The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-12-26

to come. At last we were quietly set.
tied down in Mrs. Livermore's own room
for the "talk" we had been so long prom.
Using ourselves. 1t wasa talk which, fol
lowing no law, glanced all over Mrs Liv-
ermore's life. The stately matron was
again a child, with Cops Hill Cemetery
for her playground, and without fear
of the quiet slecpers under her riotous
sport. She drew herself wild, impetu-
Gus, overlooking "tomboy" Of girl .brm-
ming with fun and mischief the strong,
native, vital forces in her bringing her
forever to grief, yet never permanently
checked; the champion Away Of the
poor and friendless and strange, un-
derlying sadness getting sometimes to
the surface through all the boisterous
mirth and mischief This woman was
evidently cut out on n grand pattern
from the beginning. The royal Hebrews
injunction of mot sparing the rod" was
faithfully observed in the training of the
eager, intense, tumultuous New England
girl. She was sent supperess to bed ;
she was deirauded of that browning treas
ure and delight Of childhood, Saturday
afternoon she was scolded at and urged
and she cried herself sick, or would if
any such thing had been possible to the
fibre that went to the making Of the stout,
robust little figure, and wished she was
dead, and then broke the cords which
held her prisoner in the chair, and,
mounting that, made it serve for pulpit
and preached to the walls, warning sin.
ners to "flee from the wrath to come"
while father and mother would stand
listening outside in amused bcwildermcnt
, at the child's passionate cloquence.
Sometimes, too, the old Baptist deacon
would look mournfully at his daughter,
and say, "If you had only been boy,
Mary, what u preacher in that case you
would have made | would certainly
have educated you for the ministry, and
what world Of good you might have
done :" But it never so much as enter
ed the Boston deacon's heart that this
strange, impulsive, fiery little soul, whose
sex he so keenly deplored, had her own
work to do in the world and would yet
hold vast masses breathless under the
power OF her logic the magic charm Of
her eoquence. But the years went on,
and the Boston deacons daughter grew
into girlhood and womanhood, with her
marvellous energy, with her keen, alert
mind, with her hungry greed of knowl.
edge, with her swift scorn Of sophistries,
but with the warm, generous heart,
little stcadied with the gathering years,
as swift and helpful now as in those old
days when it danced in Cops burying-
ground, and was the champion Of all the
poor, neglected children.
when we were married." said Mrs.
Livermore, with that humor whose cur
rent plays and sparkles through all the
carnestness Of her talk, "our capital con.
sisted Of books. [ did all my own work.
| cut and made my husbands coats and
pants. There is no kind Of housework
with which am not familiar. defy
anybody to rival me in that line. Ny
drawers, my closets, my whole house are
always free for inspection"
1t is marvellous, when you come to
think of it, the amount of mental and
physical strain which this women manages
to undergo. There is the constant wear
and tear of nerve and brain. For three
weeks at time, during the lecture sea-
son. she assures me she has not slept Oh n
bed, except such poor substitutes of one
as lounges on cars and steamboats, afford.
Even during the summer her engagements
are so numerous that the evening | pass
ed with her was the solitary one she could
command for the ensuing month. She
was to speak in few days in Clifton, n.
y, and to lecture beftre the graduating
class of the divinity school in Canton, this
being the first time in the history of
American institutions that such an honor
has been awarded to a woman. Add to
this her constant reading, her duties as
chief editress of the I'omans Journal,
the letters that must be answered, the
ocean Of manuscripts that must be waded
through. One cannot help sympathizing
with the sentiment of the distich which
she quoted to me as a sample of the avail.
anch Of thyme which poured down on the
lf0m0n'S JOarnU
",rt thou not tired my dear NJ A. L..
Working forever. So hart and - we'll
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