ssional
circles the more stately name of Mrs. Edwards's School for Young
Ladies. Two day-scholars, as a marked favor to their parents, were
admitted with the boarders elect; and of these two I was one. If
I remember correctly, Professor Park and my father were among the
advisers whose opinions had weight with the selection of our course
of study, and I often wonder how, with their rather feudal views of
women, these two wise men of Andover managed to approve so broad a
curriculum.

Possibly the quiet and modest learned lady, our principal, had ideas
of her own which no one could have suspected her of obtruding against
the current of her times and environment; like other strong and
gentle women she may have had her "way" when nobody thought so. At
all events, we were taught wisely and well, in directions to which the
fashionable girls' schools of the day did not lift an eye-lash.

I was an out-of-door girl, always into every little mischief of snow
or rainfall, flower, field, or woods or ice; but in spite of skates
and sleds and tramps and all the west winds from Wachusett that blew
through me, soul and body, I was not strong; and my father found it
necessary to oversee my methods of studying. Incidentally, I think, he
influenced the choice of some of our text-books, and I remember that,
with the exception of Greek and trigonometry--thought, in those days,
to be beyond the scope of the feminine intellect--we pursued the same
curriculum that our brothers did at college. In some cases we had
teachers who were then, or afterwards, college professors in their
specialties; in all departments I think we were faithfully taught, and
that our tastes and abilities were electively recognized.

I was not allowed, I remember, to inflict my musical talents upon the
piano for more than one hour a day; my father taking the ground that,
as there was only so much of a girl, if she had not unusual musical
gift and had less than usual physical vigor, she had better give the
best of herself to her studies. I have often blessed him for this
daring individualism; for, while the school "practice" went on about
me, in the ordinary way, so many precious hours out of a day that
was all too short for better things--I was learning my lessons quite
comfortably, and getting plenty of fresh air and exercise between
whiles.

I hasten to say that I was not at all a remarkable scholar. I
cherished a taste for standing near the top of the class, somew