the intestines. + +_Ann._ But why does it never leave the stomach until thoroughly +digested? + +_I._ At the orifice of the stomach, there is a sort of a valve, called +pylorus, or door-keeper. Some have supposed that this valve has the +power of ascertaining when the food is sufficiently digested, and so +allows chyme to pass, while it contracts at the touch of undigested +substances. + +_A._ How wonderful! + +_I._ And "how passing wonder He who made us such!" + +_Alice._ No wonder that a poet said-- + + "Strange that a harp of thousand strings + Should keep in tune so long!" + +_Ann._ And no wonder that the Christian bends in lowly adoration and +love before _such_ a Creator, and _such_ a Preserver? + +_E._ Now, dear Isabel, will you tell us something more? + +_I._ Indeed, Ellinora, I have already gone much farther than I intended +when I commenced. But I knew not where to stop. Even now, you have but +just _commenced_ the study of _yourselves_. Let me urge you to read in +your leisure hours, and reflect in your working ones, until you +understand physiology, as well as you now do geography. + + D. + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + * * * * * + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Minor typographical errors and inconsistencies have +been silently normalized. Archaic and variable spellings retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mind Amongst the Spindles, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIND AMONGST THE SPINDLES *** + +***** This file should be named 37471.txt or 37471.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/4/7/37471/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Julia Neufeld and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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