e favor), but from my own sense of lagging far behind my duty.

For now the bright air, and the wholesome food, and the pleasure of
goodness around me, were making me grow, without knowledge or notice,
into a tall and not altogether to be overlooked young woman. I was
exceedingly shy about this, and blushed if any one spoke of it; but yet
in my heart I felt it was so; and how could I help it? And when people
said, as rough people will, and even Uncle Sam sometimes, "Handsome is
as handsome does," or "Beauty is only skin-deep," and so on, I made it
my duty not to be put out, but to bear it in mind and be thankful. And
though I had no idea of any such influence at the moment, I hope that
the grandeur of nature around and the lofty style of every thing
may have saved me from dwelling too much on myself, as Pennsylvania
Sylvester did.

Now the more I felt my grown-up age and health and buoyant vigor, the
surer I knew that the time was come for me to do some good with them;
not to benefit the world in general, in a large and scattery way (as
many young people set out to do, and never get any further), but to
right the wrong of my own house, and bring home justice to my own heart.
This may be thought a partial and paltry object to set out with; and
it is not for me to say otherwise. At the time, it occurred to me in no
other light except as my due business, and I never took any large view
at all. But even now I do believe (though not yet in pickle of wisdom)
that if every body, in its own little space and among its own little
movements, will only do and take nothing without pure taste of the salt
of justice, no reeking atrocity of national crimes could ever taint the
heaven.

Such questions, however, become me not. I have only to deal with very
little things, sometimes too slim to handle well, and too hazy to be
woven; and if they seem below my sense and dignity to treat of, I can
only say that they seemed very big at the time when I had to encounter
them.

For instance, what could be more important, in a little world of life,
than for Uncle Sam to be put out, and dare even to think ill of me?
Yet this he did; and it shows how shallow are all those theories of the
other sex which men are so pleased to indulge in. Scarcely any thing
could be more ridiculous from first to last, when calmly and truly
considered, than the firm belief which no power of reason could for the
time root out of him.

Uncle Sam, the dearest of all