'•\v^V S^^ \s^iV ^\^ Nv Harriet Newell Haskell January 14th, 1835, Waldoboro, Me. May 6th, 1907, Godfrey, III. A Span of Sunshine Gold. 'ROSEMAET FOR REMEMBRANCE." Dedicated to Those who loved Jier much and long by One who loved her more and longer. Childhood. Girlhood. Early Womanhood. Maturity. Harvest Home. APOLOGIA {Iniime.) Though this ''Labor of love" is intended for you and you only, dear Monticello girls, for some reasons it has been undertaken with the most timorous re- luctance. But yearning from within and pressure from without have so combined, that further re- sistance to these forces seems any longer impossible, while the loyalty of the one who has been "left" to- wards the one who has been "taken" demands some tribute of expression. Our beloved, tenderly cherished, and now sincerely mourned, though widely known, was not in the usually accepted sense a public woman. The private charm of her home school life can no more be spread upon paper for every runner to read than the odor of field strawberries or the incense of lilies. As we were always together for over fifty years, I have not a single letter of hers in my possession. I am, moreover, at a distance from any proper "base of supplies" (viz.: exact data for the narrative), therefore this is a memory intaglio rather than a chronological record. It is neither obituary notice nor eulogy, for both were fully compassed in the Memorial Echo, but is intended rather as a freehand APOLOGIA. 11 character sketch of one so electrically alive that it seemed impossible for death to claim her. Indeed she yet lives — her potent influence the simshine-gold that gilds to-day the towers of her new Monticello. Oh! give me back That sweet crisp speech of her, That laughter on the air; That buoyant presence by my side And everywhere ! E. G. A. I. CHILDHOOD. As a child the subject of this sketch was a "Little Classic" of the unexpected. What she had done was no guarantee for what she would do next. She could "send a ball" like a boy ; though caught one day climb- ing experimentally, like a Jackie, the mainmast of a craft building in the ship-yard of her native town, she never owned a thimble nor mothered dolls overmuch, after the fashion of girls. Born to lead, she led by some sort of "divine right", which was never gainsaid nor disputed because she led so well. Though a hale comrade with boys she was a queen among girls, affiliating with each in an individual and unique man- ner, easier to appreciate than describe. Though not a "daughter" of any "regiment", she was the child of her home village, the little democrat of the play- ground, who greeted everybody she met there with so much sunshine in her smile, so much sparkle in her "bonnie blue e'en," that she captured hearts by an unconscious magic of free masonry, which was surer and safer than necromancy of gypsies in the olden time. She was frankly mischievous, but so good-natured withal, that wrath vanished when she became her own "confessor" to so bald a statement as — "/ did it with my little hatchet"—/ killed Cock Robin! What are you going to do about it?" She hated the bondage of 14 CHILDHOOD. "pretty clothes", and wore her siinbonnet upon her arm, danghng thereto by its strings, or else swinging loosely down her back, quite below her braids of Saxon hair. One of her early, though not childish, griefs, was the present of a silk gown, because she said it would make her "ache" everywhere, and she wept profusely at the anticipation of being "dressed up" as a lady when she preferred the freedom of the field. She was not precocious, and at thirteen remained blissfully unconscious of the numerical woes lurking in the multiplication table, but upon suddenly realiz- ing her ignorance, and the necessity of some mathe- matical basis for her schemes of "frenzied finance", she stole into her father's barn, and climbing into an old carriage, mastered, even the ''nines", at one ses- sion of solitude. But the knowledge of "affairs" was hers from the start. Keen to see, quick to feel, sure to ask both the first and last question, she was a cyclo- pedia of "general information". Obstacles, to her were "dares", and every dare in turn an inspiration, as w^hen she was confronted with some forbidden pleasure. Not being a pattern child, nor troubled with any pedagogical system of ethics, she "hungered and thirsted after M;;righteousness" in the shape of anything she must not touch, taste nor handle ! A negative roused her to action like a war- cry. Plucking a peach-blossom, the only one on a young tree in her father's garden, because she had been told she must let it alone, her young defiance of disobedience soon turned into the torturing query, what to do with her blooming "graft" now she had CHILDHOOD. 15 obtained it? Hiding her guilty secret in her uneasy breast, she gave the stolen bloom an unromantic burial behind the molasses jug in the ''kitchen pantry", and went her way like many another petty sinner, neither happier nor any wiser than she had been before. Not being allowed the privilege of going "bare- foot" like the boys, she took the matter in her own hands, removed her shoes and stockings on her way to district school, hid them under a fence, and unblush- ingly played the role of the barefoot girl before the astonished eyes of teacher and pupils. Here again a swift and most unexpected retribution awaited her, for a thunder shower arising during the afternoon session, her father, armed with umbrella, and of all things rubbers, arrived at the little school-house to es- cort his lady-bird to the home-nest. It not being quite time for dismissal, he was invited to wait in- side until one more class had been called to the front — hers, of course ! There was no escape, and she must patter forward in her shame, her bare pedal ex- tremities not to be hidden under short petticoats. She saw his eagle eye slowly travel downward, and the horrified expression upon his stern countenance as he thundered in a tone Jove might have coveted : ''Har- riet, zvhere are your shoes?" The fifth act of that serio-comedy we will not rehearse, sparing the nerves and saving the sympathies of our readers for Legiti- mate Drama, broader in draft, but not so momentous or sudden in disastrous outcome as this petty tra- gedy, unexpected and significant, of a child in dis- tress ! 16 CHILDHOOD. On another occasion, while visiting in Boston, she wandered with her little hostess-playmate out upon Washington street to see the sights abroad, and look at the window displays within. Beholding some gaily pictured cards, then known as Buzby cards for child- ren, she entered the emporium boldly and coolly or- dered a pack. Seizing her treasure as if it were an apple from the tree of life, she marched out calling airily over her shoulder: ''Charge to father!" She was so naively innocent as well as swiftly imperative in the transaction that the amazed but amused custo- dian allowed her to depart minus arrest for petty lar- ceny. Her volatile spirits bubbled to the well-head every hour, and brimmed over to any "call of the wild". There were no diversions in her native town that met her passion for "something doing" worth while. There were no vaudeville entertainments, no Y. M. C. A.'s, no W. C. T. U.'s ; the only gathering of "clans" being the fortnightly sewing societies and quilting parties for the elders — no "Girls' Friendlies" or dances for the juveniles — only the Sunday evening and weekly prayer meetings for mixed audiences, de- signed for social as well as religious communion. Therefore, one day when flaming billboards on all the fences advertised the coming, in the near future, of a circus — and moreover a circus with fzi'O clowns — she was moved to primeval instincts of revolt. She pleaded eloquently the dual enticement of such an un- heard-of equipment, yet all in vain ! The tyrants of the parental persuasion would not listen to her thrill- CHILDHOOD. 17 ing appeal of "Just this once ! Only think, tzvo clowns !" Submission was not to be considered for a moment, and she began to "mobilize" her resources of escape from the parental mansion on that coming Saturday afternoon, when she was allowed merciful freedom from scholastic fetters. She immediately formed herself into a "Ways and Means Committee" of One, to raise the necessary funds for the success- ful accomplishment of her escapade. She did not own a penny, and a working capital must form the basis of her monetary operations. After canvassing for the second time the possibilities of a sort of harmless graft that should inconvenience nobody, she quietly and privately removed the palm-leaf fans from the "meeting-house" pews occupied by her relatives, thinking perhaps she was invading only private prop- erty rights. Said fans in some mysterious manner she conveyed to the camping-ground of the record- breaking show, and by the aid of some inveigled mas- culine agents, for boys were always her loyal allies, she converted her purloined wares into "ready cash" with which ill-gotten gains she made her audacious entree to the Elysium of the "Ring". This flagrant transgression in the role of "heavy villain" for a time at least remained undetected, unpunished, and there- fore unsung, until the "star" in after years related the story in her inimitable way, perhaps to point a moral, or more probably to adorn a racy tale. But these somewhat crooked and peculiar peccadil- loes were not confined to the working days of the week. Sunday presented a stififer challenge to some 18 CHILDHOOD. exciting deed with which to offset the dull duties of the monotonous day. Oh, the pain of being ''dressed up'' for church in that silk gown and those unneces- sarily shining shoes ! Her father being choir-master and her elder sister his leading soprano, Harriet must be safely deposited in the same gallery at one side, as her little mother in the family pew below did not w4sh to assume the responsibility of any possible antics she might feel called upon to perform. But she proved equal to resenting this ignominious separation from the congregation at large. It was a most skilful bit of ^'target practice" when, leaning over the rail be- fore service began, she dropped an acorn on the bald pate of a venerable deacon below, who had lingered for a moment's conversation in the aisle, and dodged dexterously back out of sight, leaving him to imagine some ''new dispensation" of an acrobatic gospel above, for which he had not been prepared in his boyhood days. The sonorous sermon from the pulpit at the other end of the house — not being particularly adapted to her "salad" mentality, as it treated topics, "Predes- tination" perhaps, or "Divine Sovereignty", quite foreign to her line of thought — engrossed her not at all. But as she was never weary of i7/-doing, she drew a lead-pencil from the capacious museum of even her Sabbatical pocket, and proceeded to fill in all the o's in her hymn-book, making the long-suffering pages appear as if attacked by small-pox or bubonic plague. Books were her abhorrence unless spattered with pictures, and those were not the days of illustrated magazines, but she did devour Pilgrim's Progress be- CHILDHOOD. 19 cause she supposed it a thrilling novel, and novels were "contraband of war" in that day and generation. It carried the additional charm of having to be sur- reptitiously read at unseasonable hours, and then con- cealed between the feather-beds in the "guest cham- ber", where members of the family, an ever-active de- tective police force, would be less likely to pounce upon it ! The hay-mow in the barn was the theatre of many of her histrionic efforts, and she always appeared as stage-manager, and "star" combined, her more im- portant roles, however, being set by the vicissitudes of her daily life in the "open" ! Her musical educa- tion was pursued under divers and sundry difficulties, which she met with her usual sangfroid. The straight- jacket of steady practice along the tedious route of five-finger exercises was not to be meekly endured, therefore she procured a boy "understudy", who upon promise of some return courtesy slyly stole into the music room and kept up a steady thrumming, in order that the watchful mother above stairs should be persuaded thereby to suppose her young hopeful in the throes of musical evolution to a marvelous de- gree. When discovered and "brought to book" in the shape of solitary confinement and the stimulating diet of bread and water, the by no means non-plussed cul- prit received her allotted punishment with such un- failing nonchalance that it seemed like imprisoning a segment of rainbow to keep her in durance vile. This young captive of the household Bastile was never sul- len, always sunny, even under the most depressing cir- 20 CHILDHOOD. cumstances, and moreover usually managed by some "wireless" telepathy to communicate with her clien- tele upon the outside, stating her immediate need of a more substantial and appetizing menu, whereupon by means of a kite-string derrick, or some other ingeni- ous contrivance, various delicacies were noiselessly hoisted into the stealthily opened window of the hastily improvised penitentiary wherein our non-peni- tent but rather jolly jail-bird was in enforced retreat. Do not suppose that all this time there was no sagacious effort to reform the skittish criminal on the general principles of law and order, but she presented to all such instruction the proverbial "duck's back", and while she listened good-humoredly, the counsel was making "rapid transit" to the other ear ! It never seems to have occurred to her that children were made for any other purpose than to be a means of saving^ grace to long-suffering parents through their "much tribulation" in bringing them up. As will be seen from the foregoing, our juvenile was not a Sabbath School book precocity of "early piety". Her parents were too fun-loving themselves, as well as wise, to break her down, and even to curb her judiciously must have been a frequent problem in which the values of x and y were indeterminate, for animal spirits, like champagne, will foam upon the least provocation. This picture is not that of a digni- fied child, but has been drawn from the life — not "still life", but life effervescent and scintillating. Remem- ber, reader, that this same fertility of invention and wealth of resource, determination of will and bubble of CHILDHOOD. 21 Spirit-sparkle, in after years, when disciplined by ex- perience and trained by compelling circumstance, made her the woman she was. Rebuke could not "wither" her, nor restraint "stale" her "infinite variety" ! No need to screw that "courage to the sticking- point" for it was never wnscrewed. The "white plume" was ever in her helmet; she was her own "army with banners", and let who would follow or desert, she never hauled down her flag. Victory was ever at the helm; later, not victory for the slaughter of others, but triumph over self that she might save others. There was no such word as defeat in her vocabulary, and she conquered not with the sword, but with the olive, from the very first — unconsciously, but all the more surely, as children do. She lived in the present, every day a red-letter day in her calendar of continu- ous delight ; but not in any self-seeking way, for noth- ing meant much that was not shared. This, however, is anticipating maturer values. At the ripe age of fourteen it was considered advis- able to change this scene of operations. Her field of adventure had been thoroughly explored, her camp- ing-ground too well trodden; the heroine was becom- ing sated with triumph, and too familiar with her com.peers. She was, therefore, with the more staid and dignified sister heretofore mentioned, sent to Cas- tleton, Vt., and there placed in a mixed school of girls and boys : a fine arena for even more extended schemes, though of a somewhat different character, as she was under constant supervision, and also passing from a "mere child" into a rather broader realm, that of the schoolgirl "rampant". II. GIRLHOOD. The advent of our heroine into Castleton Seminary- was an ^vent in the annals of that venerable institu- tion for co-education. To which wing of the co did she belong? There seemed a call for another cabinet of miscellaneous curiosities in which to place this new "genus", so subtle to plan, so swift to execute, was she masculine or feminine — or compound? So sure to offend, but as ready to atone — was she saint, or sinner, or a "Blend"? The President or Head Master, a very Jupiter Tonans in demicanor, and regarded with the most rev- erential awe by all his subordinates, was somewhat amazed by her breezy, "Good-morning, Doctor'', as though he were a "hale fellow well met'' at a tennis match. The Professor of Botany soon made her his boon companion — his "fetch and carry" in excursions afield for "rare specimens". She astonished him by her ready assimilation of nature-knowledge and en- tertained him by her mercurial, original, but never silly prattle. The Preceptress shielded and comforted her when in disgrace, an often occurrence, and her music teacher, though in a state of abject despair as to producing a "prodigy" in this special department, was won to tenderest affection by the ingenious wiles of this little scapegrace from regulation duty at an instrument she hated and devoutly wished ground to GIRLHOOD. 23 powder, while the music page at which she stared un- seeingly she would fain have torn to tatters in some of her fits of impotent rage because she could not become "expert" in a minute. Mathematics she did not abjure — but English Com- position! She put her blank (entirely blank) paper in her shoe in order to spend "required time" on this literary bug-bear. With groans (unutterable in public but vociferous in private) and with chewed pencil-tops as her daily provender, she wrestled with the demon of prose construction until despairing of success she savagely tossed aside conscientious scruples, and abandoned herself to some tabooed sport in which she could forget the woes of the un-ready as well as the un-steady writer! But in some miraculous manner, having meanwhile torn her hair and deluged her pina- fore with ink, she managed to appear at "Rhetorical" with some trenchant production, the precursor in later years of such original themes as "Railroad up the Hill of Science", or an imaginary and thrilling epic, of which "The Last Victim of the Deluge" was the wretched hero. She ''fair'! Never! This minia- ture Lady Macbeth brandishing the dagger of oppor- tunity in the shape of a "Washington MedaUion" or, as she preferred to call it, "Americus Vespucius" pen, stabbed to the very heart of it the doughtiest obstacle in her scholastic path, and ever challenged laughter direct from all listeners to whom her most graphic contributions of child literature were submitted. She was neither abashed on the one hand nor con- ceited on the other, but carried herself with a valiant 24 GIRLHOOD. front which challenged the admiration of her mates and defied the criticism of her superiors. She minded neither encomiums nor censure, but was sufficient unto herself at all appointed times, if forced to the issue, though never overly ambitious of distinction. She simply "went ahead" unmindful of what others were doing unless they encroached upon her "preserves", which was seldom. As in her native town, she became the "mascot" of this village street, and though not the Hebe or cup- bearer of the gods, she was the recognized errand- runner for anybody and everybody who needed her services. Her charming willingness to help other peo- ple manage their afifairs, as also her constant alacrity in enhancing what seemed to her the general good, won for her hosts of genial admirers, for she was not so much a "busy-body in other men's matters" as a helper omnipresent wherever and whenever she might contiibute substantial service. She could not be "chaperoned" any more than a rocket or a shooting-star, and the spasmodic efforts of the authorities to keep her "in position" were more commendable than successful. She slipped "from un- der" in the most unprecedented fashion, and was finally captured on some shining height of erratic achieve- ment that only served to accentuate her harmless but quite dashing enterprise. No regulation behavior was her accepted code, and yet she was by no means a coarse hoyden of misrule, and only made things move her way with neatness and dispatch, yet without dis- honor. The essential humor of a situation so appealed GIRLHOOD. 25 to her that she made it germane otherwhere, and even the veriest dragons of school discipHne were forced to smile, temporarily to be sure, when she appeared a criminal at the bar, and pleaded "guilty" with bewitch- ing drollery. All this time the ''tares" were not choking out the wheat, for it was not altogether "stony ground" upon which so much "good seed" had fallen. By degrees she began to emulate quick brains as well as ready wits, and there was a manifest uplift of "study" pro- duction until it appeared there was something more than fun in her brain granary. At this juncture when she was giving some promise of better things, her guardian sister was graduated (1851), and it was thought best not to return our pro- tege to the same school for another year as she had ex- pected. Her watchful family, ever on the look-out for breakers ahead, intercepted a letter to one of her school cronies, in which she outlined such a campaign of mis- chief for the future, giving explicit directions as to when and where and how implements could be surrep- titiously obtained for cooking and providing an appe- tizing night menu — for the boys, mind you — that our little lady's plans came to a most unexpected halt. But she had already made her "mark", not an entirely black one, as subsequent events proved. After much careful consideration of future possibilities in so grave a case, through the influence of a friend at that time Associate Principal of Mt. Holyoke Seminary, (South Hadley, Mass.) this scarcely more than child was placed under this mature protection, and entered that 26 GIRLHOOD. renowned institution (1852) founded by the notable Mary Lyon, pioneer of educational privilege for women. Here as in Castleton she distinguished herself at once as the "star" of fresh arrivals, and was soon known everywhere by the pet names of ''Tow Head" and "Great Heart", the first bestowed, as will readily be imagined, on account of the spun silk of her fair hair ; the second suggested by an incident now to be related, and not told in any previous Memorial. There was "entered" at the same time with herself a girl with a withered arm, and in other ways, though "brainy", rather peculiar and disagreeable. She came, moreover, from the precincts of Waldoboro, but not moving in the same class nor claiming the remotest ac- quaintance with her fellow town's-child. As is usual in such unfortunate cases, it proved impossible to find a room-mate for her, which seemed imperative, as the school was over-flowing with pupils, while many others were impatiently suing for admission. When affairs appeared desperate, a rousing knock was heard one day upon the Principal's door, and to the response "Come in" a ringing voice answered: "I will take Miss .... in juy room", and she "made good" ! Not only did she champion but she compassioned this unfortunate, not in any patronizing way, but with such a "carry" of ozone in the social air that no one dared do otherwise than meet her protege on the broad levels of school camaraderie. By many kindly deeds of like nature, though not so conspicious perhaps in the doing, but prompted by the GIRLHOOD. 27 same mercurial temperament, "Great Heart" soon be- came not only first in the class-room, an easy pre- eminence for her, but first in frolic, and, better than all else, first in the hearts of her school fellows. Sport she must have, and sport she made at every possible turn. She did not break rules, but she interpreted them in a most unheard of manner, to the amazement of teachers not accustomed to the "higher criticism" of the "canon law". As is well known, domestic science not only, but domestic drudgery in active "ruction" was the then primitive feature of institutional management, there be- ing "departments" of service, such as, "silver circle", "glass circle", "bread circle", "pudding circle", each name denoting specific duties to be performed. When- ever any such circle was observed in a state of spon- taneous combustion (laughter), at the very centre of the group was our game-y culprit, pushing the button and setting the machinery in motion which seemed .y^//-propelling. Caught in each fresh iniquity, she was promptly "degraded" and placed in some lower and more limited sphere. If on the "pudding circle" she would whisper under her breath on the way to dinner: "Girls, don't eat any pudding to-day! It's full of strings, buttons, etc." Whereupon to carry out the joke the repetitious, "No, I thank you," at the din- ner table challenged the presiding teacher's startled surprise and indignation. If on the "mopping circle", for to that ignominious occupation had she fallen at last by swift and sure degrees of sin, she would lift her mop high in air and deluge the floor, thus making 28 GIRLHOOD. navigation a science of transit by water, not suggested in the curriculum ! She was then placed in solitary confinement on the "bread circle", where being the sole perfcirmer during her particular hour of service, she experienced much difficulty in distinguishing her- self to her satisfaction. But her golden opportunities were found in the night dormitory, where third room-mates took turns in leaving their own apartments for the public ''sleeping- place". Here she displayed her ripest energies, and there was no class of high comedy which she failed to introduce. "Pillow-fights'' were mild beside the im- provised gymnastics she ''personally conducted". When upon the sudden approach of the "night officer'' her acrobats rolled into bed, they as precipitously rolled out again, for chestnut burrs and thistles were not couch-companions calculated to invite slumber. As the manager of this embryo vaudeville could be no other than the redoubtable H. H., she was again summarily removed from this environment and com- pelled to sleep on a lounge in the room of the sternest of teachers, whose rest she so disturbed by a skilfully feigned snoring "habit", that it was concluded the punishment outwitted the crime, and the clever convict was remanded to her legitimate quarters. Sundays, as before, taxed her energies to the ut- most because she must devise plausible excuses for non-attendance at church, as, her "rubbers had holes" (where she put her feet in) ; she had removed the trimming from her bonnet (remember this was a half- century ago when girls wore demure bonnets), with GIRLHOOD. 29 malice prepense, of course, and could not go bare- headed ! But the unsympathetic judge ordered her to r^-trim or go w;itrimmed, which the girl audaciously did, to the dismay of her ''chief" and the amusement of everybody seated in her rear — her bonnet denuded of all save strings. As her section of the school oc- cupied the galleries she was enabled from this vantage point to caricature, in a manner worthy of John Leech or Thomas Nast, not only the minister, but various members of the congregation who appealed to her sense of the comic either in feature or attire. One of her seat-mates not only smiling but actually laugh- ing so much out loud as to arrest general attention, was summoned to the Principal's room and threatened with the loss of her diploma if she would not tell what she was laughing at, which she positively refused to do, whereupon counsel for the defendant appeared, ac- knowledging herself responsible for this unspeakable outrage upon the sacred proprieties of the occasion, and producing for governmental inspection the offend- ing cartoons ; suffice it to say a ''change of venue" was apparently ordered, for the impending charges were never more heard from. But there remains to be told "another story", for though the despair, this recalcitrant pupil was also the glory of her teachers. The recitation hours sparkled with the surprises of her original questions as well as answers, also her naive suggestions regarding the fea- sibility of altering the text books to suit the limited capacities of the victims thereof. But she was teach- able, though not with humility abounding. She kept 30 GIRLHOOD. the class as well as the school in a ferment of expecta- tion as to her achievements scholastic, and rarely fell below anticipation, while often going beyond it. She scorned a "sneak", and though herself sometimes an "artful dodger", it was not in a cowardly manner nor at the expense of another. Though she never carried any studential aspect of worry or fret, never "poring" over her books as did so many of her classmates, she always passed her pub- lic examinations triumphantly over and above every other student, attracting attention not only by her un- usual personnel, but by her quick replies, and her "at home" manner with the subject in hand. As she crossed the large and always crowded hall to the blackboard, for the moment apparent queen of all she surveyed, there was a hush in the audience and a smile of satisfaction when in her turn she was called upon for her "demonstration". Then she made her title clear as a "leader" in thought, either mathematical or scientific. She was also head and front of the debating so- ciety, which, however, became so vociferous in its on- goings that it was allowed "to be" only on condition that the teacher of Logic should preside at its too lively sessions. That killed it ; not immediately, but by slow strangulation of the "salad" ideas of brainy but immature girls, "free lances" to a somewhat perilous degree. Being denied permission to formally celebrate the Fourth of July in the Seminary Hall, a petty revolu- tion was not only planned but successfully carried out GIRLHOOD. 31 by the "minute" woman of the occasion. Having pre- viously tied black silk aprons, which were then worn, to every door knob on the corridors, in lieu of the flag so despised and rejected by the Faculty "ancients and honorables", she marshalled her numerous followers after school hours and led them into the woods at the back of the house, then proceeded with a program as patriotic as unusual. The singing of America, Star Spangled Banner, etc., was supported by an orchestra of jewsharps and combs, accordions, etc., after which the spreadeagle orator, none other than the grand rebel herself, delivered a soul-stirring harangue on Govern- ment for Girls, hy Girls, of Girls, themselves! (She was breaking no rules, you see, only giving them a more modern interpretation, after the manner of or rather foreshadowing the "new thought" in educa- tion.) The teacher of Logic afore-mentioned, getting wind of what was going on, wandered roundabout-ly to the grove, becoming an unseen listener to the eloquent peroration, which so amused her that she made a minority report in behalf of this new "con- tinental congress", declaring that the end justified the means, and that so innocent but ingenious an ebulli- tion of jocund spirit had best be let judiciously alone. The grand morale of that chief of sinners convinced everybody that wherever she moved in after life she would become a person of distinction. Permit here another account of this same incident, also written from memory many years after by another classmate. Miss Anna C. Edwards, of North- ampton, later Associate Principal at Holyoke. It 32 GIRLHOOD. diflPcrs in no important particular from the foregoing, and is endorsed by this writer, who was a modest member of — 'The Band" ! "A surprise was perpetrated in the form of a mock celebration in the grove near Miss Lyon's monument. There busy hands had arranged reserved seats for the teachers and a platform for various speakers, with a 'band' provided with various Castanet and tin pan accessories, which certainly added much to the gayety of the occasion, while the large audience contentedly disposed itself on the green grass under the trees. One of the most dignified seniors — I have never seen her equal — called the meeting to order, and pre- sided over the whole program : 1. Music by the band. 2. Letters from distinguished personages, express- ing their regret for their unavoidable absence. Presi- dent Pierce could not come because his dog and cat were sick; Mrs. Partington was detained by Ike's ill- ness, and Hon. Edward Everett, United States Sen- ator, had suffered from spinal complaint ever since he entered the protest of the New England clergy against the Nebraska bill. Some of the alumnae do not remember, and may not appreciate, the feeling aroused all over the North by that Nebraska bill, and the storm of vituperation that fell upon Mr. Everett from the Southern Senators when he presented a re- monstrance against it signed by three thousand min- isters of New England. He was quite overcome by it, so much so, that he apologized for offering such an insult to his colleagues, and was himself stigmatized GIRLHOOD. 33 thereafter at the North, as wanting courage and back- bone. 3. Singing of an original hymn by the whole as- sembly accompanied by the *'band". If I had antici- pated writing this account, more than half a century later, I would have preserved the name of the author. Who knows what fame as a poet she may have since achieved ! i. Speeches, three of which I recall : Em. Wight, a little flyaway body, said she hoped we would all appreciate the great sacrifice she had made in leav- ing her husband and six small children in the distant state of Illinois, in order to attend this meeting — "I've forgot the rest" — then sprang off the platform as quickly as she had mounted it, and I have never been able to decide whether she really had forgotten the rest, or meant to end in just that way. Then Harriet Haskell, afterward the renowned principal of Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, 111., came forward trembling with age, leaning on two crutches and supported by two attendants, the very impersona- tion of an old revolutionary soldier. "My young friends", she began in a thin, quavering voice, "this celebration reminds me of the first glorious Fourth ; Washington lived then; Adams lived then, Franklin lived then, and so did I. I was in all the important battles of the war; I saw Burgoyne back out of that Saratoga Spring, and if it hadn't been for a mosquito that flew between me and the cannon's mouth, in an- other engagement, I shouldn't be here today. Now what do I see? Three millions of slaves in the land 34 GIRLHOOD. of the free !" Then she proceeded to give, no doubt, excellent advice to her hearers as to their part in present emergencies. We had refreshments as became the day, and toasts, only one of which I recall : "Our Band ; may their hearts be better tuned than their instruments !" I know it all ended with our marching in long pro- cession after the band with its lugubrious strains, out into the street, around to the front door, which you remember, we did not enter on ordinary occasions, and hanging a black flag out of the parlor window while the townspeople, accustomed as they were to our ways, looked on and wondered what could be go- ing on at the Seminary!'' Thus were passed the four years of the happiest of school courses, after which the senior of seniors was graduated (1855), with the high honors which she richly deserved, leaving an impression on those sands of school-life that has never even to this day worn dim, and which long after led to her appoint- ment as Principal of Castleton Seminary, and the con- ferring upon her by I\It. Holyoke College later of the Degree of ''Doctor of Letters"; indirectly also to her election as Principal of Monticello (18GT). III. EARLY WOMANHOOD. The year after graduation was spent at home, where she taught at soHcitation, a select and private class of pupils. An incident of a brief visit to Boston later was the determinator of her future career. Cas- ually seeing a notice appointing date for examination of teachers to supply vacancies in the public schools, without saying a word to anybody or making the slightest preparation for such an ordeal, she presented herself as a candidate therefor, though she had not the slightest desire or intention of becoming a ''pro- fessional". Again the mere suggestion was a ''dare", and she only wished to test her resources educational. She "passed", not brilliantly, according to her own ac- count, but was much surprised by a request from the august examiners for a private interview after other novices were dismissed. Her "personal equation" car- ried conviction to the minds of her interlocutors that here was a "rara avis" not to be lightly treated, and she was doubly astonished when, soon after, she was ap- pointed to fill a vacancy in the Franklin school caused by the resignation of the lady assistant to the Head Master. Here was a most unexpected issue, but with juve- nile impetuosity she accepted at once. There was consternation in the home circle at her rash decision. Whv and wherefore should she undertake the "hum- 36 EARLY WOMANHOOD. drum" drudgery of the teacher-habit, but as "Home Rule" in her special case had never been a marked success, after some spirited expostulation she was al- lowed her own sweet will, gained her season of ap- prenticeship by filling the position satisfactorily, but resigned it at the close of the year, returning home for the wedding of her sister, who was married in the autumn of 1857 to Rev. Samuel Boardman, D. D., a native of Castleton, Vt., pastor of the Congregational Church in Norwich, Vt., afterward President of Mary- ville College, Tenn., and now residing in Bloomfield, N. J. She had won her "spurs", and "dubbed" her- self Knightess-Errant of the noblest "order" the world has ever seen — second only (if that) to canonized saints of the church militiant. She was seized during that autumn with a violent illness (due perhaps to more nervous strain than she realized at the time), and convalesced slowly through the early winter. Having, however, entirely recovered, she was afterward urged to take charge of the High School in her home-town. As the circumstances of the case were rather pressing and peculiar on the side of the conservators of public instruction, she con- sented, and again made for herself a name long to be remembered. She taught "big boys" navigation, which she had to study ahead o'nights ; she won them from profane language and coarse habits ; created at- mospheres to which they were heretofore total strangers ; and became a sort of Queen Goddess in their "daily walk and conversation". In 1859 she met her first, but by no means her EARLY WOMANHOOD. 37 last overwhelming grief, in the loss of her only sis- ter, ever in previous years her guide, counselor and friend. For though so different temperamentally, the two were beautifully complementary and devot- edly attached — each admiring in the other what she herself thought she lacked — the one, tall, slender, graceful, with large melting blue eyes and hair which exactly matched a gold coin — the other sturdy and strong; the one, a "model child" — the other, a "harum-scarum" (so called)); the one a woman ex- quisite in every particular both of body and mind, as gentle as a zephyr from the south, and loved accord- ingly — the other virile, impulsive, and as stimulating as ocean brine, also beloved accordingly, and both in Scripture measure, ''pressed down, shaken together and running over", love and admiration in each case lasting to the present hour, and promising to endure as long as any are alive who were privileged to know them. This sorrow, the loss of the elder by the younger, greatly enriched and mellowed the character of the latter. As was universally the custom at the time, she adopted the black garb which she wore ever after, saying if there was reason for putting it on she saw no reason for putting it off. Between 1859 and 1862 and while she continued teaching big boys and girls at home, the deeps of remembrance were stirring in Castleton, as the right reverend President of the institution had resigned on account of failing health and super-abundant length of service. Who should ''occupy"? It cannot be recorded through exactly what agencies, but princi- 38 EARLY WOMANHOOD. pally the recommendation of the then President of Middlebury College, \'t., who had heard of some of her ingenious exploits, the position was tendered to her (1862). She was to be aided by a gentleman classical teacher, but the executive "management" was to be solely her own devising. It was a formid- able bid ! A young woman of twenty-seven to suc- ceed a masculine veteran. There were mutterings and queries in camp. "That fly-away? To be Princi- pal of Castleton Seminary? Were the Trustees crazy?" But above the clamor was heard the sane voice of the retiring master himself, declaring calmly : "She is equal to anything she herself consents to un- dertake." Again there was serious consultation among the home authorities. Her mother, a buoyant and sunny woman, was in sympathetic touch with the mettle of the "child", as she seemed to her, while her father, thoroughly understanding her ambition, gloried in her "nerve" ! She herself had tasted the "nectar and ambrosia" of the gods, viz., power to mould and lift others to higher aims in self-better- ment, and was not to be deterred from any task be- cause there were lions in the way. Therefore she girded on her armor of endeavor, and like a young Amazon took the field, audaciously but not recklessly, for she counted the cost of failure, setting it against the somewhat problematic chances of success — a delicate calculus, both integral and dif- ferential. She was followed to Castleton by a select contingent of Waldoboro pupils who would not con- sent to be left behind. Once decided, there was no EARLY WOMANHOOD. 39 "halt" in her steady ongoing. She soon captivated the boys by her ready repartee and her perfectly fear- less grapple with the situation. She was not afraid of any otie of them nor of all combined. They could not "get round" her. She "got round" them before they comprehended she had started on the "war path". They could not "catch her napping", for she was Argus-eyed; a "Scotland Yard" in toto — a secret serv- ice agent in "plain clothes" ! The following incident, one among many of like nature, may serve as an illustration. One tempestu- ous night, fearing leaks at top of the house, unat- tended, for she would never delegate what she con- sidered her responsibilities, to others, she made a tour of observation, "up garret". Having finished her in- spection, as she turned to leave she noticed a streak of light through an aperture in the loosely boarded floor. Fearing fire even more than water, she pro- ceeded to investigate, and found said opening to be directly over a narrow crack in the ceiling of the room below, through which crack she discovered playing cards being slapped down with most suspiciously scientific precision upon a table of which the center only was visible to her naked but sufficiently keen eye. No hands were in evidence as human agents in what seemed a very animate and yet inanimate game. Lo- cating the room, she made her noiseless way thither, to find transom carefully covered, key-hole dexter- ously stuffed, and door securely locked against pos- sible police intruders. At her imperative demand : "Open here," there was a smothered shuffling of 40 EARLY WOMANHOOD. something more substantial than cards upon a table — slippered feet, but not on "tufted floor'' ! Some hur- ried transformation scene was evidently in progress. After a suitable interval a hulking youth (a minister's son, by the way) with a face as innocent of evil as that of a Southdown sheep, appeared tardily in response to her repeated summons, and she was courteously and suavely invited to "walk in", which she proceeded to do with the stately tread of a dowager queen on court parade. Had Jeanne d'Arc with her conse- crated banner, or Boadicea with a shining helmet appeared on the scene, these "ignoble scions of worthy sires" could not have been more dismayed. But why? The aspect of afifairs was ideally acade- mic. No astronomic commission absorbed in calcu- lating conditions of life on the planet Mars could have been more seriously studential or more appro- priately environed for literary, scientific and classi- cal pursuits. A huge Latin lexicon was spread in- vitingly open at one corner of the Jiozv study, not card table. Euclid presented lines and angles both acute and obtuse on a most rumpled and disreputable page under the troubled eye of a very pre-occupied young mathematician. The Anabasis (Greek) was propped in commanding position, where the ace of spades had lately reposed, while a fourth unhappy youth seemed engaged, in frantic eflfort to vivisect a Browning or some other equally labored poem. Fol- lowing the stern demand: "I will take your cards, young gentlemen," was a silence that could be heard, as Miltonic darkness could be seen! Refusal was im- EARLY WOMANHOOD. 41 possible. She knew, and they knew she knew, but how? Surrender was meek, immediate and uncondi- tional, and Venus Victrix departed making no sign and speaking no further word. The next morning before Chapel Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," aforesaid hulking hero of the opening door appeared penitentially before the "Mistress of the Clause", humbly imploring her "not to write to father!" "I shall do nothing of the kind," she replied. "We will settle the matter ourselves, Howard," looking up at him with one of her rarest smiles. That boy was her sworn champion ever after. Not a word was spoken on the matter further, but card-playing in study hours became, if not ab- solutely "nil", a very minus quantity. She conquered by such winning methods that she challenged every inch of chivalry in the masculine brain. She was ambidextrous in the management of ^'relations" between the co-eds both in the house and on the open play-field, called campus. There were certain unwritten laws but no revolt-provoking code. "The girls" were persuaded to refinement of bearing, fascinated by her own freedom of manner and sweet reasonableness of requirement.. There was some- times a rather harmless and sporadic attempt at an escapade "just for the fun of the thing, you know!" But the beauty of all was that the fun came in at the swift and sure capture of the escapaders, a capture so adroit and sudden that it was rather satisfying to all concerned. "Suspense" was more often the "policy" than I EARLY WOMANHOOD. [uick retribution ; also silence more ominous than peech in the agonized waiting for what might be, )ut was so slow in coming. When she did speak, lowever, there was a blaze in the blue eye and a imbre in the tone that nobody cared to encounter he second time. Notwithstanding her bonhommie ;he was not to be trifled with. Her career of five years in Castleton braced her lerves, broadened her judgment, and steadied her uperabounding vitality. She was ivith her pupils md for them every one ; never of them, but above, erenely, securely, always, and her law was supreme )ver and beyond any rules of game or etiquette. As I botanist analyzes flowers she classified but also in- iividualized temperaments. She knew where to ;trike, but also how to glide — her finesse being like ace, variously patterned. The veterans who "came ;o see", or rather to query, grew soon satisfied as to ler "grasp" of situation, while young men and maidens all knew her as friend, counsellor and queen. Her reputation gradually became the state property Df Vermont, and it was to this fact that she owed her nvitation to the larger field, then rather vaguely ?•" S^^v ;» *■ y"- :1S1K Sl^'^^i^ *ig-^-^ '\ i»«« :m:?;-?^ '^■w 1 ^^^ >#<^jp#