d four vigorous children; there had been no lack of
calomel, and now, when death again threatened, she resolved to conduct
the defense on some new plan.

She had gained legal possession of our village home, and moved to it.
Our lot was large and well supplied with choice fruit, and the place
seemed a paradise after our starved lives in the smoky city. My apple
tree still grew at the east end of the house. There was a willow tree
mother had planted, which now swept the ground with its long, graceful
branches. There were quantities of rose and lilac bushes, a walled
spring of delicious water in the cellar, and a whole world of wealth;
but the potato lot looked up in despair--a patch of yellow clay. Mother
put a twelve years' accumulation of coal ashes on it, and thus proved
them valuable both as a fertilizer and a preventive of potato-rot,
though at first her project met general opposition.

William did the heavy work and was proud of it. He was in splendid
health, for his insubordination had, from a very early age, saved him
from drugging either mental or physical. The lighter gardening became
part of my treatment for consumption. By having me each day lie on the
floor on my back without a pillow, and gentle use of dumb-bells, mother
straightened my spine and developed my chest--my clothes being carefully
adapted to its expansion. Dancing was strictly forbidden by our church,
but mother was educated in Ireland and danced beautifully. She had a
class of girls and taught us, and with plenty of fresh air, milk and
eggs, effectually disposed of hereditary consumption in her family. But
while attending to us, she must also make a living, so she bought a
stock of goods on credit, opened a store, and soon had a paying
business. In this I was her special assistant. But the work supplied to
William did not satisfy the holy men of the church, who furnished us
advice. He still made fire engines, and a brook in a meadow presented
irresistible temptation to water-wheels and machinery. One of his
tilt-hammers made a very good ghost, haunting the meadow and keeping off
trespassers. He had a foundry, where he cast miniature cannon, kettles
and curious things, and his rifle-practice was a neighborhood wonder. He
brought water from the cellar, and did other chores which Pennsylvania
rules assigned to women, and when boys ridiculed him, he flogged them,
and did it quite as effectually as he rendered them the same service
when they were ru