New England farmer; had had a good common school
education; and was expected to devote the rest of her life to the making
of butter and cheese, and to the other occupations carried on in a
farmer's family. Everything that she could do to aid her father and
mother she was willing and ready to perform, but she sighed for
knowledge; she had learned enough to wish to know more, and she felt
that there was that in her, which properly cultivated, might fit her for
something higher than the making of butter and cheese. Thus, when the
day's labor was ended, and the old people, as was their custom, had
retired early to rest, their dutiful daughter, her work for the day well
done, sought with delight her little chamber, and her beloved books, in
whose companionship she passed the hours always till midnight, and
sometimes till she was startled by the

"Cock's shrill clarion,"

and reminded that body and mind alike needed repose.

In her studies, and in the choice of her reading, she was guided by her
pastor; and a better guide, or one more willing to extend a helping hand
to the seeker for knowledge she could not have found. With such a
teacher, and with such an eager desire for improvement, she could not
fail to progress rapidly. On the death of her parents, both of whom she
followed to the grave in the course of one year, the kind pastor took
her to his own home; but not being willing to be even for a time a
burden to him, she immediately opened a small school in a village near
them. Now her kind pastor too was dead; and having heard that a teacher
was wanted in the village of Hillsdale, she had come there in hopes of
getting the situation. Here she was doomed to disappointment, the vacant
place having been supplied but a day or two before she reached the
village; and now, among entire strangers, heart-sick with
disappointment, and with no friend to turn to in her distress, she was
taken down with a fever. It was a kind-hearted woman, in whose house she
had rented a small room, and she nursed her as if she had been a
daughter, without hope of remuneration. As soon as she was sufficiently
recovered to think again of work, she began to inquire eagerly for
employment; and her landlady having directed her to Mr. Wharton, she had
taken that long walk from the village, while yet very feeble, which
resulted in the accomplishment of her wishes.

There had been a brother, she told Mr. Wharton, an only child besides
herself; but,