s for
travelling, and unable, as she supposed, to obtain a livelihood in a
far off country, she returned to Maine, and resigned herself with what
calmness she might, to the fate in store for her.

But Providence had not yet developed the great work to which she was
appointed, and though sorely tried, and buffeted, she was not to be
permitted to leave this mortal scene until the objects of her life were
fulfilled. Through resignation to death she was, perhaps, best prepared
to live, and even in that season when earth seemed receding from her
view, the wise purposes of the Ruler of all in her behalf were being
worked out in what seemed to be an accidental manner.

In the family of her cousin, Mr. Baxter, at Charlestown, Massachusetts,
there had been living, for two years, three Spanish boys from Costa
Rica, Central America. Mr. Baxter was an instructor of youth and they
were his pupils. About this period their father arrived to fetch home a
daughter who was at school in New York, and to inquire what progress
these boys were making in their studies. He applied to Mr. Baxter to
recommend some lady who would be willing to go to Costa Rica for two or
three years to instruct his daughters in the English language. Mr.
Baxter at once recommended Miss Bradley as a suitable person and as
willing and desirous to undertake the journey. The situation was offered
and accepted, and in November, 1853, she set sail for Costa Rica.

After remaining a short time with the Spanish family, she accepted a
proposition from the American Consul, and accompanied his family to San
Jose, the Capital, among the mountains, some seventy miles from Punta
Arenas, where she opened a school receiving as pupils, English, Spanish,
German, and American children. This was the first English school
established in Central America. For three months she taught from a
blackboard, and at the end of that time received from New York, books,
maps, and all the needful apparatus for a permanent school.

This school she taught with success for three years. At the end of that
time learning that the health of her father, then eighty-three years of
age, was rapidly declining, and that he was unwilling to die without
seeing her, she disposed of the property and "good-will" of her school,
and as soon as possible bade adieu to Costa Rica. She reached home on
the 1st of June, 1857, after an absence of nearly four years. Her
father, however, survived for several months.

Her