Mower County transcript., 1890-10-08
MRS. STOVES CHILDHOOD.
She saw Visions. the Moving Creatures ol
-. = tho Vivid Imagination.

Sno saw Visions, th0 MOVING Creatures 0I
the Vivid Imagination.
1t was plain-looking little one, with
, thin face and large brown eyes, and
tangled curls Of brown hair, that soon
began to run around In the minister's
home at Litchfield. But her baby reign
continued only short time, for scarce
~ two years later Master Henry Ward
arrived upon the scene. Harriet was
naturally gentle and atectionate and
very quick to learn. She has said she
knew how to read as soon as she could
walk, and she was 50 observing that 1t
was common remark In the family:
'"That child Is all ear" Not so active
rs Catherine, the eldest Of the daugh.
ters, she was still far from indolent, but
was dreamy and ndimaginative, with nerv-
ous system that was quickly and deeply
impressed by all that she saw and
heard. In a word, her brain and nerv YES
were the sensitized plato on which
genius took pictures Of all life's move-
ments. So marked was this quality Of
impressionability in her that she always
lived, even long after childhood, a kind
Of double life, In which the moving
creatures thrown by imagination and
reflection from the vivid fancy and
nervous ideality Of her consciousness
moved like mirage before and around
her. in ever.returning processions
These familiar beings were just as real
to her as the people in the house; the
old white.headed man that played ON q
violin, the tall majestic woman who
wore high fur cap Of peculiar form
and danced to the old mans music
these shifting shapes seemed ever to
haunt certain scenes and to appear only
in connection with them. There, too,
was an image Of green meadow and .
calm lake, and coming from a grove on
one side Of it, tiny woman clothed
In white, with wide golden girdle
around her waist, followed by mis-
shapen dwarf. Regularly At night the
air around her bed seemed like that
which Raphael has shadowed forth
around his Madonna di San Sisto, pal
pitating crowd Of faces and forms chang
ing in dim and gliding quietude." The
reader of "Oldtown Folks" will recall,
too, that Horace Holyoke saw the shad-
owy figure OF sad lady standing among
tho overgreens, as they drove up to a
house wholly unknown to him, within
which they found the picture of the
same lady. That these apparitions were,
in some unexplained way, the reflex OF
her own sensitive and powerful imagi-
nation is seen in this, that they zap
peared to cause vibration OF the great
central nerves of the body, as
when harp-string is struck" Once
she began to tell of what she saw,
but was quickly shut up with: Non.
sense. child! there hasn't been any
body in the room. You shouldn't talk
so." Thus repressed, she ceased to
speak of these apparitions, but none the
less did she believe in them as daily
friends, whose presence had the effect
to inspire her with fearless confidence
in all things supernatural. For the
rest, she was . quiet amiable little
girl, but more inclined to outdoor
sports with her brothers than to thread
and needles or even to dolls, and she
was often needless and careless. This
last trait drew down upon her many q
disciplinary sorrow, especially from
Aunt Harriet who, having a tender
place in her heart for her small name
sake from the first, took hand in he,
education and training, often keeping
her for months at Nutplains.-Eleanol
P. Allen. in Lippincott's.