e at each end, with an old rake
handle apiece to steer with. Up and down we went, slow when it was a
calm sea and fast when there was a storm, until the old hen clucked
and the chickens all ran in and we had a lively time. Frank was
captain and I was mate. We made out charts of the sea, rules about how
to navigate when it was good weather and how when it was bad. We put
up a sail made of an old sheet and had great fun, until I fell off and
hurt me."

So you see they must have had many daring adventures. Frances longed
for a horse to ride, but there was none the children could have. This
did not discourage her in the least. She wanted to ride and so she
decided to train their pet calf. The calf's name was Dime, and Frances
said, "Dime is an unusually smart calf, she can be trained so we can
ride her." So she proceeded to do it and the children rode Dime to
their hearts' content.

But all of their play was not out of doors. Mr. and Mrs. Willard had
brought with them from their old home many books, and the children
liked to spend hours reading in their library. The father and mother
taught them and encouraged them to study. Frances liked to write,
and, as she was a neat and orderly girl, she did not want her books
and papers disturbed. In her sister Mary's journal we read how she
managed to have her belongings untouched:

"Today Frank gave me half her dog Frisk that she bought lately, and
for her pay I made a promise which mother witnessed and here it is:

"I, Mary Willard, promise never to touch anything lying or being upon
Frank Willard's writing desk which father gave her. I promise never to
ask either by speaking, writing, or signing, or in any other way, any
person or body to take off or put on anything on said stand and desk
without special permission from said Frank Willard. I promise never to
touch anything which may be in something upon her stand and desk. I
promise never to put anything on it or in anything on it; I promise if
I am writing or doing anything else at her desk to go away the moment
she tells me to. If I break the promise I will let the said F. W. come
into my room and go to my trunk or go into any place where I keep my
things and take anything of mine she likes. All this I promise unless
entirely different arrangements are made. These things I promise upon
my most sacred honor."

As Frances grew older she longed to travel. She had a great desire to
take a large part in the work of the world; b