they soon learned to love her for her own
sake. She early began to manifest among them that wonderful sympathy,
which made her presence like sunshine in sick rooms and in the house of
mourning, and, in later years, endeared her through her writings to so
many hearts. While her natural shyness and reserve caused her to shrink
from everything like publicity, and even from that leadership in the
more private activities of the church which properly belonged to her sex
and station, any kind of trouble instantly aroused and called into play
all her energies. The sickness and death of little children wrought upon
her with singular power; and, in ministering aid and comfort to bereaved
mothers, she seemed like one specially anointed of the Lord for this
gentle office. Now, after the lapse of more than a third of a century,
there are those in New Bedford and its vicinity who bless her memory, as
they recall scenes of sharp affliction cheered by her presence and her
loving sympathy.

The following reminiscences by one of her New Bedford friends, written
not long after her death, belong here:

Oh, that I had the pen of a ready writer! How gladly would I depict her
just as she came to New Bedford, a youthful bride and our pastor's wife,
more than a third of a century ago! My remembrances of her are still
fresh and delightful; but they have been for so many years _silent_
memories that I feel quite unable fully to express them. And yet I will
try to give you a few simple details. Several things strike me as I
recall her in those days. Our early experiences in the struggle of life
had been somewhat similar and this drew us near to each other. She was
naturally very shy and in the presence of strangers, or of
uncongenial persons, her reserve was almost painful; but with her
friends--especially those of her own sex--all this vanished and she was
full of animated talk. Her conversation abounded in bright, pointed
sayings, in fine little touches of humor, in amusing anecdotes and
incidents of her own experience, which she related with astonishing ease
and fluency, sometimes also in downright girlish fun and drollery; and
all was rendered doubly attractive by her low, sweet woman's voice and
her merry, fitful laugh. Yet these things were but the sparkle of a very
deep and serious nature. Even then her religious character was to me
wonderful. She seemed always to know just what was prompting her,
whether, nature or grace; and her percepti