o represent me; my vote rests upon my property.'

"Have you not read a story, of late, in the newspapers, about some
excellent women in a little town in Connecticut whose pet heifers were
taken by force and sold because they refused to pay the large taxes
levied upon them by their townsmen, they being the largest holders of
property in the town? That circumstance could not have happened in
barbarous Russia; there, the owner of property has a right to say how it
shall be used.

"'Why do you ask me about our government?' I said to the Russian girls.
'Are you interested in questions of government?' They replied, 'All
Russian women are interested in questions of that sort.' How many
American women are interested in questions concerning government?

"These young girls knew exactly what questions to ask about Vassar
College,--the course of study, the diploma, the number of graduates,
etc. The eldest said: 'We are at once excited when we hear of women
studying; we have longed for opportunities to study all our lives. Our
father was the engineer of the first Russian railroad, and he spent two
years in America."

"I confess to a feeling of mortification when one of these girls asked
me, 'Did you ever read the translation of a Russian book?' and I was
obliged to answer 'No.' This girl had read American books in the
original. They were talking Russian, French, German, and English, and
yet mourning over their need of education; and in general education,
especially in that of women, I think we must be in advance of them.

"One of these sisters, forgetting my ignorance, said something to me in
Russian. The other laughed. 'What did she say?' I asked. The eldest
replied, 'She asked you to take her back with you, and educate her.'
'But,' I said, 'you read and speak your languages--the learning of the
world is open to you--found your own college!' And the young girl leaned
back on the cushions, drew her mantle around her, and said, 'We have not
the energy of the American girl!'

"The energy of the American girl! The rich inheritance which has come
down to her from men and women who sought, in the New World, a better
and higher life.

"When the American girl carries her energy into the great questions of
humanity, into the practical problems of life; when she takes home to
her heart the interests of education, of government, and of religion,
what may we not hope for our country!

London, 1873. "It was the 26th of August, and I ha