she was placed in the care of a wise and patient teacher from whom she quickly learned to read and write and even to speak after some time she entered college at cambridge from which she among the highest in her class she was not quite eleven years old when she wrote the following letter to the poet boston december dear kind poet this is your birthday that was the first thought which came into my mind when i awoke this morning and it made me glad to think i could write you a letter and tell you how much your little friends love their sweet poet and his birthday this evening they are going to entertain their friends with music and from your poems i hope the swift winged messengers of love will be here to carry some of the sweet melody to you in your little study by the at first i was sorry when i found that the sun had hidden his shining face behind dull clouds but afterwards i thought why he did it and then i was happy the sun knows that you like to see the world covered with beautiful white snow and so he kept back all his brightness and let the form in the sky when they are ready they will softly fall and tenderly cover every object then the sun will appear in all his radiance and fill the world with light if i were with you to day i would give you kisses one for each year you have lived years seems a very long time to me does it seem long to you i wonder how many years there will be in eternity i am afraid i cannot think about so much time i received the letter which you wrote me last summer and i thank you for it i am staying in boston now at the institution for the blind and i have not commenced my studies yet because my dearest friend mr wants me to rest and play a great deal teacher is well and sends her kindest remembrance to you the happy christmas time is almost here i can hardly wait for the fun to begin i hope your christmas day will be a very happy one and that the new year will be full of brightness and joy for you and every one from your little friend a the poet s reply my dear young friend i was very glad to have such a pleasant letter on my i had two or three hundred others and thine was one of the moat welcome of all i must tell thee about how the day was passed at oak of course the sun did not shine but we had great open fires in the rooms which were very sweet with roses and other flowers that were sent me from distant friends and fruits of all kinds from and other places some relatives and dear old friends were with me through the day i do not wonder thee thinks john g eighty three years a long time but it seems but a very httle while ance i was a boy no older than thee playing on the old farm at i thank thee for thy good wishes and wish thee as many i am glad thee is at the institution it is an excellent place give my best regards to miss and with a great deal of love i am thy old friend john g of war time t i boot and saddle boot saddle to horse and away rescue my castle before the hot day to blue from its silvery gray chorus � boot saddle to horse and away ride past the asleep as you d say many s the friend there will listen and pray god s luck to that strike up the lay � chorus � boot saddle to horse and away forty miles off like a at bay castle the array who laughs good fellows ere this by my � chorus � boot saddle to horse and away who my wife that honest and gay laughs when you talk of nay i ve better what counsel they chorus � boot saddle to horse and away imagine a company of knights or armed men riding to the rescue of a castle think of the arms the horses the gallant men � then read the poem with spirit the whole class joining in the chorus by robert an english poet the and the it was a old and gray well and from siege and went in an army s wake along the of the village for days and nights the winding host had through the little place been marching and ever loud the cheered till every throat was hoarse and the squire and farmer maid and dame all took the sight s electric stirring and hats were waved and songs were sung and countless white were stirring they only saw a gallant show of heroes under and in the fierce heroic glow twas theirs to yield but wild the heard the shrill where he behind in step was keeping and glancing down beside the road he saw a little maiden weeping well how is this v he said a moment pausing to regard her � by robert henry an american writer why thou my little friend and then she only cried the harder and how is this my little dear the sturdy straight repeated when all the village cheers us on you here in tears apart are seated we march two hundred thousand strong and that s a sight my baby beauty to silence into song and the soldier s duty it s very very grand i know the little maid soft replying and father mother brother too all shout while i am crying but think � mr soldier think � how many little sisters brothers are going far away to fight and may be killed 