Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-26

splendid future.
Browsing over Mr.. Emerson's library,
found "Goethe's Correspondence With {
Child" and was at once fired with the de
sire to be second Bettine, making my
fathers friend my Goethe. So [ wrote
letters to him, but was wise enough neye,
to send them, left wild flowers on the door
step of my Master" sang Mignon's song in
very bad German under his window. and
was fond of wandering by moonlight OF
sitting in cherry tree at midnight till the
owls scared me to bed.
The girlish folly did not last long, and
the letters were burnt years ago, but
Goethe is still my favorite author, and
Emerson remained my beloved :" Master"
while he lived, doing more for me, as for
many another young soul, than he ever
knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the
truth and wisdom of his books, the ex-
ample of good, great man interrupted and
unspoiled by the world which he made
nobler when in it, and left the richer when
he went.
The trials of life began about this time,
and my happy childhood ended. Money
is never plentiful in philosophers house,
supply all our wants on the small income
which was freely shared with every needy
soul who asked for help.
Fugitive slaves were sheltered under our
root, and my first pupil was very black
George Washington, whom l taught to
write on the hearth with charcoal, his big
fingers finding pen and pencil unmanage-
able
Motherless girls seeking protection were
guarded among us; hungry travellers sent
on to our door to be fed and warmed. and
if the philosopher happened to own two
coats the best one went to needy brother
for those were practical Christians who
had the most perfect faith in Providence,
and never found it betrayed.
In those days the prophets were not
honored in their own land, and Concord
had not yet discovered her great men. 1t
was a sort of refuge for reformers of all
sorts whom the good natives regarded as
lunatics, harmless but amusing.
My father went away to hold his classes
and conversations, and we women folk be-
gan to feel that we also might do some
thing. So one gloomy November day we
decided to move TO Boston and try our fate
again after some years in the wilderness.
My fathers prospect was as promising
as a philosophers ever is in a money!
making world, my mothers friends offered
her good salary as their missionary to
the poor, and my sister and | hoped to
teach. 1t was an anxious council, and
always preferring action to discussion, |
took brisk run over the hill and then
settled down Cor "a good think" in NV
favorite retreat.
1t was an old cart-wheel, half hidden in
grass under the locusts, where / used to sit
to wrestle with my sums, and usually for
get them scribbling verses or fairy tales on
my slate instead. Perched on the hub
surveyed the prospect and found it rather
gloomy, with leafess trees, sere grass,
leaden sky and frosty air, but the hopeful
heart of fifteen beat warmly under the old
red shawl, visions of success gave the gray
clouds silvery lining, and said defantly,
as | shook my fist at fate embodied in
crow cawing dismally on the fence near
by
II s1iN do something by-and-by. Don't
care what, teach, sew, act. write, ANYTHING
to hell the family; and FL be rich and
famous and happy before l die, see if
won't p'
Startled by this audacious outburst, the
crow flew away, but the old wheel creaked
as If 1t began to turn at that moment,
stirred by the intense desire of an ambi-
tious girl to work for those she loved, and
find some reward when the duty was done.
| did not mind the omen then, and re-
turned to the house cold but resolute. [
think | haf-a,, TO ,,,,, 4. -.
and there, for when the free country life
ended the wild colt soon learned to tug in
harness, only breaking loose now and then
for taste of beloved liberty.
My sisters and | had cherished fine
dreams of a home in the city, but when we
found ourselves in small house at the
South End with not a tree in sight, only a
back yard to play in, and no money to buy
any of the splendors before us, we all re-
belled and longed for the country again.
Anna soon found little pupils, and
trudged away each morning to her daily
task, pausing at the corner to wave her
hand at me in answer TO my salute with
the buster. My father went to his classes
at his room down town, mother to her all
absorbing poor, the little girls to school,
and | was left to keep house, feeling like a
Gagged sea-gull as l washed dishes and
cooked in the basement kitchen where nv
prospect was limited to a procession of
muddy boots.
Good drill, but very hard, and my only
consolation was the evening reunion when
all met with such varied reports of the
days adventures, we could not fail to find
both amusement and instruction.
Father brought news from the upper
world, and the wise, good people who
adorned it; mother, usually much di-
lapidated because she wOuld give away her
clothes, with sad tales of suffering and sin
from the darker sides of life; gentle Anna
a modest account of her success as teacher,
for even at seventeen her sweet nature
won all who knew her, and her patience
quelled the most rebellIous pupil.
My reports were usually mixture of
the tragic and the comic, and the children
poured their small joys and woes into the
family bosom where comfort and sympathy
were always to be found.
Then We youngsters adjourned to the
kitchen for our fun, which usually con-
sisted of writing, dressing and acting a
series of remarkable plays. In one re-
member | took five parts and Anna four,
with lightning changes of costume, and
characters varying from Greek Prince in
silver armor to a murderer in chains.
1t was good training for memory and
fingers, for we recited pages without a
fault, and made every sort of property
from harp to fairy's spangled wings.
Later we acted Shakespeare, and Hamlet
was my favorite hero, played with gloomy
glare and a tragic stalk which have never
seen surpassed.
But we were now beginning to play our
parts on real stage, and to know some
thing of the pathetic side of life with its
hard facts, irksome duties, many tempta-
tions and the daily sacrifice of self. For
tunately we had the truest, tenderest OF
guides and guards, and so learned the
sweet uses of adversely, the value of hon
est work, the beautiful law of compensa.
ton which gives more than it takes and
the real significance of life.
At sixteen | began to, teach twenty pu-
pills, and for ten years learned to know and
love children. The story writing went on
all the while with the usual trials of be.
ginners. Fairy tales told the Emersons
made the first printed book, and Hospital
Sketches" the first successful one.
Every experience went into the caldror
to come out as froth, or evaporate in
smoke, till time and suffering strength
ened and clarified the mixture of truth
and faDcv opd u xrbolaeo,,,o J-o,ul. s..