diff --git "a/data/test/33756.txt" "b/data/test/33756.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/data/test/33756.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,5772 @@ + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Caroline Cowles Richards (From a daguerreotype taken +in 1860)] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA + +1852-1872 + +INCLUDING THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR + +AS TOLD IN THE DIARY OF A SCHOOL-GIRL + +By + +CAROLINE COWLES RICHARDS + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY + +MARGARET E. SANGSTER + +NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION + +NEW YORK + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +1913 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Copyright, 1908, by CAROLINE RICHARDS CLARKE + +Copyright, 1913, by HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS + +RAHWAY, N. J. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +To My dear brothers, JAMES AND JOHN, who, by precept and example, have +encouraged me, and to my beloved sister, ANNA, whose faith and affection +have been my chief inspiration, this little volume is lovingly +inscribed. + +Naples, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + Introduction, by Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster ix + The Villages xiii + The Villagers xiv + 1852.--Family Notes--Famous School--Girls--Hoop Skirts 1 + 1853.--Runaways--Bible Study--Essays--Catechism 10 + 1854.--Lake Picnic--Pyramid of Beauty--Governor Clark 20 + 1855.--Preachers--James and John--Votes for Women 43 + 1856.--the Fire--Sleighing and Prayer--Father's Advice 52 + 1857.--Truants and Pickles--Candle Stories--the Snuffers 77 + 1858.--Tableaux and Charades--Spiritual Seance 95 + 1859.--E. M. Morse--Letter from the North Pole 106 + 1860.--Gymnastics--Troublesome Comforts 118 + 1861.--President Lincoln's Inauguration--Civil War--School + Enthusiasm 130 + 1862.--Gough Lectures--President's Call for Three Hundred + Thousand Men--Mission Zeal 138 + 1863.--A Soldier's Death--General M'Clellan's Letter--President + Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg 148 + 1864.--Grandfather Beals' Death--Anna Graduates 162 + 1865.--President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address--Fall of + Richmond--Murder of Lincoln 176 + 1866.--Freedman's Fair--General Grant and Admiral Farragut + Visit Canandaigua 200 + 1867.--Brother John and Wife Go to London--Lecture by + Charles Dickens 208 + 1871.--Hon. George H. Stuart Speaks in Canandaigua--A Large + Collection 210 + 1872.--Grandmother Beals' Death--Biography 211 + 1880.--Anna's Marriage 225 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + Caroline Cowles Richards Frontispiece + FACING PAGE + Grandfather Beals 8 + Grandmother Beals 8 + Mr. Noah T. Clarke 30 + Miss Upham 30 + First Congregational Church 38 + Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D. 54 + Judge Henry W. Taylor 54 + Miss Zilpha Clark 54 + "Frankie Richardson" 54 + Horace Finley 54 + Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone 66 + "Uncle David Dudley Field" 66 + Grandmother's Rocking Chair 88 + The Grandfather Clock 88 + Hon. Francis Granger 100 + Mr. Gideon Granger 100 + The Old Canandaicua Academy 124 + The Ontario Female Seminary 132 + "Old Friend Burling" 138 + Madame Anna Bishop 138 + "Abbie Clark and I Had Our Ambrotypes Taken To-day" 152 + "Mr. Noah T. Clarke's Brother and I" 152 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +PUBLISHERS' NOTE + +After this book was in type, on March 29, 1913, the author, Mrs. +Caroline Richards Clarke, died at Naples, New York. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +INTRODUCTION + +The Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards fell into my hands, so to speak, +out of space. I had no previous acquaintance with the author, and I sat +down to read the book one evening in no especial mood of anticipation. +From the first page to the last my attention was riveted. To call it +fascinating barely expresses the quality of the charm. Caroline Richards +and her sister Anna, having early lost their mother, were sent to the +home of her parents in Canandaigua, New York, where they were brought up +in the simplicity and sweetness of a refined household, amid Puritan +traditions. The children were allowed to grow as plants do, absorbing +vitality from the atmosphere around them. Whatever there was of gracious +formality in the manners of aristocratic people of the period, came to +them as their birthright, while the spirit of the truest democracy +pervaded their home. Of this Diary it is not too much to say that it is +a revelation of childhood in ideal conditions. + +The Diary begins in 1852, and is continued until 1872. Those of us who +lived in the latter half of the nineteenth century recall the swift +transitions, the rapid march of science and various changes in social +customs, and as we meet allusions to these in the leaves of the girl's +Diary we live our past over again with peculiar pleasure. + +Far more has been told us concerning the South during the Civil War than +concerning the North. Fiction has found the North a less romantic field, +and the South has been chosen as the background of many a stirring +novel, while only here and there has an author been found who has known +the deep-hearted loyalty of the Northern States and woven the story into +narrative form. The girl who grew up in Canandaigua was intensely +patriotic, and from day to day vividly chronicled what she saw, felt, +and heard. Her Diary is a faithful record of impressions of that stormy +time in which the nation underwent a baptism of fire. The realism of her +paragraphs is unsurpassed. + +Beyond the personal claim of the Diary and the certainty to give +pleasure to a host of readers, the author appeals to Americans in +general because of her family and her friends. Her father and +grandfather were Presbyterian ministers. Her Grandfather Richards was +for twenty years President of Auburn Theological Seminary. Her brother, +John Morgan Richards of London, has recently given to the world the Life +and Letters of his gifted and lamented daughter, Pearl Mary-Terese +Craigie, known best as John Oliver Hobbes. The famous Field brothers and +their father, Rev. David Dudley Field, and their nephew, Justice David +J. Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, were her kinsmen. Miss +Hannah Upham, a distinguished teacher mentioned in the Diary, belongs to +the group of American women to whom we owe the initiative of what we now +choose to call the higher education of the sex. She, in common with Mary +Lyon, Emma Willard, and Eliza Bayliss Wheaton, gave a forward impulse to +the liberal education of women, and our privilege is to keep their +memory green. They are to be remembered by what they have done and by +the tender reminiscences found here and there like pressed flowers in a +herbarium, in such pages as these. + +Miss Richards' marriage to Mr. Edmund C. Clarke occurred in 1866. Mr. +Clarke is a veteran of the Civil War and a Commander in the Grand Army +of the Republic. His brother, Noah T. Clarke, was the Principal of +Canandaigua Academy for the long term of forty years. The dignified, +amusing and remarkable personages who were Mrs. Clarke's contemporaries, +teachers, or friends are pictured in her Diary just as they were, so +that we meet them on the street, in the drawing-room, in church, at +prayer-meeting, anywhere and everywhere, and grasp their hands as if we, +too, were in their presence. + +Wherever this little book shall go it will carry good cheer. Fun and +humor sparkle through the story of this childhood and girlhood so that +the reader will be cheated of ennui, and the sallies of the little +sister will provoke mirth and laughter to brighten dull days. I have +read thousands of books. I have never read one which has given me more +delight than this. + + Margaret E. Sangster. + +Glen Ridge, New Jersey, +June, 1911. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE VILLAGES + +CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful village, the county seat of Ontario +County, situated at the foot of Canandaigua Lake, which is called "the +gem of the inland lakes" of Western New York, about 325 miles from New +York city. + +NAPLES, NEW YORK.--A small village at the head of Canandaigua Lake, +famous for its vine-clad hills and unrivaled scenery. + +GENEVA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful town about 16 miles from Canandaigua. + +EAST BLOOMFIELD, NEW YORK.--An ideal farming region and suburban village +about 8 miles from Canandaigua. + +PENN YAN, NEW YORK.--The county seat of Yates County, a grape center +upon beautiful Lake Keuka. + +ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.--A nourishing manufacturing city, growing rapidly, +less than 30 miles from Canandaigua, and 120 miles from Niagara Falls. + +AUBURN, NEW YORK.--Noted for its Theological Seminary, nearly one +hundred years old, and for being the home of William H. Seward and other +American Statesmen. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE VILLAGERS + + Mr. and Mrs. THOMAS BEALS, Grandfather and Grandmother + + CAROLINE and ANNA Grandchildren of Mr. and + JAMES and JOHN RICHARDS Mrs. Beals + + "AUNT ANN" + "AUNT MARY" CARR Sons and daughters of + "AUNT GLORIANNA" Mr. and Mrs. Beals + "UNCLE HENRY" + "UNCLE THOMAS" + + Rev. O. E. DAGGETT, D.D. Pastor of Canandaigua Congregational + Church + + NOAH T. CLARKE Principal Canandaigua Academy for Boys + + Hon. FRANCIS GRANGER Postmaster-General, U.S.A. + + General JOHN A. GRANGER Of New York State Militia + + GIDEON GRANGER Son of Hon. Francis + + ALBERT GRANGER Son of General Granger + + JOHN GREIG Wealthy Scotsman long time resident + of Canandaigua + + MYRON H. CLARK Governor, State of New York + + JUDGE H. W. TAYLOR Prominent lawyer and jurist + + E. M. MORSE A leading lawyer in Canandaigua + + Miss ZILPHA CLARKE School teacher of note + + Miss CAROLINE CHESEBRO Well-known writers + Mrs. GEORGE WILLSON + + Miss HANNAH UPHAM Eminent instructress and lady principal + of Ontario Female Seminary + + Mr. FRED THOMPSON Prominent resident, married Miss + Mary Clark, daughter of Governor + Myron H. Clark. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +School Boys + + WILLIAM T. SCHLEY + HORACE M. FINLEY + ALBERT MURRAY + S. GURNEY LAPHAM Residing with parents in + CHARLES COY Canandaigua + ELLSWORTH DAGGETT + CHARLIE PADDOCK + MERRITT C. WILLCOX + + WILLIAM H. ADAMS Law Students + GEORGE N. WILLIAMS + + WILLIS P. FISKE Teachers in Academy + EDMUND C. CLARKE + +School Girls + + LOUISA FIELD + MARY WHEELER + EMMA WHEELER + LAURA CHAPIN + JULIA PHELPS + MARY PAUL + BESSIE SEYMOUR + LUCILLA FIELD + MARY FIELD + ABBIE CLARK + SUSIE DAGGETT Residing with parents in + FRANKIE RICHARDSON Canandaigua + FANNY GAYLORD + MARY COY + HELEN COY + HATTIE PADDOCK + SARAH ANTES + LOTTIE LAPHAM + CLARA WILSON + FANNIE PALMER + RITIE TYLER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA + + + + +1852 + Canandaigua, N. Y. + +_November_ 21, 1852.--I am ten years old to-day, and I think I will +write a journal and tell who I am and what I am doing. I have lived with +my Grandfather and Grandmother Beals ever since I was seven years old, +and Anna, too, since she was four. Our brothers, James and John, came +too, but they are at East Bloomfield at Mr. Stephen Clark's Academy. +Miss Laura Clark of Naples is their teacher. + +Anna and I go to school at District No. 11. Mr. James C. Cross is our +teacher, and some of the scholars say he is cross by name and cross by +nature, but I like him. He gave me a book by the name of "Noble Deeds of +American Women," for reward of merit, in my reading class. To-day, a +nice old gentleman, by the name of Mr. William Wood, visited our school. +He is Mrs. Nat Gorham's uncle, and Wood Street is named for him. He had +a beautiful pear in his hand and said he would give it to the boy or +girl who could spell "virgaloo," for that was the name of the pear. I +spelt it that way, but it was not right. A little boy, named William +Schley, spelt it right and he got the pear. I wish I had, but I can't +even remember now how he spelt it. If the pear was as hard as the name I +don't believe any one would want it, but I don't see how they happened +to give such a hard name to such a nice pear. Grandfather says perhaps +Mr. Wood will bring in a Seckle pear some day, so I had better be ready +for him. + +Grandmother told us such a nice story to-day I am going to write it down +in my journal. I think I shall write a book some day. Miss Caroline +Chesebro did, and I don't see why I can't. If I do, I shall put this +story in it. It is a true story and better than any I found in three +story books Grandmother gave us to read this week, "Peep of Day," "Line +Upon Line," and "Precept Upon Precept," but this story was better than +them all. One night Grandfather was locking the front door at nine +o'clock and he heard a queer sound, like a baby crying. So he unlocked +the door and found a bandbox on the stoop, and the cry seemed to come +from inside of it. So he took it up and brought it into the dining-room +and called the two girls, who had just gone upstairs to bed. They came +right down and opened the box, and there was a poor little girl baby, +crying as hard as could be. They took it out and rocked it and sung to +it and got some milk and fed it and then sat up all night with it, by +the fire. There was a paper pinned on the baby's dress with her name on +it, "Lily T. LaMott," and a piece of poetry called "Pity the Poor +Orphan." The next morning, Grandfather went to the overseer of the poor +and he said it should be taken to the county house, so our hired man got +the horse and buggy, and one of the girls carried the baby and they took +it away. There was a piece in the paper about it, and Grandmother pasted +it into her "Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises," and showed it to us. +It said, "A Deposit After Banking Hours." "Two suspicious looking +females were seen about town in the afternoon, one of them carrying an +infant. They took a train early in the morning without the child. They +probably secreted themselves in Mr. Beals' yard and if he had not taken +the box in they would have carried it somewhere else." When Grandfather +told the clerks in the bank about it next morning, Mr. Bunnell, who +lives over by Mr. Daggett's, on the park, said, if it had been left at +some people's houses it would not have been sent away. Grandmother says +they heard that the baby was adopted afterwards by some nice people in +Geneva. People must think this is a nice place for children, for they +had eleven of their own before we came. Mrs. McCoe was here to call this +afternoon and she looked at us and said: "It must be a great +responsibility, Mrs. Beals." Grandmother said she thought "her strength +would be equal to her day." That is one of her favorite verses. She said +Mrs. McCoe never had any children of her own and perhaps that is the +reason she looks so sad at us. Perhaps some one will leave a bandbox and +a baby at her door some dark night. + +_Saturday._--Our brother John drove over from East Bloomfield to-day to +see us and brought Julia Smedley with him, who is just my age. John +lives at Mr. Ferdinand Beebe's and goes to school and Julia is Mr. +Beebe's niece. They make quantities of maple sugar out there and they +brought us a dozen little cakes. They were splendid. I offered John one +and he said he would rather throw it over the fence than to eat it. I +can't understand that. Anna had the faceache to-day and I told her that +I would be the doctor and make her a ginger poultice. I thought I did it +exactly right but when I put it on her face she shivered and said: +"Carrie, you make lovely poultices only they are so cold." I suppose I +ought to have warmed it. + +_Tuesday._--Grandfather took us to ride this afternoon and let us ask +Bessie Seymour to go with us. We rode on the plank road to Chapinville +and had to pay 2 cents at the toll gate, both ways. We met a good many +people and Grandfather bowed to them and said, "How do you do, +neighbor?" + +We asked him what their names were and he said he did not know. We went +to see Mr. Munson, who runs the mill at Chapinville. He took us through +the mill and let us get weighed and took us over to his house and out +into the barn-yard to see the pigs and chickens and we also saw a colt +which was one day old. Anna just wrote in her journal that "it was a +very amusing site." + +_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Kendall, of East Bloomfield, preached to-day. His +text was from Job 26, 14: "Lo these are parts of his ways, but how +little a portion is heard of him." I could not make out what he meant. +He is James' and John's minister. + +_Wednesday._--Captain Menteith was at our house to dinner to-day and he +tried to make Anna and me laugh by snapping his snuff-box under the +table. He is a very jolly man, I think. + +_Thursday._--Father and Uncle Edward Richards came to see us yesterday +and took us down to Mr. Corson's store and told us we could have +anything we wanted. So we asked for several kinds of candy, stick candy +and lemon drops and bulls' eyes, and then they got us two rubber balls +and two jumping ropes with handles and two hoops and sticks to roll them +with and two red carnelian rings and two bracelets. We enjoyed getting +them very much, and expect to have lots of fun. They went out to East +Bloomfield to see James and John, and father is going to take them to +New Orleans. We hate to have them go. + +_Friday._--We asked Grandmother if we could have some hoop skirts like +the seminary girls and she said no, we were not old enough. When we were +downtown Anna bought a reed for 10 cents and ran it into the hem of her +underskirt and says she is going to wear it to school to-morrow. I think +Grandmother will laugh out loud for once, when she sees it, but I don't +think Anna will wear it to school or anywhere else. She wouldn't want to +if she knew how terrible it looked. + +I threaded a dozen needles on a spool of thread for Grandmother, before +I went to school, so that she could slip them along and use them as she +needed them. She says it is a great help. + +Grandmother says I will have a great deal to answer for, because Anna +looks up to me so and tries to do everything that I do and thinks +whatever I say is "gospel truth." The other day the girls at school were +disputing with her about something and she said, "It is so, if it ain't +so, for Calline said so." I shall have to "toe the mark," as Grandfather +says, if she keeps watch of me all the time and walks in my footsteps. + +We asked Grandmother this evening if we could sit out in the kitchen +with Bridget and Hannah and the hired man, Thomas Holleran. She said we +could take turns and each stay ten minutes by the clock. It gave us a +little change. I read once that "variety is the spice of life." They sit +around the table and each one has a candle, and Thomas reads aloud to +the girls while they sew. He and Bridget are Catholics, but Hannah is a +member of our Church. The girls have lived here always, I think, but I +don't know for sure, as I have not lived here always myself, but we have +to get a new hired man sometimes. Grandmother says if you are as good to +your girls as you are to yourself they will stay a long time. I am sure +that is Grandmother's rule. Mrs. McCarty, who lives on Brook Street +(some people call it Cat Alley but Grandmother says that is not proper), +washes for us Mondays, and Grandmother always has a lunch for her at +eleven o'clock and goes out herself to see that she sits down and eats +it. Mrs. McCarty told us Monday that Mrs. Brockle's niece was dead, who +lives next door to her. Grandmother sent us over with some things for +their comfort and told us to say that we were sorry they were in +trouble. We went and when we came back Anna told Grandmother that I +said, "Never mind, Mrs. Brockle, some day we will all be dead." I am +sure that I said something better than that. + +_Wednesday_.--Mr. Cross had us speak pieces to-day. He calls our names, +and we walk on to the platform and toe the mark and make a bow and say +what we have got to say. He did not know what our pieces were going to +be and some of them said the same ones. Two boys spoke: "The boy stood +on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled." William Schley was +one, and he spoke his the best. When he said, "The flames that lit the +battle wreck shone round him o'er the dead," we could almost see the +fire, and when he said, "My father, must I stay?" we felt like telling +him, no, he needn't. He is going to make a good speaker. Mr. Cross said +so. Albert Murray spoke "Excelsior," and Horace Finley spoke nice, too. +My piece was, "Why, Phoebe, are you come so soon? Where are your +berries, child?" Emma Van Arsdale spoke the same one. We find them all +in our reader. Sometime I am going to speak, "How does the water come +down at Ladore?" Splashing and flashing and dashing and clashing and all +that--it rhymes, so it is easy to remember. + +We played snap the whip at recess to-day and I was on the end and was +snapped off against the fence. It hurt me so, that Anna cried. It is not +a very good game for girls, especially for the one on the end. + +[Illustration: Grandfather Beals, Grandmother Beals] + +_Tuesday._--I could not keep a journal for two weeks, because +Grandfather and Grandmother have been very sick and we were afraid +something dreadful was going to happen. We are so glad that they are +well again. Grandmother was sick upstairs and Grandfather in the bedroom +downstairs, and we carried messages back and forth for them. Dr. Carr +and Aunt Mary came over twice every day and said they had the influenza +and the inflammation of the lungs. It was lonesome for us to sit down to +the table and just have Hannah wait on us. We did not have any blessing +because there was no one to ask it. Anna said she could, but I was +afraid she would not say it right, so I told her she needn't. We had +such lumps in our throats we could not eat much and we cried ourselves +to sleep two or three nights. Aunt Ann Field took us home with her one +afternoon to stay all night. We liked the idea and Mary and Louisa and +Anna and I planned what we would play in the evening, but just as it was +dark our hired man, Patrick McCarty, drove over after us. He said +Grandfather and Grandmother could not get to sleep till they saw the +children and bid them good-night. So we rode home with him. We never +stayed anywhere away from home all night that we can remember. When +Grandmother came downstairs the first time she was too weak to walk, so +she sat on each step till she got down. When Grandfather saw her, he +smiled and said to us: "When she will, she will, you may depend on't; +and when she won't she won't, and that's the end on't." But we knew all +the time that he was very glad to see her. + + + + +1853 + + +_Sunday, March 20._--It snowed so, that we could not go to church to-day +and it was the longest day I ever spent. The only excitement was seeing +the snowplow drawn by two horses, go up on this side of the street and +down on the other. Grandfather put on his long cloak with a cape, which +he wears in real cold weather, and went. We wanted to pull some long +stockings over our shoes and go too but Grandmother did not think it was +best. She gave us the "Dairyman's Daughter" and "Jane the Young +Cottager," by Leigh Richmond, to read. I don't see how they happened to +be so awfully good. Anna says they died of "early piety," but she did +not say it very loud. Grandmother said she would give me 10 cents if I +would learn the verses in the New England Primer that John Rogers left +for his wife and nine small children and one at the breast, when he was +burned at the stake, at Smithfield, England, in 1555. One verse is, "I +leave you here a little book for you to look upon that you may see your +father's face when he is dead and gone." It is a very long piece but I +got it. Grandmother says "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the +church." Anna learned + + "In Adam's fall we sinned all. + My Book and heart shall never part. + The Cat doth play and after slay. + The Dog doth bite a thief at night." + +When she came to the end of it and said, + + "Zaccheus he, did climb a tree, his Lord to see." + +she said she heard some one say, "The tree broke down and let him fall +and he did not see his Lord at all." Grandmother said it was very wicked +indeed and she hoped Anna would try and forget it. + +_April 1._--Grandmother sent me up into the little chamber to-day to +straighten things and get the room ready to be cleaned. I found a little +book called "Child's Pilgrim Progress, Illustrated," that I had never +seen before. I got as far as Giant Despair when Anna came up and said +Grandmother sent her to see what I was doing, and she went back and told +her that I was sitting on the floor in the midst of books and papers and +was so absorbed in "Pilgrim's Progress" that I had made none myself. It +must be a good book for Grandmother did not say a word. Father sent us +"Gulliver's Travels" and there is a gilt picture on the green cover, of +a giant with legs astride and little Lilliputians standing underneath, +who do not come up to his knees. Grandmother did not like the picture, +so she pasted a piece of pink calico over it, so we could only see the +giant from his waist up. I love the story of Cinderella and the poem, +"'Twas the night before Christmas," and I am sorry that there are no +fairies and no Santa Claus. + +We go to school to Miss Zilpha Clark in her own house on Gibson Street. +Other girls who go are Laura Chapin, Julia Phelps, Mary Paul, Bessie +Seymour, Lucilla and Mary Field, Louisa Benjamin, Nannie Corson, Kittie +Marshall, Abbie Clark and several other girls. I like Abbie Clark the +best of all the girls in school excepting of course my sister Anna. + +Before I go to school every morning I read three chapters in the Bible. +I read three every day and five on Sunday and that takes me through the +Bible in a year. Those I read this morning were the first, second and +third chapters of Job. The first was about Eliphaz reproveth Job; +second, Benefit of God's correction; third, Job justifieth his +complaint. I then learned a text to say at school. I went to school at +quarter to nine and recited my text and we had prayers and then +proceeded with the business of the day. Just before school was out, we +recited in "Science of Things Familiar," and in Dictionary, and then we +had calisthenics. + +We go through a great many figures and sing "A Life on the Ocean Wave," +"What Fairy-like Music Steals Over the Sea," "Lightly Row, Lightly Row, +O'er the Glassy Waves We Go," and "O Come, Come Away," and other songs. +Mrs. Judge Taylor wrote one song on purpose for us. + +_May 1._--I arose this morning about the usual time and read my three +chapters in the Bible and had time for a walk in the garden before +breakfast. The polyanthuses are just beginning to blossom and they +border all the walk up and down the garden. I went to school at quarter +of nine, but did not get along very well because we played too much. We +had two new scholars to-day, Miss Archibald and Miss Andrews, the former +about seventeen and the latter about fifteen. In the afternoon old Mrs. +Kinney made us a visit, but she did not stay very long. In dictionary +class I got up sixth, although I had not studied my lesson very much. + +_July._--Hiram Goodrich, who lives at Mr. Myron H. Clark's, and George +and Wirt Wheeler ran away on Sunday to seek their fortunes. When they +did not come back every one was frightened and started out to find them. +They set out right after Sunday School, taking their pennies which had +been given them for the contribution, and were gone several days. They +were finally found at Palmyra. When asked why they had run away, one +replied that he thought it was about time they saw something of the +world. We heard that Mr. Clark had a few moments' private conversation +with Hiram in the barn and Mr. Wheeler the same with his boys and we do +not think they will go traveling on their own hook again right off. Miss +Upham lives right across the street from them and she was telling little +Morris Bates that he must fight the good fight of faith and he asked her +if that was the fight that Wirt Wheeler fit. She probably had to make +her instructions plainer after that. + +_July._--Every Saturday our cousins, Lucilla and Mary and Louisa Field, +take turns coming to Grandmother's to dinner. It was Mary's turn to-day, +but she was sick and couldn't come, so Grandmother told us that we could +dress up and make some calls for her. We were very glad. She told us to +go to Mrs. Gooding's first, so we did and she was glad to see us and +gave us some cake she had just made. Then we went on to Mr. Greig's. We +walked up the high steps to the front door and rang the bell and Mr. +Alexander came. We asked if Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin were at home and +he said yes, and asked us into the parlor. We looked at the paintings on +the wall and looked at ourselves in the long looking-glass, while we +were waiting. Mrs. Irving came in first. She was very nice and said I +looked like her niece, Julie Jeffrey. I hope I do, for I would like to +look like her. Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin came in and were very glad to +see us, and took us out into the greenhouse and showed us all the +beautiful plants. When we said we would have to go they said goodbye and +sent love to Grandmother and told us to call again. I never knew Anna to +act as polite as she did to-day. Then we went to see Mrs. Judge Phelps +and Miss Eliza Chapin, and they were very nice and gave us some flowers +from their garden. Then we went on to Miss Caroline Jackson's, to see +Mrs. Holmes. Sometimes she is my Sunday School teacher, and she says she +and our mother used to be great friends at the seminary. She said she +was glad we came up and she hoped we would be as good as our mother was. +That is what nearly every one says. On our way back, we called on Mrs. +Dana at the Academy, as she is a friend of Grandmother. She is Mrs. Noah +T. Clarke's mother. After that, we went home and told Grandmother we had +a very pleasant time calling on our friends and they all asked us to +come again. + +_Sunday, August 15._--To-day the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was held +in our church, and Mr. Daggett baptized several little babies. They +looked so cunning when he took them in his arms and not one of them +cried. I told Grandmother when we got home that I remembered when +Grandfather Richards baptized me in Auburn, and when he gave me back to +mother he said, "Blessed little lambkin, you'll never know your +grandpa." She said I was mistaken about remembering it, for he died +before I was a year old, but I had heard it told so many times I thought +I remembered it. Probably that is the way it was but I know it happened. + +_November 22._--I wrote a composition to-day, and the subject was, +"Which of the Seasons Is the Pleasantest?" Anna asked Grandmother what +she should write about, and Grandmother said she thought "A Contented +Mind" would be a very good subject, but Anna said she never had one and +didn't know what it meant, so she didn't try to write any at all. + +A squaw walked right into our kitchen to-day with a blanket over her +head and had beaded purses to sell. + +This is my composition which I wrote: "Which of the seasons is the +pleasantest? Grim winter with its cold snows and whistling winds, or +pleasant spring with its green grass and budding trees, or warm summer +with its ripening fruit and beautiful flowers, or delightful autumn with +its golden fruit and splendid sunsets? I think that I like all the +seasons very well. In winter comes the blazing fire and Christmas treat. +Then we can have sleigh-rides and play in the snow and generally get +pretty cold noses and toses. In spring we have a great deal of rain and +very often snow and therefore we do not enjoy that season as much as we +would if it was dry weather, but we should remember that April showers +bring May flowers. In summer we can hear the birds warbling their sweet +notes in the trees and we have a great many strawberries, currants, +gooseberries and cherries, which I like very much, indeed, and I think +summer is a very pleasant season. In autumn we have some of our choicest +fruits, such as peaches, pears, apples, grapes and plums and plenty of +flowers in the former part, but in the latter, about in November, the +wind begins to blow and the leaves to fall and the flowers to wither and +die. Then cold winter with its sleigh-rides comes round again." After I +had written this I went to bed. Anna tied her shoe strings in hard knots +so she could sit up later. + +_November 23._--We read our compositions to-day and Miss Clark said mine +was very good. One of the girls had a Prophecy for a composition and +told what we were all going to be when we grew up. She said Anna +Richards was going to be a missionary and Anna cried right out loud. I +tried to comfort her and told her it might never happen, so she stopped +crying. + +_November 24._--Three ladies visited our school to-day, Miss Phelps, +Miss Daniels and Mrs. Clark. We had calisthenics and they liked them. + +_Sunday._--Mr. Tousley preached to-day. Mr. Lamb is Superintendent of +the Sunday School. Mr. Chipman used to be. Miss Mollie Bull played the +melodeon. Mr. Fairchild is my teacher when he is there. He was not there +to-day and Miss Mary Howell taught our class. I wish I could be as good +and pretty as she is. We go to church morning and afternoon and to +Sunday School, and learn seven verses every week and recite catechism +and hymns to Grandmother in the evening. Grandmother knows all the +questions by heart, so she lets the book lie in her lap and she asks +them with her eyes shut. She likes to hear us sing: + + "'Tis religion that can give + Sweetest pleasure while we live, + 'Tis religion can supply + Solid comfort when we die." + +_December 1._--Grandfather asked me to read President Pierce's message +aloud to him this evening. I thought it was very long and dry, but he +said it was interesting and that I read it very well. I am glad he liked +it. Part of it was about the Missouri Compromise and I didn't even know +what it meant. + +_December 8._--We are taking dictation lessons at school now. Miss Clark +reads to us from the "Life of Queen Elizabeth" and we write it down in a +book and keep it. She corrects it for us. I always spell "until" with +two l's and she has to mark it every time. I hope I will learn how to +spell it after a while. + +_Saturday, December 9._--We took our music lessons to-day. Miss Hattie +Heard is our teacher and she says we are getting along well. Anna +practiced her lesson over sixty-five times this morning before breakfast +and can play "Mary to the Saviour's Tomb" as fast as a waltz. + +We chose sides and spelled down at school to-day. Julia Phelps and I +stood up the last and both went down on the same word--eulogism. I don't +see the use of that "e." Miss Clark gave us twenty words which we had to +bring into some stories which we wrote. It was real fun to hear them. +Every one was different. + +This evening as we sat before the fire place with Grandmother, she +taught us how to play "Cat's Cradle," with a string on our fingers. + +_December 25._--Uncle Edward Richards sent us a basket of lovely things +from New York for Christmas. Books and dresses for Anna and me, a +kaleidoscope, large cornucopias of candy, and games, one of them being +battledore and shuttlecock. Grandmother says we will have to wait until +spring to play it, as it takes so much room. I wish all the little girls +in the world had an Uncle Edward. + + + + +1854 + + +_January 1, 1854._--About fifty little boys and girls at intervals +knocked at the front door to-day, to wish us Happy New Year. We had +pennies and cakes and apples ready for them. The pennies, especially, +seemed to attract them and we noticed the same ones several times. Aunt +Mary Carr made lovely New Year cakes with a pretty flower stamped on +before they were baked. + +_February_ 4, 1854.--We heard to-day of the death of our little +half-sister, Julia Dey Richards, in Penn Yan, yesterday, and I felt so +sorry I couldn't sleep last night so I made up some verses about her and +this morning wrote them down and gave them to Grandfather. He liked them +so well he wanted me to show them to Miss Clark and ask her to revise +them. I did and she said she would hand them to her sister Mary to +correct. When she handed them back they were very much nicer than they +were at first and Grandfather had me copy them and he pasted them into +one of his Bibles to keep. + +_Saturday._--Anna and I went to call on Miss Upham to-day. She is a real +old lady and lives with her niece, Mrs. John Bates, on Gibson Street. +Our mother used to go to school to her at the Seminary. Miss Upham said +to Anna, "Your mother was a lovely woman. You are not at all like her, +dear." I told Anna she meant in looks I was sure, but Anna was afraid +she didn't. + +_Sunday._--Mr. Daggett's text this morning was the 22nd chapter of +Revelation, 16th verse, "I am the root and offspring of David and the +bright and morning star." Mrs. Judge Taylor taught our Sunday School +class to-day and she said we ought not to read our S. S. books on +Sunday. I always do. Mine to-day was entitled, "Cheap Repository Tracts +by Hannah More," and it did not seem unreligious at all. + +_Tuesday._--A gentleman visited our school to-day whom we had never +seen. Miss Clark introduced him to us. When he came in, Miss Clark said, +"Young ladies," and we all stood up and bowed and said his name in +concert. Grandfather says he would rather have us go to school to Miss +Clark than any one else because she teaches us manners as well as books. +We girls think that he is a very particular friend of Miss Clark. He is +very nice looking, but we don't know where he lives. Laura Chapin says +he is an architect. I looked it up in the dictionary and it says one who +plans or designs. I hope he does not plan to get married to Miss Clark +and take her away and break up the school, but I presume he does, for +that is usually the way. + +_Monday._--There was a minister preached in our church last night and +some people say he is the greatest minister in the world. I think his +name was Mr. Finney. Grandmother said I could go with our girl, Hannah +White. We sat under the gallery, in Miss Antoinette Pierson's pew. There +was a great crowd and he preached good. Grandmother says that our mother +was a Christian when she was ten years old and joined the church and she +showed us some sermons that mother used to write down when she was +seventeen years old, after she came home from church, and she has kept +them all these years. I think children in old times were not as bad as +they are now. + +_Tuesday._--Mrs. Judge Taylor sent for me to come over to see her +to-day. I didn't know what she wanted, but when I got there she said she +wanted to talk and pray with me on the subject of religion. She took me +into one of the wings. I never had been in there before and was +frightened at first, but it was nice after I got used to it. After she +prayed, she asked me to, but I couldn't think of anything but "Now I lay +me down to sleep," and I was afraid she would not like that, so I didn't +say anything. When I got home and told Anna, she said, "Caroline, I +presume probably Mrs. Taylor wants you to be a Missionary, but I shan't +let you go." I told her she needn't worry for I would have to stay at +home and look after her. After school to-night I went out into Abbie +Clark's garden with her and she taught me how to play "mumble te peg." +It is fun, but rather dangerous. I am afraid Grandmother won't give me a +knife to play with. Abbie Clark has beautiful s in her garden and +gave me some roots. + +_April 1._--This is April Fool's Day. It is not a very pleasant day, but +I am not very pleasant either. I spent half an hour this morning very +pleasantly writing a letter to my Father but just as I had finished it, +Grandmother told me something to write which I did not wish to and I +spoke quite disrespectfully, but I am real sorry and I won't do so any +more. + +Lucilla and Louisa Field were over to our house to dinner to-day. We had +a very good dinner indeed. In the afternoon, Grandmother told me that I +might go over to Aunt Ann's on condition that I would not stay, but I +stayed too long and got my indian rubbers real muddy and Grandmother did +not like it. I then ate my supper and went to bed at ten minutes to +eight o'clock. + +_Monday, April 3._--I got up this morning at quarter before six o'clock. +I then read my three chapters in the Bible, and soon after ate my +breakfast, which consisted of ham and eggs and buckwheat cakes. I then +took a morning walk in the garden and rolled my hoop. I went to school +at quarter before 9 o'clock. Miss Clark has us recite a verse of +scripture in response to roll call and my text for the morning was the +8th verse of the 6th chapter of Matthew, "Be ye not therefore like unto +them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask +him." We then had prayers. I then began to write my composition and we +had recess soon after. In the afternoon I recited grammar, wrote my +dictation lesson and Dictionary lesson. I was up third in my Dictionary +class but missed two words, and instead of being third in the class, I +was fifth. After supper I read my Sunday School book, "A Shepherd's Call +to the Lambs of his Flock." I went to bed as usual at ten minutes to 8 +o'clock. + +_April_ 4.--We went into our new schoolroom to-day at Miss Clark's +school. It is a very nice room and much larger than the one we occupied +before. Anna and I were sewing on our dolls' clothes this afternoon and +we talked so much that finally Grandmother said, "the one that speaks +first is the worst; and the one that speaks last is the best." We kept +still for quite a while, which gave Grandmother a rest, but was very +hard for us, especially Anna. Pretty soon Grandmother forgot and asked +us a question, so we had the joke on her. Afterwards Anna told me she +would rather "be the worst," than to keep still so long again. + +_Wednesday._--Grandmother sent Anna and me up to Butcher Street after +school to-day to invite Chloe to come to dinner. I never saw so many +black people as there are up there. We saw old Lloyd and black Jonathan +and Dick Valentine and Jerusha and Chloe and Nackie. Nackie was pounding +up stones into sand, to sell, to scour with. Grandmother often buys it +of her. I think Chloe was surprised, but she said she would be ready, +to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, when the carriage came for her. I should +hate to be as fat as Chloe. I think she weighs 300. She is going to sit +in Grandfather's big arm chair, Grandmother says. + +We told her we should think she would rather invite white ladies, but +she said Chloe was a poor old slave and as Grandfather had gone to +Saratoga she thought it was a good time to have her. She said God made +of one blood all the people on the face of the earth, so we knew she +would do it and we didn't say any more. When we talk too much, +Grandfather always says N. C. (nuff ced). She sent a carriage for Chloe +and she came and had a nice dinner, not in the kitchen either. +Grandmother asked her if there was any one else she would like to see +before she went home and she said, "Yes, Miss Rebekah Gorham," so she +told the coachman to take her down there and wait for her to make a call +and then take her home and he did. Chloe said she had a very nice time, +so probably Grandmother was all right as she generally is, but I could +not be as good as she is, if I should try one hundred years. + +_June._--Our cousin, George Bates, of Honolulu, came to see us to-day. +He has one brother, Dudley, but he didn't come. George has just +graduated from college and is going to Japan to be a doctor. He wrote +such a nice piece in my album I must copy it, "If I were a poet I would +celebrate your virtues in rhyme, if I were forty years old, I would +write a homily on good behavior; being neither, I will quote two +familiar lines which if taken as a rule of action will make you a good +and happy woman: + + "Honor and shame from no condition rise, + Act well your part, there all the honor lies." + +I think he is a very smart young man and will make a good doctor to the +heathen. + +_Saturday._--Grandfather took us down street to be measured for some new +patten leather shoes at Mr. Ambler's. They are going to be very nice +ones for best. We got our new summer hats from Mrs. Freshour's millinery +and we wore them over to show to Aunt Ann and she said they were the +very handsomest bonnets she had seen this year. + +_Tuesday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we met a lot +of people and girls and boys going to a picnic up the lake. They asked +us to go, too, but we said we were afraid we could not. Mr. Alex. Howell +said, "Tell your Grandfather I will bring you back safe and sound unless +the boat goes to the bottom with all of us." So we went home and told +Grandfather and much to our surprise he said we could go. We had never +been on a boat or on the lake before. We went up to the head on the +steamer "_Joseph Wood_" and got off at Maxwell's Point. They had a +picnic dinner and lots of good things to eat. Then we all went into the +glen and climbed up through it. Mr. Alex. Howell and Mrs. Wheeler got to +the top first and everybody gave three cheers. We had a lovely time +riding back on the boat and told Grandmother we had the very best time +we ever had in our whole lives. + +_May 26._--There was an eclipse of the sun to-day and we were very much +excited looking at it. General Granger came over and gave us some pieces +of smoked glass. Miss Clark wanted us to write compositions about it so +Anna wrote, "About eleven o'clock we went out to see if it had come yet, +but it hadn't come yet, so we waited awhile and then looked again and it +had come, and there was a piece of it cut out of it." Miss Clark said it +was a very good description and she knew Anna wrote it all herself. + +I handed in a composition, too, about the eclipse, but I don't think +Miss Clark liked it as well as she did Anna's, because it had something +in it about "the beggarly elements of the world." She asked me where I +got it and I told her that it was in a nice story book that Grandmother +gave me to read entitled "Elizabeth Thornton or the Flower and Fruit of +Female Piety, and other sketches," by Samuel Irenaeus Prime. This was +one of the other sketches: It commenced by telling how the moon came +between the sun and the earth, and then went on about the beggarly +elements. Miss Clark asked me if I knew what they meant and I told her +no, but I thought they sounded good. She just smiled and never scolded +me at all. I suppose next time I must make it all up myself. + +There is a Mr. Packer in town, who teaches all the children to sing. He +had a concert in Bemis Hall last night and he put Anna on the top row of +the pyramid of beauty and about one hundred children in rows below. She +ought to have worn a white dress as the others did but Grandmother said +her new pink barege would do. I curled her hair all around in about +thirty curls and she looked very nice. She waved the flag in the shape +of the letter S and sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and all the others +joined in the chorus. It was perfectly grand. + +_Monday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we saw General +Granger coming, and Anna had on such a homely sunbonnet she took it off +and hid it behind her till he had gone by. When we told Grandmother she +said, "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a +fall." I never heard of any one who knew so many Bible verses as +Grandmother. Anna thought she would be sorry for her and get her a new +sunbonnet, but she didn't. + +_Sunday._--We have Sunday School at nine o'clock in the morning now. +Grandfather loves to watch us when we walk off together down the street, +so he walks back and forth on the front walk till we come out, and gives +us our money for the contribution. This morning we had on our new white +dresses that Miss Rosewarne made and new summer hats and new patten +leather shoes and our mitts. When he had looked us all over he said, +with a smile, "The Bible says, let your garments be always white." After +we had gone on a little ways, Anna said: "If Grandmother had thought of +that verse I wouldn't have had to wear my pink barege dress to the +concert." I told her she need not feel bad about that now, for she sang +as well as any of them and looked just as good. She always believes +everything I say, although she does not always do what I tell her to. +Mr. Noah T. Clarke told us in Sunday School last Sunday that if we +wanted to take shares in the missionary ship, _Morning Star,_ we could +buy them at 10 cents apiece, and Grandmother gave us $1 to-day so we +could have ten shares. We got the certificate with a picture of the ship +on it, and we are going to keep it always. Anna says if we pay the +money, we don't have to go. + +_Sunday._--I almost forgot that it was Sunday this morning and talked +and laughed just as I do week days. Grandmother told me to write down +this verse before I went to church so I would remember it: "Keep thy +foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than +to offer the sacrifice of fools." I will remember it now, sure. My feet +are all right any way with my new patten leather shoes on but I shall +have to look out for my head. Mr. Thomas Howell read a sermon to-day as +Mr. Daggett is out of town. Grandmother always comes upstairs to get the +candle and tuck us in before she goes to bed herself, and some nights we +are sound asleep and do not hear her, but last night we only pretended +to be asleep. She kneeled down by the bed and prayed aloud for us, that +we might be good children and that she might have strength given to her +from on high to guide us in the straight and narrow path which leads to +life eternal. Those were her very words. After she had gone downstairs +we sat up in bed and talked about it and promised each other to be good, +and crossed our hearts and "hoped to die" if we broke our promise. Then +Anna was afraid we would die, but I told her I didn't believe we would +be as good as that, so we kissed each other and went to sleep. + +[Illustration: Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Miss Upham] + +_Monday._--"Old Alice" was at our house to-day and Grandmother gave her +some flowers. She hid them in her apron for she said if she should meet +any little children and they should ask for them she would have to let +them go. Mrs. Gooding was at our house to-day and made a carpet. We went +over to Aunt Mary Carr's this evening to see the gas and the new +chandeliers. They are brontz. + +_Tuesday._--My three chapters that I read this morning were about +Josiah's zeal and reformation; 2nd, Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar; +3rd, Jerusalem besieged and taken. The reason that we always read the +Bible the first thing in the morning is because it says in the Bible, +"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these +things shall be added unto you." Grandmother says she hopes we will +treasure up all these things in our hearts and practice them in our +lives. I hope so, too. This morning Anna got very mad at one of the +girls and Grandmother told her she ought to return good for evil and +heap coals of fire on her head. Anna said she wished she could and burn +her all up, but I don't think she meant it. + +_Wednesday._--I got up this morning at twenty minutes after five. I +always brush my teeth every morning, but I forget to put it down here. I +read my three chapters in Job and played in the garden and had time to +read Grandmother a piece in the paper about some poor children in New +York. Anna and I went over to Aunt Ann's before school and she gave us +each two sticks of candy apiece. Part of it came from New York and part +from Williamstown, Mass., where Henry goes to college. Ann Eliza is +going down street with us this afternoon to buy us some new summer +bonnets. They are to be trimmed with blue and white and are to come to +five dollars. We are going to Mr. Stannard's store also, to buy us some +stockings. I ought to buy me a new thimble and scissors for I carried my +sewing to school to-day and they were inside of it very carelessly and +dropped out and got lost. I ought to buy them with my own money, but I +haven't got any, for I gave all I had (two shillings) to Anna to buy +Louisa Field a cornelian ring. Perhaps Father will send me some money +soon, but I hate to ask him for fear he will rob himself. I don't like +to tell Grandfather how very careless I was, though I know he would say, +"Accidents will happen." + +_Thursday._--I was up early this morning because a dressmaker, Miss +Willson, is coming to make me a new calico dress. It is white with pink +spots in it and Grandfather bought it in New York. It is very nice +indeed and I think Grandfather was very kind to get it for me. I had to +stay at home from school to be fitted. I helped sew and run my dress +skirt around the bottom and whipped it on the top. I went to school in +the afternoon, but did not have my lessons very well. Miss Clark excused +me because I was not there in the morning. Some girls got up on our +fence to-day and walked clear across it, the whole length. It is iron +and very high and has a stone foundation. Grandmother asked them to get +down, but I think they thought it was more fun to walk up there than it +was on the ground. The name of the little girl that got up first was +Mary Lapham. She is Lottie Lapham's cousin. I made the pocket for my +dress after I got home from school and then Grandfather said he would +take us out to ride, so he took us way up to Thaddeus Chapin's on the +hill. Julia Phelps was there, playing with Laura Chapin, for she is her +cousin. Henry and Ann Eliza Field came over to call this evening. Henry +has come home from Williams College on his vacation and he is a very +pleasant young man, indeed. I am reading a continued story in _Harper's +Magazine_. It is called Little Dorritt, by Charles Dickens, and is very +interesting. + +_Friday, May._--Miss Clark told us we could have a picnic down to Sucker +Brook this afternoon and she told us to bring our rubbers and lunches by +two o'clock; but Grandmother was not willing to let us go; not that she +wished to deprive us of any pleasure for she said instead we could wear +our new black silk basks and go with her to Preparatory lecture, so we +did, but when we got there we found that Mr. Daggett was out of town so +there was no meeting. Then she told us we could keep dressed up and go +over to Aunt Mary Carr's and take her some apples, and afterwards +Grandfather took us to ride to see old Mrs. Sanborn and old Mr. and Mrs. +Atwater. He is ninety years old and blind and deaf, so we had quite a +good time after all. + +Rev. Mr. Dickey, of Rochester, agent for the Seaman's Friend Society, +preached this morning about the poor little canal boy. His text was from +the 107th Psalm, 23rd verse, "They that go down into the sea in ships." +He has the queerest voice and stops off between his words. When we got +home Anna said she would show us how he preached and she described what +he said about a sailor in time of war. She said, "A ball came--and +struck him there--another ball came--and struck him there--he raised his +faithful sword--and went on--to victory--or death." I expected +Grandfather would reprove her, but he just smiled a queer sort of smile +and Grandmother put her handkerchief up to her face, as she always does +when she is amused about anything. I never heard her laugh out loud, but +I suppose she likes funny things as well as anybody. She did just the +same, this morning, when Grandfather asked Anna where the sun rose, and +she said "over by Gen. Granger's house and sets behind the Methodist +church." She said she saw it herself and should never forget it when any +one asked her which was east or west. I think she makes up more things +than any one I know of. + +_Sunday._--Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson preached to-day. He used to be the +minister of our church before Mr. Daggett came. Some people call him +Rev. "Alphabet" Thompson, because he has so many letters in his name. He +preached a very good sermon from the text, "Dearly beloved, as much as +lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." I like to hear him preach, +but not as well as I do Mr. Daggett. I suppose I am more used to him. + +_Thursday._--Edward Everett, of Boston, lectured in our church this +evening. They had a platform built even with the tops of the pews, so he +did not have to go up into the pulpit. Crowds and crowds came to hear +him from all over everywhere. Grandmother let me go. They say he is the +most eloquent speaker in the U. S., but I have heard Mr. Daggett when I +thought he was just as good. + +_Sunday._--We went to church to-day and heard Rev. Mr. Stowe preach. His +text was, "The poor ye have with you always and whensoever ye will ye +may do them good." I never knew any one who liked to go to church as +much as Grandmother does. She says she "would rather be a doorkeeper in +the house of our God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." They +don't have women doorkeepers, and I know she would not dwell a minute in +a tent. Mr. Coburn is the doorkeeper in our church and he rings the bell +every day at nine in the morning and at twelve and at nine in the +evening, so Grandfather knows when it is time to cover up the fire in +the fireplace and go to bed. I think if the President should come to +call he would have to go home at nine o'clock. Grandfather's motto is: + + "Early to bed and early to rise + Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." + +_Tuesday._--Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin called to see us to-day. +Grandmother says that we can return the calls as she does not visit any +more. We would like to, for we always enjoy dressing up and making +calls. Anna and I received two black veils in a letter to-day from Aunt +Caroline Dey. Just exactly what we had wanted for a long while. Uncle +Edward sent us five dollars and Grandmother said we could buy just what +we wanted, so we went down street to look at black silk mantillas. We +went to Moore's store and to Richardson's and to Collier's, but they +asked ten, fifteen or twenty dollars for them, so Anna said she resolved +from now, henceforth and forever not to spend her money for black silk +mantillas. + +_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Tousley preached to-day to the children and told us +how many steps it took to be bad. I think he said lying was first, then +disobedience to parents, breaking the Sabbath, swearing, stealing, +drunkenness. I don't remember just the order they came. It was very +interesting, for he told lots of stories and we sang a great many times. +I should think Eddy Tousley would be an awful good boy with his father +in the house with him all the while, but probably he has to be away part +of the time preaching to other children. + +_Sunday._--Uncle David Dudley Field and his daughter, Mrs. Brewer, of +Stockbridge, Mass., are visiting us. Mrs. Brewer has a son, David +Josiah, who is in Yale College. After he graduates he is going to be a +lawyer and study in his Uncle David Dudley Field's office in New York. +He was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, where his father and mother were +missionaries to the Greeks, in 1837. Our Uncle David preached for Mr. +Daggett this afternoon. He is a very old man and left his sermon at home +and I had to go back after it. His brother, Timothy, was the first +minister in our church, about fifty years ago. Grandmother says she +came all the way from Connecticut with him on horseback on a pillion +behind him. Rather a long ride, I should say. I heard her and Uncle +David talking about their childhood and how they lived in Guilford, +Conn., in a house that was built upon a rock. That was some time in the +last century like the house that it tells about in the Bible that was +built on a rock. + +_Sunday, August 10, 1854._--Rev. Mr. Daggett's text this morning was, +"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Grandmother said she thought +the sermon did not do us much good for she had to tell us several times +this afternoon to stop laughing. Grandmother said we ought to be good +Sundays if we want to go to heaven, for there it is one eternal Sabbath. +Anna said she didn't want to be an angel just yet and I don't think +there is the least danger of it, as far as I can judge. Grandmother said +there was another verse, "If we do not have any pleasure on the Sabbath, +or think any thoughts, we shall ride on the high places of the earth," +and Anna said she liked that better, for she would rather ride than do +anything else, so we both promised to be good. Grandfather told us they +used to be more strict about Sunday than they are now. Then he told us a +story, how he had to go to Geneva one Saturday morning in the stage and +expected to come back in the evening, but there was an accident, so the +stage did not come till Sunday morning. Church had begun and he told the +stage driver to leave him right there, so he went in late and the stage +drove on. The next day he heard that he was to come before the minister, +Rev. Mr. Johns, and the deacons and explain why he had broken the fourth +commandment. When he got into the meeting Mr. Johns asked him what he +had to say, and he explained about the accident and asked them to read a +verse from the 8th chapter of John, before they made up their minds what +to do to him. The verse was, "Let him that is without sin among you cast +the first stone." Grandfather said they all smiled, and the minister +said the meeting was out. Grandfather says that shows it is better to +know plenty of Bible verses, for some time they may do you a great deal +of good. We then recited the catechism and went to bed. + +[Illustration: First Congregational Church] + +_August 21._--Anna says that Alice Jewett feels very proud because she +has a little baby brother. They have named him John Harvey Jewett after +his father, and Alice says when he is bigger she will let Anna help her +take him out to ride in his baby-carriage. I suppose they will throw +away their dolls now. + +_Tuesday, September_ 1.--I am sewing a sheet over and over for +Grandmother and she puts a pin in to show me my stint, before I can go +out to play. I am always glad when I get to it. I am making a sampler, +too, and have all the capital letters worked and now will make the small +ones. It is done in cross stitch on canvas with different color silks. I +am going to work my name, too. I am also knitting a tippet on some +wooden needles that Henry Carr made for me. Grandmother has raveled it +out several times because I dropped stitches. It is rather tedious, but +she says, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Some military +soldiers went by the house to-day and played some beautiful music. +Grandfather has a teter and swing for us in the back yard and we enjoy +them usually, but to-night Anna slid off the teter board when she was on +the ground and I was in the air and I came down sooner than I expected. +There was a hand organ and monkey going by and she was in a hurry to get +to the street to see it. She got there a good while before I did. The +other day we were swinging and Grandmother called us in to dinner, but +Anna said we could not go until we "let the old cat die." Grandmother +said it was more important that we should come when we are called. + +_October._--Grandmother's name is Abigail, but she was always called +"Nabby" at home. Some of the girls call me "Carrie," but Grandmother +prefers "Caroline." She told us to-day, how when she was a little girl, +down in Connecticut in 1794, she was on her way to school one morning +and she saw an Indian coming and was so afraid, but did not dare run for +fear he would chase her. So she thought of the word sago, which means +"good morning," and when she got up close to him she dropped a curtesy +and said "Sago," and he just went right along and never touched her at +all. She says she hopes we will always be polite to every one, even to +strangers. + +_November._--Abbie Clark's father has been elected Governor and she is +going to Albany to live, for a while. We all congratulated her when she +came to school this morning, but I am sorry she is going away. We will +write to each other every week. She wrote a prophecy and told the girls +what they were going to be and said I should be mistress of the White +House. I think it will happen, about the same time that Anna goes to be +a missionary. + +_December._--There was a moonlight sleigh-ride of boys and girls last +night, but Grandfather did not want us to go, but to-night he said he +was going to take us to one himself. So after supper he told Mr. Piser +to harness the horse to the cutter and bring it around to the front +gate. Mr. Piser takes care of our horse and the Methodist Church. He +lives in the basement. Grandfather sometimes calls him Shakespeare to +us, but I don't know why. He doesn't look as though he wrote poetry. +Grandfather said he was going to take us out to Mr. Waterman Powers' in +Farmington and he did. They were quite surprised to see us, but very +glad and gave us apples and doughnuts and other good things. We saw Anne +and Imogene and Morey and one little girl named Zimmie. They wanted us +to stay all night, but Grandmother was expecting us. We got home safe +about ten o'clock and had a very nice time. We never sat up so late +before. + + + + +1855 + + +_Wednesday, January_ 9.--I came downstairs this morning at ten minutes +after seven, almost frozen. I never spent such a cold night before in +all my life. It is almost impossible to get warm even in the +dining-room. The thermometer is 10 deg. below zero. The schoolroom was so +cold that I had to keep my cloak on. I spoke a piece this afternoon. It +was "The Old Arm Chair," by Eliza Cook. It begins, "I love it, I love +it, and who shall dare to chide me for loving that old arm chair?" I +love it because it makes me think of Grandmother. After school to-night +Anna and I went downtown to buy a writing book, but we were so cold we +thought we would never get back. Anna said she knew her toes were +frozen. We got as far as Mr. Taylor's gate and she said she could not +get any farther; but I pulled her along, for I could not bear to have +her perish in sight of home. We went to bed about eight o'clock and +slept very nicely indeed, for Grandmother put a good many blankets on +and we were warm. + +_January_ 23.--This evening after reading one of Dickens' stories I +knit awhile on my mittens. I have not had nice ones in a good while. +Grandmother cut out the ones that I am wearing of white flannel, bound +round the wrist with blue merino. They are not beautiful to be sure, but +warm and will answer all purposes until I get some that are better. When +I came home from school to-day Mrs. Taylor was here. She noticed how +tall I was growing and said she hoped that I was as good as I was tall. +A very good wish, I am sure. + +_Sunday, January_ 29.--Mr. Daggett preached this morning from the text, +Deut. 8: 2: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God +led thee." It is ten years to-day since Mr. Daggett came to our church, +and he told how many deaths there had been, and how many baptisms, and +how many members had been added to the church. It was a very interesting +sermon, and everybody hoped Mr. Daggett would stay here ten years more, +or twenty, or thirty, or always. He is the only minister that I ever +had, and I don't ever want any other. We never could have any one with +such a voice as Mr. Daggett's, or such beautiful eyes. Then he has such +good sermons, and always selects the hymns we like best, and reads them +in such a way. This morning they sang: "Thus far the Lord has led me on, +thus far His power prolongs my days." After he has been away on a +vacation he always has for the first hymn, and we always turn to it +before he gives it out: + + "Upward I lift mine eyes, + From God is all my aid; + The God that built the skies, + And earth and nature made. + + "God is the tower + To which I fly + His grace is nigh + In every hour." + +He always prays for the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of +praise for the spirit of heaviness. + +_January,_ 1855.--Johnny Lyon is dead. Georgia Wilkinson cried awfully +in school because she said she was engaged to him. + +_April._--Grandmother received a letter from Connecticut to-day telling +of the death of her only sister. She was knitting before she got it and +she laid it down a few moments and looked quite sad and said, "So sister +Anna is dead." Then after a little she went on with her work. Anna +watched her and when we were alone she said to me, "Caroline, some day +when you are about ninety you may be eating an apple or reading or doing +something and you will get a letter telling of my decease and after you +have read it you will go on as usual and just say, 'So sister Anna is +dead.'" I told her that I knew if I lived to be a hundred and heard that +she was dead I should cry my eyes out, if I had any. + +_May._--Father has sent us a box of fruit from New Orleans. Prunes, +figs, dates and oranges, and one or two pomegranates. We never saw any +of the latter before. They are full of cells with jelly in, very nice. +He also sent some seeds of sensitive plant, which we have sown in our +garden. + +This evening I wrote a letter to John and a little "poetry" to Father, +but it did not amount to much. I am going to write some a great deal +better some day. Grandfather had some letters to write this morning, and +got up before three o'clock to write them! He slept about three-quarters +of an hour to-night in his chair. + +_Sunday._--There was a stranger preached for Dr. Daggett this morning +and his text was, "Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord +looketh on the heart." When we got home Anna said the minister looked as +though he had been sick from birth and his forehead stretched from his +nose to the back of his neck, he was so bald. Grandmother told her she +ought to have been more interested in his words than in his looks, and +that she must have very good eyes if she could see all that from our +pew, which is the furthest from the pulpit of any in church, except Mr. +Gibson's, which is just the same. Anna said she couldn't help seeing it +unless she shut her eyes, and then every one would think she had gone to +sleep. We can see the Academy boys from our pew, too. + +Mr. Lathrop, of the seminary, is superintendent of the Sunday School now +and he had a present to-day from Miss Betsey Chapin, and several +visitors came in to see it presented: Dr. Daggett, Mr. and Mrs. Alex. +Howell, Mr. Tousley, Mr. Stowe, Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Granger and several +others. The present was a certificate of life membership to something; I +did not hear what. It was just a large piece of parchment, but they said +it cost $25. Miss Lizzie Bull is my Sunday School teacher now. She asked +us last Sunday to look up a place in the Bible where the trees held a +consultation together, to see which one should reign over them. I did +not remember any such thing, but I looked it up in the concordance and +found it in Judges 9: 8. I found the meaning of it in Scott's Commentary +and wrote it down and she was very much pleased, and told us next Sunday +to find out all about Absalom. + +_July._--Our sensitive plant is growing nicely and it is quite a +curiosity. It has fern-like leaves and when we touch them, they close, +but soon come out again. Anna and I keep them performing. + +_September_ 1.--Anna and I go to the seminary now. Mr. Richards and Mr. +Tyler are the principals. Anna fell down and sprained her ankle to-day +at the seminary, and had to be carried into Mrs. Richards' library. She +was sliding down the bannisters with little Annie Richards. I wonder +what she will do next. She has good luck in the gymnasium and can beat +Emma Wheeler and Jennie Ruckle swinging on the pole and climbing the +rope ladder, although they and Sarah Antes are about as spry as +squirrels and they are all good at ten pins. Susie Daggett and Lucilla +Field have gone to Farmington, Conn., to school. + +_Monday._--I received a letter from my brother John in New Orleans, and +his ambrotype. He has grown amazingly. He also sent me a N. O. paper and +it gave an account of the public exercises in the school, and said John +spoke a piece called "The Baron's Last Banquet," and had great applause +and it said he was "a chip off the old block." He is a very nice boy, I +know that. James is sixteen years old now and is in Princeton College. +He is studying German and says he thinks he will go to Germany some day +and finish his education, but I guess in that respect he will be very +much disappointed. Germany is a great ways off and none of our relations +that I ever heard of have ever been there and it is not at all likely +that any of them ever will. Grandfather says, though, it is better to +aim too high than not high enough. James is a great boy to study. They +had their pictures taken together once and John was holding some flowers +and James a book and I guess he has held on to it ever since. + +_Sunday._--Polly Peck looked so funny on the front seat of the gallery. +She had on one of Mrs. Greig's bonnets and her lace collar and cape and +mitts. She used to be a milliner so she knows how to get herself up in +style. The ministers have appointed a day of fasting and prayer and Anna +asked Grandmother if it meant to eat as fast as you can. Grandmother was +very much surprised. + +_November_ 25.--I helped Grandmother get ready for Thanksgiving Day by +stoning some raisins and pounding some cloves and cinnamon in the mortar +pestle pounder. It is quite a job. I have been writing with a quill pen +but I don't like it because it squeaks so. Grandfather made us some +to-day and also bought us some wafers to seal our letters with, and some +sealing wax and a stamp with "R" on it. He always uses the seal on his +watch fob with "B." He got some sand, too. Our inkstand is double and +has one bottle for ink and the other for sand to dry the writing. + +_December_ 20, 1855.--Susan B. Anthony is in town and spoke in Bemis +Hall this afternoon. She made a special request that all the seminary +girls should come to hear her as well as all the women and girls in +town. She had a large audience and she talked very plainly about our +rights and how we ought to stand up for them, and said the world would +never go right until the women had just as much right to vote and rule +as the men. She asked us all to come up and sign our names who would +promise to do all in our power to bring about that glad day when equal +rights should be the law of the land. A whole lot of us went up and +signed the paper. When I told Grandmother about it she said she guessed +Susan B. Anthony had forgotten that St. Paul said the women should keep +silence. I told her, no, she didn't for she spoke particularly about St. +Paul and said if he had lived in these times, instead of 1800 years ago, +he would have been as anxious to have the women at the head of the +government as she was. I could not make Grandmother agree with her at +all and she said we might better all of us stayed at home. We went to +prayer meeting this evening and a woman got up and talked. Her name was +Mrs. Sands. We hurried home and told Grandmother and she said she +probably meant all right and she hoped we did not laugh. + +_Monday._--I told Grandfather if he would bring me some sheets of +foolscap paper I would begin to write a book. So he put a pin on his +sleeve to remind him of it and to-night he brought me a whole lot of it. +I shall begin it to-morrow. This evening I helped Anna do her Arithmetic +examples, and read her Sunday School book. The name of it is "Watch and +Pray." My book is the second volume of "Stories on the Shorter +Catechism." + +_Tuesday._--I decided to copy a lot of choice stories and have them +printed and say they were "compiled by Caroline Cowles Richards," it is +so much easier than making them up. I spent three hours to-day copying +one and am so tired I think I shall give it up. When I told Grandmother +she looked disappointed and said my ambition was like "the morning cloud +and the early dew," for it soon vanished away. Anna said it might spring +up again and bear fruit a hundredfold. Grandfather wants us to amount to +something and he buys us good books whenever he has a chance. He bought +me Miss Caroline Chesebro's book, "The Children of Light," and Alice and +Phoebe Cary's _Poems_. He is always reading Channing's memoirs and +sermons and Grandmother keeps "Lady Huntington and Her Friends," next to +"Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises" and her Testament. Anna told +Grandmother that she saw Mrs. George Willson looking very steadily at us +in prayer meeting the other night and she thought she might be planning +to "write us up." Grandmother said she did not think Mrs. Willson was so +short of material as that would imply, and she feared she had some other +reason for looking at us. I think dear Grandmother has a little grain of +sarcasm in her nature, but she only uses it on extra occasions. Anna +said, "Oh, no; she wrote the lives of the three Mrs. Judsons and I +thought she might like for a change to write the biographies of the 'two +Miss Richards.'" Anna has what might be called a vivid imagination. + + + + +1856 + + +_January_ 23.--This is the third morning that I have come down stairs at +exactly twenty minutes to seven. I went to school all day. Mary Paul and +Fannie Palmer read "_The Snow Bird_" to-day. There were some funny +things in it. One was: "Why is a lady's hair like the latest news? +Because in the morning we always find it in the papers." Another was: +"One rod makes an acher, as the boy said when the schoolmaster flogged +him." + +This is Allie Field's birthday. He got a pair of slippers from Mary with +the soles all on; a pair of mittens from Miss Eliza Chapin, and Miss +Rebecca Gorham is going to give him a pair of stockings when she gets +them done. + +_January_ 30.--I came home from school at eleven o'clock this morning +and learned a piece to speak this afternoon, but when I got up to school +I forgot it, so I thought of another one. Mr. Richards said that he must +give me the praise of being the best speaker that spoke in the +afternoon. Ahem! + +_February_ 6.--We were awakened very early this morning by the cry of +fire and the ringing of bells and could see the sky red with flames and +knew it was the stores and we thought they were all burning up. Pretty +soon we heard our big brass door knocker being pounded fast and +Grandfather said, "Who's there?" "Melville Arnold for the bank keys," we +heard. Grandfather handed them out and dressed as fast as he could and +went down, while Anna and I just lay there and watched the flames and +shook. He was gone two or three hours and when he came back he said that +Mr. Palmer's hat store, Mr. Underhill's book store, Mr. Shafer's tailor +shop, Mrs. Smith's millinery, Pratt & Smith's drug store, Mr. +Mitchell's dry goods store, two printing offices and a saloon were +burned. It was a very handsome block. The bank escaped fire, but the +wall of the next building fell on it and crushed it. After school +to-night Grandmother let us go down to see how the fire looked. It +looked very sad indeed. Judge Taylor offered Grandfather one of the +wings of his house for the bank for the present but he has secured a +place in Mr. Buhre's store in the Franklin Block. + +_Thursday, February_ 7.--Dr. and Aunt Mary Carr and Uncle Field and Aunt +Ann were over at our house to dinner to-day and we had a fine fish +dinner, not one of Gabriel's (the man who blows such a blast through the +street, they call him Gabriel), but one that Mr. Francis Granger sent to +us. It was elegant. Such a large one it covered a big platter. This +evening General Granger came in and brought a gentleman with him whose +name was Mr. Skinner. They asked Grandfather, as one of the trustees of +the church, if he had any objection to a deaf and dumb exhibition there +to-morrow night. He had no objection, so they will have it and we will +go. + +_Friday_.--We went and liked it very much. The man with them could talk +and he interpreted it. There were two deaf and dumb women and three +children. They performed very prettily, but the smartest boy did the +most. He acted out David killing Goliath and the story of the boy +stealing apples and how the old man tried to get him down by throwing +grass at him, but finding that would not do, he threw stones which +brought the boy down pretty quick. Then he acted a boy going fishing and +a man being shaved in a barber shop and several other things. I laughed +out loud in school to-day and made some pictures on my slate and showed +them to Clara Willson and made her laugh, and then we both had to stay +after school. Anna was at Aunt Ann's to supper to-night to meet a little +girl named Helen Bristol, of Rochester. Ritie Tyler was there, too, and +they had a lovely time. + +[Illustration: Judge Henry W. Taylor, Miss Zilpha Clark, +Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D., "Frankie Richardson", Horace Finley] + +_February_ 8.--I have not written in my journal for several days, +because I never like to write things down if they don't go right. Anna +and I were invited to go on a sleigh-ride, Tuesday night, and +Grandfather said he did not want us to go. We asked him if we could +spend the evening with Frankie Richardson and he said yes, so we went +down there and when the load stopped for her, we went too, but we did +not enjoy ourselves at all and did not join in the singing. I had no +idea that sleigh-rides could make any one feel so bad. It was not very +cold, but I just shivered all the time. When the nine o'clock bell rang +we were up by the "Northern Retreat," and I was so glad when we got near +home so we could get out. Grandfather and Grandmother asked us if we had +a nice time, but we got to bed as quick as we could. The next day +Grandfather went into Mr. Richardson's store and told him he was glad he +did not let Frankie go on the sleigh-ride, and Mr. Richardson said he +did let her go and we went too. We knew how it was when we got home from +school, because they acted so sober, and, after a while, Grandmother +talked with us about it. We told her we were sorry and we did not have a +bit good time and would never do it again. When she prayed with us the +next morning, as she always does before we go to school, she said, +"Prepare us, Lord, for what thou art preparing for us," and it seemed as +though she was discouraged, but she said she forgave us. I know one +thing, we will never run away to any more sleigh-rides. + +_February_ 20.--Mr. Worden, Mrs. Henry Chesebro's father, was buried +to-day, and Aunt Ann let Allie stay with us while she went to the +funeral. I am going to Fannie Gaylord's party to-morrow night. + +I went to school this afternoon and kept the rules, so to-night I had +the satisfaction of saying "perfect" when called upon, and if I did not +like to keep the rules, it is some pleasure to say that. + +_February_ 21.--We had a very nice time at Fannie Gaylord's party and a +splendid supper. Lucilla Field laughed herself almost to pieces when she +found on going home that she had worn her leggins all the evening. We +had a pleasant walk home but did not stay till it was out. Some one +asked me if I danced every set and I told them no, I set every dance. I +told Grandmother and she was very much pleased. Some one told us that +Grandfather and Grandmother first met at a ball in the early settlement +of Canandaigua. I asked her if it was so and she said she never had +danced since she became a professing Christian and that was more than +fifty years ago. + +Grandfather heard to-day of the death of his sister, Lydia, who was Mrs. +Lyman Beecher. She was Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher's third wife. Grandmother +says that they visited her once and she was quite nervous thinking about +having such a great man as Dr. Lyman Beecher for her guest, as he was +considered one of the greatest men of his day, but she said she soon got +over this feeling, for he was so genial and pleasant and she noticed +particularly how he ran up and down stairs like a boy. I think that is +very apt to be the way for "men are only boys grown tall." + +There was a Know Nothing convention in town to-day. They don't want any +one but Americans to hold office, but I guess they will find that +foreigners will get in. Our hired man is an Irishman and I think he +would just as soon be "Prisidint" as not. + +_February_ 22.--This is such a beautiful day, the girls wanted a +holiday, but Mr. Richards would not grant it. We told him it was +Washington's birthday and we felt very patriotic, but he was inexorable. +We had a musical review and literary exercises instead in the afternoon +and I put on my blue merino dress and my other shoes. Anna dressed up, +too, and I curled her hair. The Primary scholars sit upstairs this term +and do not have to pay any more. Anna and Emma Wheeler like it very +much, but they do not sit together. We are seated alphabetically, and I +sit with Mary Reznor and Anna with Mittie Smith. They thought she would +behave better, I suppose, if they put her with one of the older girls, +but I do not know as it will have the "desired effect," as Grandmother +says. Miss Mary Howell and Miss Carrie Hart and Miss Lizzie and Miss +Mollie Bull were visitors this afternoon. Gertrude Monier played and +sang. Mrs. Anderson is the singing teacher. Marion Maddox and Pussie +Harris and Mary Daniels played on the piano. Mr. Hardick is the teacher, +and he played too. You would think he was trying to pound the piano all +to pieces but he is a good player. We have two papers kept up at school, +_The Snow Bird_ and _The Waif_--one for the younger and the other for +the older girls. Miss Jones, the composition teacher, corrects them +both. Kate Buell and Anna Maria Chapin read _The Waif_ to-day and Gusta +Buell and I read _The Snow Bird_. She has beautiful curls and has two +nice brothers also, Albert and Arthur, and the girls all like them. They +have not lived in town very long. + +_February_ 25.--I guess I won't fill up my journal any more by saying I +arose this morning at the usual time, for I don't think it is a matter +of life or death whether I get up at the usual time or a few minutes +later and when I am older and read over the account of the manner in +which I occupied my time in my younger days I don't think it will add +particularly to the interest to know whether I used to get up at 7 or at +a quarter before. I think Miss Sprague, our schoolroom teacher, would +have been glad if none of us had got up at all this morning for we acted +so in school. She does not want any noise during the three minute +recess, but there has been a good deal all day. In singing class they +disturbed Mr. Kimball by blowing through combs. We took off our round +combs and put paper over them and then blew--Mary Wheeler and Lottie +Lapham and Anna sat nearest me and we all tried to do it, but Lottie was +the only one who could make it go. He thought we all did, so he made us +come up and sit by him. I did not want to a bit. He told Miss Sprague of +us and she told the whole school if there was as much noise another day +she would keep every one of us an hour after half-past 4. As soon as she +said this they all began to groan. She said "Silence." I only made the +least speck of a noise that no one heard. + +_February_ 26.--To-night, after singing class, Mr. Richards asked all +who blew through combs to rise. I did not, because I could not make it +go, but when he said all who groaned could rise, I did, and some others, +but not half who did it. He kept us very late and we all had to sign an +apology to Miss Sprague. + +Grandfather made me a present of a beautiful blue stone to-day called +Malachite. Anna said she always thought Malachite was one of the +prophets. + +_March_ 3, 1856.--Elizabeth Spencer sits with me in school now. She is +full of fun but always manages to look very sober when Miss Chesebro +looks up to see who is making the noise over our way. I never seem to +have that knack. Anna had to stay after school last night and she wrote +in her journal that the reason was because "nature will out" and because +"she whispered and didn't have her lessons, etc., etc., etc." Mr. +Richards has allowed us to bring our sewing to school but now he says we +cannot any more. I am sorry for I have some embroidery and I could get +one pantalette done in a week, but now it will take me longer. +Grandmother has offered me one dollar if I will stitch a linen shirt +bosom and wrist bands for Grandfather and make the sleeves. I have +commenced but, Oh my! it is an undertaking. I have to pull the threads +out and then take up two threads and leave three. It is very particular +work and Anna says the stitches must not be visible to the naked eye. I +have to fell the sleeves with the tiniest seams and stroke all the +gathers and put a stitch on each gather. Minnie Bellows is the best one +in school with her needle and is a dabster at patching. She cut a piece +right out of her new calico dress and matched a new piece in and none of +us could tell where it was. I am sure it would not be safe for me to try +that. Grandmother let me ask three of the girls to dinner Saturday, +Abbie Clark, Mary Wheeler and Mary Field. We had a big roast turkey and +everything else to match. Good enough for Queen Victoria. That reminds +me of a conundrum we had in _The Snow Bird:_ What does Queen Victoria +take her pills in? In cider. (Inside her.) + +_March_ 7.--The reports were read at school to-day and mine was, +Attendance 10, Deportment 8, Scholarship 7 1/2, and Anna's 10, 10 and 7. +I think they got it turned around, for Anna has not behaved anything +uncommon lately. + +_March_ 10.--My teacher Miss Sprague kept me after school to-night for +whispering, and after all the others were gone she came to my seat and +put her arm around me and kissed me and said she loved me very much and +hoped I would not whisper in school any more. This made me feel very +sorry and I told her I would try my best, but it seemed as though it +whispered itself sometimes. I think she is just as nice as she can be +and I shall tell the other girls so. Her home is in Glens Falls. + +Anna jumped the rope two hundred times to-day without stopping, and I +told her that I read of a girl who did that and then fell right down +stone dead. I don't believe Anna will do it again. If she does I shall +tell Grandmother. + +_April_ 5.--I walked down town with Grandfather this morning and it is +such a beautiful day I felt glad that I was alive. The air was full of +tiny little flies, buzzing around and going in circles and semicircles +as though they were practising calisthenics or dancing a quadrille. I +think they were glad they were alive, too. I stepped on a big bug +crawling on the walk and Grandfather said I ought to have brushed it +aside instead of killing it. I asked him why and he said, "Shakespeare +says, 'The beetle that we tread upon feels a pang as great as when a +giant dies.'" + +A man came to our door the other day and asked if "Deacon" Beals was at +home. I asked Grandmother afterwards if Grandfather was a Deacon and she +said no and never had been, that people gave him the name when he was a +young man because he was so staid and sober in his appearance. Some one +told me once that I would not know my Grandfather if I should meet him +outside the Corporation. I asked why and he said because he was so +genial and told such good stories. I told him that was just the way he +always is at home. I do not know any one who appreciates real wit more +than he does. He is quite strong in his likes and dislikes, however. I +have heard him say, + + "I do not like you, Dr. Fell, + The reason why, I cannot tell; + But this one thing I know full well, + I do not like you, Dr. Fell." + +Bessie Seymour wore a beautiful gold chain to school this morning and I +told Grandmother that I wanted one just like it. She said that outward +adornments were not of as much value as inward graces and the ornament +of a meek and quiet spirit, in the sight of the Lord, was of great +price. I know it is very becoming to Grandmother and she wears it all +the time but I wish I had a gold chain just the same. + +Aunt Ann received a letter to-day from Lucilla, who is at Miss Porter's +school at Farmington, Connecticut. She feels as if she were a Christian +and that she has experienced religion. + +Grandfather noticed how bright and smart Bentley Murray was, on the +street, and what a business way he had, so he applied for a place for +him as page in the Legislature at Albany and got it. He is always +noticing young people and says, "As the twig is bent, the tree is +inclined." He says we may be teachers yet if we are studious now. Anna +says, "Excuse me, please." + +Grandmother knows the Bible from Genesis to Revelation excepting the +"begats" and the hard names, but Anna told her a new verse this morning, +"At Parbar westward, four at the causeway and two at Parbar." +Grandmother put her spectacles up on her forehead and just looked at +Anna as though she had been talking in Chinese. She finally said, "Anna, +I do not think that is in the Bible." She said, "Yes, it is; I found it +in 1 Chron. 26: 18." Grandmother found it and then she said Anna had +better spend her time looking up more helpful texts. Anna then asked her +if she knew who was the shortest man mentioned in the Bible and +Grandmother said "Zaccheus." Anna said that she just read in the +newspaper, that one said "Nehimiah was" and another said "Bildad the +Shuhite" and another said "Tohi." Grandmother said it was very wicked to +pervert the Scripture so, and she did not approve of it at all. I don't +think Anna will give Grandmother any more Bible conundrums. + +_April_ 12.--We went down town this morning and bought us some shaker +bonnets to wear to school. They cost $1 apiece and we got some green +silk for capes to put on them. We fixed them ourselves and wore them to +school and some of the girls liked them and some did not, but it makes +no difference to me what they like, for I shall wear mine till it is +worn out. Grandmother says that if we try to please everybody we please +nobody. The girls are all having mystic books at school now and they are +very interesting to have. They are blank books and we ask the girls and +boys to write in them and then they fold the page twice over and seal it +with wafers or wax and then write on it what day it is to be opened. +Some of them say, "Not to be opened for a year," and that is a long time +to wait. If we cannot wait we can open them and seal them up again. I +think Anna did look to see what Eugene Stone wrote in hers, for it does +not look as smooth as it did at first. We have autograph albums too and +Horace Finley gave us lots of small photographs. We paste them in the +books and then ask the people to write their names. We have got Miss +Upham's picture and Dr. and Mrs. Daggett, General Granger's and Hon. +Francis Granger's and Mrs. Adele Granger Thayer and Friend Burling, Dr. +Jewett, Dr. Cheney, Deacon Andrews and Dr. Carr, and Johnnie Thompson's, +Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Mr. E. M. Morse, Mrs. George Willson, Theodore +Barnum, Jim Paton's and Will Schley, Merritt Wilcox, Tom Raines, Ed. +Williams, Gus Coleman's, W. P. Fisk and lots of the girls' pictures +besides. Eugene Stone and Tom Eddy had their ambrotypes taken together, +in a handsome case, and gave it to Anna. We are going to keep them +always. + +_April_.--The Siamese twins are in town and a lot of the girls went to +see them in Bemis Hall this afternoon. It costs 10 cents. Grandmother +let us go. Their names are Eng and Chang and they are not very handsome. +They are two men joined together. I hope they like each other but I +don't envy them any way. If one wanted to go somewhere and the other one +didn't I don't see how they would manage it. One would have to give up, +that's certain. Perhaps they are both Christians. + +_April_ 30.--Rev. Henry M. Field, editor of the _New York Evangelist,_ +and his little French wife are here visiting. She is a wonderful woman. +She has written a book and paints beautiful pictures and was teacher of +art in Cooper Institute, New York. He is Grandmother's nephew and he +brought her a picture of himself and his five brothers, taken for +Grandmother, because she is the only aunt they have in the world. The +rest are all dead. The men in the picture are Jonathan and Matthew and +David Dudley and Stephen J. and Cyrus W. and Henry M. They are all very +nice looking and Grandmother thinks a great deal of the picture. + +_May_ 15.--Miss Anna Gaylord is one of my teachers at the seminary and +when I told her that I wrote a journal every day she wanted me to bring +her my last book and let her read it. I did so and she said she enjoyed +it very much and she hoped I would keep them for they would be +interesting for me to read when I am old. I think I shall do so. She has +a very particular friend, Rev. Mr. Beaumont, who is one of the teachers +at the Academy. I think they are going to be married some day. I guess I +will show her this page of my journal, too. Grandmother let me make a +pie in a saucer to-day and it was very good. + +_May_.--We were invited to Bessie Seymour's party last night and +Grandmother said we could go. The girls all told us at school that they +were going to wear low neck and short sleeves. We have caps on the +sleeves of our best dresses and we tried to get the sleeves out, so we +could go bare arms, but we couldn't get them out. We had a very nice +time, though, at the party. Some of the Academy boys were there and they +asked us to dance but of course we couldn't do that. We promenaded +around the rooms and went out to supper with them. Eugene Stone and Tom +Eddy asked to go home with us but Grandmother sent our two girls for us, +Bridget Flynn and Hannah White, so they couldn't. We were quite +disappointed, but perhaps she won't send for us next time. + +[Illustration: Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone, "Uncle David Dudley Field"] + +_May._--Grandmother is teaching me how to knit some mittens now, but if +I ever finish them it will be through much tribulation, the way they +have to be raveled out and commenced over again. I think I shall know +how to knit when I get through, if I never know how to do anything else. +Perhaps I shall know how to write, too, for I write all of Grandmother's +letters for her, because it tires her to write too much. I have sorted +my letters to-day and tied them in packages and found I had between 500 +and 600. I have had about two letters a week for the past five years and +have kept them all. Father almost always tells me in his letters to read +my Bible and say my prayers and obey Grandmother and stand up straight +and turn out my toes and brush my teeth and be good to my little sister. +I have been practising all these so long I can say, as the young man did +in the Bible when Jesus told him what to do to be saved, "all these have +I kept from my youth up." But then, I lack quite a number of things +after all. I am not always strictly obedient. For instance, I know +Grandmother never likes to have us read the secular part of the _New +York Observer_ on Sunday, so she puts it in the top drawer of the +sideboard until Monday, but I couldn't find anything interesting to read +the other Sunday so I took it out and read it and put it back. The jokes +and stories in it did not seem as amusing as usual so I think I will not +do it again. + +Grandfather's favorite paper is the _Boston Christian Register._ He +could not have one of them torn up any more than a leaf of the Bible. He +has barrels of them stored away in the garret. + +I asked Grandmother to-day to write a verse for me to keep always and +she wrote a good one: "To be happy and live long the three grand +essentials are: Be busy, love somebody and have high aims." I think, +from all I have noticed about her, that she has had this for her motto +all her life and I don't think Anna and I can do very much better than +to try and follow it too. Grandfather tells us sometimes, when she is +not in the room, that the best thing we can do is to be just as near +like Grandmother as we can possibly be. + +_Saturday, May_ 30.--Louisa Field came over to dinner to-day and brought +Allie with her. We had roast chickens for dinner and lots of other nice +things. Grandmother taught us how to string lilac blossoms for necklaces +and also how to make curls of dandelion stems. She always has some +things in the parlor cupboard which she brings out on extra occasions, +so she got them out to-day. They are some Chinamen which Uncle Thomas +brought home when he sailed around the world. They are wooden images +standing in boxes, packing tea with their feet. + +Last week Jennie Howell invited us to go up to Black Point Cabin with +her and to-day with a lot of grown-up people we went and enjoyed it. +There was a little girl there who waits on the table and can row +the boats too. She is Polly Carroll's granddaughter, Mary Jane. She sang +for us, + + "Nellie Ely shuts her eye when she goes to sleep, + When she opens them again her eyes begin to peep; + Hi Nellie, Ho Nellie, listen love to me, + I'll sing for you, I'll play for you, + A dulcet melody." + +She is just as cute as she can be. She said Mrs. Henry Chesebro taught +her to read. + +_Sunday, June_ 1.--Rev. Dr. Shaw, of Rochester, preached for Dr. Daggett +to-day and his text was: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst +again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall +never thirst." He said by this water he meant the pleasures of this +life, wealth and fame and honor, of which the more we have the more we +want and are never satisfied, but if we drink of the water that Christ +can give us we will have happiness here and forever. It was a very good +sermon and I love to hear him preach. Grandmother never likes to start +for church until after all the Seminary girls and Academy boys have gone +by, but this morning we got to the gate just as the boys came along. +When Grandmother saw five or six hats come off and knew they were bowing +to us, she asked us how we got acquainted with them. We told her that +almost all the girls knew the Academy boys and I am sure that is true. + +_Tuesday, June_ 8.--We are cleaning house now and Grandmother asked Anna +and me to take out a few tacks in the dining-room carpet. We did not +like it so very well but we liked eating dinner in the parlor, as the +table had to be set in there. Anna told us that when she got married we +could come to visit her any time in the year as she was never going to +clean house. We went down street on an errand to-night and hurried right +back, as Grandmother said she should look at the clock and see how long +we were gone. Emma Wheeler went with us. Anna says she and Emma are as +"thick as hasty pudding." + +_June._--Rev. Frederick Starr, of Penn Yan, had an exhibition in Bemis +Hall to-day of a tabernacle just like the children of Israel carried +with them to the Promised Land. We went to see it. He made it himself +and said he took all the directions from the Bible and knew where to put +the curtains and the poles and everything. It was interesting but we +thought it would be queer not to have any church to go to but one like +that, that you could take down and put up and carry around with you +wherever you went. + +_June._--Rev. Mr. Kendall is not going to preach in East Bloomfield any +more. The paper says he is going to New York to live and be Secretary of +the A.B.C.F.M. I asked Grandmother what that meant, and she said he +would have to write down what the missionaries do. I guess that will +keep him busy. Grandfather's nephew, a Mr. Adams of Boston and his wife, +visited us about two weeks ago. He is the head of the firm Adams' +Express Co. Anna asked them if they ever heard the conundrum "What was +Eve made for?" and they said no, so she told them the answer, "for +Adam's express company." They thought it was quite good. When they +reached home, they sent us each a reticule, with scissors, thimble, +stiletto, needle-case and tiny penknife and some stamped embroidery. +They must be very rich. + +_Saturday Night, July._--Grandfather was asking us to-night how many +things we could remember, and I told him I could remember when Zachary +Taylor died, and our church was draped in black, and Mr. Daggett +preached a funeral sermon about him, and I could remember when Daniel +Webster died, and there was service held in the church and his last +words, "I still live," were put up over the pulpit. He said he could +remember when George Washington died and when Benjamin Franklin died. He +was seven years old then and he was seventeen when Washington died. Of +course his memory goes farther back than mine, but he said I did very +well, considering. + +_July._--I have not written in my journal for several days because we +have been out of town. Grandfather had to go to Victor on business and +took Anna and me with him. Anna says she loves to ride on the cars as it +is fun to watch the trees and fences run so. We took dinner at Dr. +Ball's and came home on the evening train. Then Judge Ellsworth came +over from Penn Yan to see Grandfather on business and asked if he could +take us home with him and he said yes, so we went and had a splendid +time and stayed two days. Stewart was at home and took us all around +driving and took us to the graveyard to see our mother's grave. I copied +this verse from the gravestone: + + "Of gentle seeming was her form + And the soft beaming of her radiant eye + Was sunlight to the beauty of her face. + Peace, sacred peace, was written on her brow + And flowed in the low music of her voice + Which came unto the list'ner like the tones of soothing Autumn winds. + Her hands were full of consolations which she scattered free to + all--the poor, the sick, the sorrowful." + +I think she must have been exactly like Grandmother only she was 32 and +Grandmother is 72. + +Stewart went to prayer meeting because it was Wednesday night, and when +he came home his mother asked him if he took part in the meeting. He +said he did and she asked him what he said. He said he told the story of +Ethan Allen, the infidel, who was dying, and his daughter asked him +whose religion she should live by, his or her mother's, and he said, +"Your mother's, my daughter, your mother's." This pleased Mrs. Ellsworth +very much. Stewart is a great boy and you never can tell whether he is +in earnest or not. It was very warm while we were gone and when we got +home Anna told Grandmother she was going to put on her barege dress and +take a rocking-chair and a glass of ice water and a palm leaf fan and go +down cellar and sit, but Grandmother told her if she would just sit +still and take a book and get her mind on something else besides the +weather, she would be cool enough. Grandmother always looks as cool as a +cucumber even when the thermometer is 90 in the shade. + +_Sunday, August._--Rev. Anson D. Eddy preached this morning. His text +was from the sixth chapter of John, 44th verse. "No man can come to me, +except the Father which hath sent me, draw him." He is Tom Eddy's +father, and very good-looking and smart too. He used to be one of the +ministers of our church before Mr. Daggett came. He wrote a book in our +Sunday School library, about Old Black Jacob, and Grandmother loves to +read it. We had a nice dinner to-day, green peas, lemonade and +gooseberry pie. We had cold roast lamb too, because Grandmother never +has any meat cooked on Sunday. + +_Sunday._--Mr. Noah T. Clarke is superintendent of our Sunday School +now, and this morning he asked, "What is prayer?" No one answered, so I +stood up and gave the definition from the catechism. He seemed pleased +and so was Grandmother when I told her. Anna said she supposes she was +glad that "her labor was not in vain in the Lord." I think she is trying +to see if she can say Bible verses, like grown-up people do. + +Grandfather said that I did better than the little boy he read about +who, when a visitor asked the Sunday School children what was the +ostensible object of Sabbath School instruction, waited till the +question was repeated three times and then stood up and said, "Yes, +sir." + +_Wednesday._--We could not go to prayer meeting to-night because it +rained, so Grandmother said we could go into the kitchen and stand by +the window and hear the Methodists. We could hear every word that old +Father Thompson said, and every hymn they sung, but Mr. Jervis used such +big words we could not understand him at all. + +_Sunday._--Grandmother says she loves to look at the beautiful white +heads of Mr. Francis Granger and General Granger as they sit in their +pews in church. She says that is what it means in the twelfth chapter of +Ecclesiastes where it says, "And the almond tree shall flourish." I +don't know exactly why it means them, but I suppose she does. We have +got a beautiful almond tree in our front yard covered with flowers, but +the blossoms are pink. Probably they had white ones in Jerusalem, where +Solomon lived. + +_Monday._--Mr. Alex. Jeffrey has come from Lexington, Ky., and brought +Mrs. Ross and his three daughters, Julia, Shaddie and Bessie Jeffrey. +Mrs. Ross knows Grandmother and came to call and brought the girls. They +are very pretty and General Granger's granddaughters. I think they are +going to stay all summer. + +_Thanksgiving Day._--We all went to church and Dr. Daggett's text was: +"He hath not dealt so with any nation." Aunt Glorianna and her children +were here and Uncle Field and all their family and Dr. Carr and all his +family. There were about sixteen of us in all and we children had a +table in the corner all by ourselves. We had roast turkey and everything +else we could think of. After dinner we went into the parlor and Aunt +Glorianna played on the piano and sang, "Flow gently, sweet Afton, among +thy green braes," and "Poor Bessie was a sailor's wife." These are +Grandfather's favorites. Dr. Carr sang "I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, +where we sat side by side." He is a beautiful singer. It seemed just +like Sunday, for Grandmother never likes to have us work or play on +Thanksgiving Day, but we had a very good time, indeed, and were sorry +when they all went home. + +_Saturday, December_ 20.--Lillie Reeve and her brother, Charlie, have +come from Texas to live. He goes to the Academy and she boards with Miss +Antoinette Pierson. Miss Pierson invited me up to spend the afternoon +and take tea with her and I went and had a very nice time. She told me +about their camp life in Texas and how her mother died, and her little +baby sister, Minnie, lives with her Grandmother Sheppard in Dansville. +She is a very nice girl and I like her very much, indeed. + + + + +1857 + +_January_ 8.--Anna and Alice Jewett caught a ride down to the lake this +afternoon on a bob-sleigh, and then caught a ride back on a load of +frozen pigs. In jumping off, Anna tore her flannel petticoat from the +band down. I did not enjoy the situation as much as Anna, because I had +to sit up after she had gone to bed, and darn it by candle light, +because she was afraid Grandmother might see the rent and inquire into +it, and that would put an end to bobsled exploits. + +_March_ 6.--Anna and her set will have to square accounts with Mr. +Richards to-morrow, for nine of them ran away from school this +afternoon, Alice Jewett, Louisa Field, Sarah Antes, Hattie Paddock, +Helen Coy, Jennie Ruckel, Frankie Younglove, Emma Wheeler and Anna. They +went out to Mr. Sackett's, where they are making maple sugar. Mr. and +Mrs. Sackett were at home and two Miss Sacketts and Darius, and they +asked them in and gave them all the sugar they wanted, and Anna said +pickles, too, and bread and butter, and the more pickles they ate the +more sugar they could eat. I guess they will think of pickles when Mr. +Richards asks them where they were. I think Ellie Daggett and Charlie +Paddock went, too, and some of the Academy boys. + +_March 7._--They all had to stay after school to-night for an hour and +copy Dictionary. Anna seems reconciled, for she just wrote in her +journal: "It was a very good plan to keep us because no one ever ought +to stay out of school except on account of sickness, and if they once +get a thing fixed in their minds it will stay there, and when they grow +up it will do them a great deal of good." + +_April._--Grandfather gave us 10 cents each this morning for learning +the 46th Psalm and has promised us $1 each for reading the Bible through +in a year. We were going to any way. Some of the girls say they should +think we would be afraid of Grandfather, he is so sober, but we are not +the least bit. He let us count $1,000 to-night which a Mr. Taylor, a +cattle buyer, brought to him in the evening after banking hours. Anybody +must be very rich who has all that money of their own. + +_Friday._--Our old horse is dead and we will have to buy another. He was +very steady and faithful. One day Grandfather left him at the front gate +and he started along and turned the corner all right, down the Methodist +lane and went way down to our barn doors and stood there until Mr. Piser +came and took him into the barn. People said they set their clocks by +him because it was always quarter past 12 when he was driven down to the +bank after Grandfather and quarter of 1 when he came back. I don't think +the clocks would ever be too fast if they were set by him. We asked +Grandfather what he died of and he said he had run his race but I think +he meant he had walked it, for I never saw him go off a jog in my life. +Anna used to say he was taking a nap when we were out driving with +Grandfather. I have written some lines in his memory and if I knew where +he was buried, I would print it on his head board. + + Old Dobbin's dead, that good old horse, + We ne'er shall see him more, + He always used to lag behind + But now he's gone before. + +It is a parody on old Grimes is dead, which is in our reader, only that +is a very long poem. I am not going to show mine to Grandfather till he +gets over feeling bad about the horse. + +_Sunday._--Grandmother gave Anna, Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of +Religion in the Soul" to read to-day. Anna says she thinks she will have +to rise and progress a good deal before she will be able to appreciate +it. Baxter's "Saints Rest" would probably suit her better. + +_Sunday, April_ 5.--An agent for the American Board of Foreign Missions +preached this morning in our church from Romans 10: 15: "How shall they +hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent." +An agent from every society presents the cause, whatever it is, once a +year and some people think the anniversary comes around very often. I +always think of Mrs. George Wilson's poem on "A apele for air, pewer +air, certin proper for the pews, which, she sez, is scarce as piety, or +bank bills when ajents beg for mischuns, wich sum say is purty often, +(taint nothin' to me, wat I give aint nothin' to nobody)." I think that +is about the best poem of its kind I ever read. + +Miss Lizzie Bull told us in Sunday School to-day that she cannot be our +Sunday School teacher any more, as she and her sister Mary are going to +join the Episcopal Church. We hate to have her go, but what can't be +cured must be endured. Part of our class are going into Miss Mary +Howell's class and part into Miss Annie Pierce's. They are both splendid +teachers and Miss Lizzie Bull is another. We had preaching in our church +this afternoon, too. Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, of Le Roy Female Seminary, +preached. He is a great man, very large, long white hair combed back. I +think if a person once saw him they would never forget him. He preached +about Melchisidek, who had neither "beginning of days or end of life." +Some people thought that was like his sermon, for it was more than one +hour long. Dr. Cox and Mrs. Taylor came to call and asked Grandfather to +let me go to Le Roy Female Seminary, but Grandfather likes Ontario +Female Seminary better than any other in the world. We wanted +Grandmother to have her picture taken, but she did not feel able to go +to Mr. Finley's, so he came up Tuesday and took it in our dining-room. +She had her best cap on and her black silk dress and sat in her high +back rocking chair in her usual corner near the window. He brought one +up to show us and we like it so much. Anna looked at it and kissed it +and said, "Grandmother, I think you are perfectly beautiful." She smiled +and very modestly put her handkerchief up to her face and said, "You +foolish child," but I am sure she was pleased, for how could she help +it? A man came up to the open window one day where she was sitting, with +something to sell, and while she was talking to him he said, "You must +have been handsome, lady, when you were young." Grandmother said it was +because he wanted to sell his wares, but we thought he knew it was so. +We told her she couldn't get around it that way and we asked Grandfather +and he said it was true. Our Sunday School class went to Mr. Finley's +to-day and had a group ambrotype taken for our teacher, Miss Annie +Pierce; Susie Daggett, Clara Willson, Sarah Whitney, Mary Field and +myself. Mary Wheeler ought to have been in it, too, but we couldn't get +her to come. We had very good success. + +_Thursday_.--We gave the ambrotype to Miss Pierce and she liked it very +much and so does her mother and Fannie. Her mother is lame and cannot go +anywhere so we often go to see her and she is always glad to see us and +so pleasant. + +_May_ 9.--Miss Lizzie Bull came for me to go botanising with her this +morning and we were gone from 9 till 12, and went clear up to the orphan +asylum. I am afraid I am not a born botanist, for all the time she was +analysing the flowers and telling me about the corona and the corolla +and the calyx and the stamens and petals and pistils, I was thinking +what beautiful hands she had and how dainty they looked, pulling the +blossoms all to pieces. I am afraid I am commonplace, like the man we +read of in English literature, who said "a primrose by the river brim, a +yellow primrose, was to him, and it was nothing more." + +Mr. William Wood came to call this afternoon and gave us some +morning-glory seeds to sow and told us to write down in our journals +that he did so. So here it is. What a funny old man he is. Anna and Emma +Wheeler went to Hiram Tousley's funeral to-day. She has just written in +her journal that Hiram's corpse was very perfect of him and that Fannie +looked very pretty in black. She also added that after the funeral +Grandfather took Aunt Ann and Lucilla out to ride to Mr. Howe's and just +as they got there it sprinkled. She says she don't know "weather" they +got wet or not. She went to a picnic at Sucker Brook yesterday +afternoon, and this is the way she described it in her journal. "Miss +Hurlburt told us all to wear rubbers and shawls and bring some cake and +we would have a picnic. We had a very warm time. It was very warm indeed +and I was most roasted and we were all very thirsty indeed. We had in +all the party about 40 of us. It was very pleasant and I enjoyed myself +exceedingly. We had boiled eggs, pickles, Dutch cheese and sage cheese +and loaf cake and raisin cake, pound cake, dried beef and capers, jam +and tea cakes and gingerbread, and we tried to catch some fish but we +couldn't, and in all we had a very nice time. I forgot to say that I +picked some flowers for my teacher. I went to bed tired out and worn +out." + +Her next entry was the following day when she and the other scholars +dressed up to "speak pieces." She says, "After dinner I went and put on +my rope petticoat and lace one over it and my barege de laine dress and +all my rings and white bask and breastpin and worked handkerchief and +spoke my piece. It was, 'When I look up to yonder sky.' It is very +pretty indeed and most all the girls said I looked nice and said it +nice. They were all dressed up, too." + +_Thursday_.--I asked Grandfather why we do not have gas in the house +like almost every one else and he said because it was bad for the eyes +and he liked candles and sperm oil better. We have the funniest little +sperm oil lamp with a shade on to read by evenings and the fire on the +hearth gives Grandfather and Grandmother all the light they want, for +she knits in her corner and we read aloud to them if they want us to. I +think if Grandfather is proud of anything besides being a Bostonian, it +is that everything in the house is forty years old. The shovel and tongs +and andirons and fender and the haircloth sofa and the haircloth rocking +chair and the flag bottomed chairs painted dark green and the two old +arm-chairs which belong to them and no one else ever thinks of touching. +There is a wooden partition between the dining-room and parlor and they +say it can slide right up out of sight on pulleys, so that it would be +all one room. We have often said that we wished we could see it go up +but they say it has never been up since the day our mother was married +and as she is dead I suppose it would make them feel bad, so we probably +will always have it down. There are no curtains or even shades at the +windows, because Grandfather says, "light is sweet and a pleasant thing +it is to behold the sun." The piano is in the parlor and it is the same +one that our mother had when she was a little girl but we like it all +the better for that. There are four large oil paintings on the parlor +wall, De Witt Clinton, Rev. Mr. Dwight, Uncle Henry Channing Beals and +Aunt Lucilla Bates, and no matter where we sit in the room they are +watching and their eyes seem to move whenever we do. There is quite a +handsome lamp on a mahogany center table, but I never saw it lighted. We +have four sperm candles in four silver candlesticks and when we have +company we light them. Johnnie Thompson, son of the minister, Rev. M. L. +R. P., has come to the academy to school and he is very full of fun and +got acquainted with all the girls very quick. He told us this afternoon +to have "the other candle lit" for he was coming down to see us this +evening. Will Schley heard him say it and he said he was coming too. His +mother says she always knows when he has been at our house, because she +finds sperm on his clothes and has to take brown paper and a hot +flatiron to get it out, but still I do not think that Mrs. Schley cares, +for she is a very nice lady and she and I are great friends. I presume +she would just as soon he would spend part of his time with us as to be +with Horace Finley all the time. Those boys are just like twins. We +never see one without being sure that the other is not far away. + +_Later_.--The boys came and we had a very pleasant evening but when the +9 o'clock bell rang we heard Grandfather winding up the clock and +scraping up the ashes on the hearth to cover the fire so it would last +till morning and we all understood the signal and they bade us +good-night. "We won't go home till morning" is a song that will never be +sung in this house. + +_June_ 2.--Abbie Clark wrote such a nice piece in my album to-day I am +going to write it in my journal. Grandfather says he likes the sentiment +as well as any in my book. This is it: "It has been said that the +friendship of some people is like our shadow, keeping close by us while +the sun shines, deserting us the moment we enter the shade, but think +not such is the friendship of Abbie S. Clark." Abbie and I took supper +at Miss Mary Howell's to-night to see Adele Ives. We had a lovely time. + +_Tuesday_.--General Tom Thumb was in town to-day and everybody who +wanted to see him could go to Bemis Hall. Twenty-five cents for old +people, and 10 cents for children, but we could see him for nothing when +he drove around town. He had a little carriage and two little bits of +ponies and a little boy with a high silk hat on, for the driver. He sat +inside the coach but we could see him looking out. We went to the hall +in the afternoon and the man who brought him stood by him and looked +like a giant and told us all about him. Then he asked Tom Thumb to make +a speech and stood him upon the table. He told all the ladies he would +give them a kiss if they would come up and buy his picture. Some of them +did. + +_Friday, July._--I have not kept a journal for two weeks because we have +been away visiting. Anna and I had an invitation to go to Utica to visit +Rev. and Mrs. Brandigee. He is rector of Grace Episcopal church there +and his wife used to belong to Father's church in Morristown, N. J. Her +name was Miss Condict. Rev. Mr. Stowe was going to Hamilton College at +Clinton, so he said he would take us to Utica. We had a lovely time. The +corner stone of the church was laid while we were there and Bishop De +Lancey came and stayed with us at Mr. Brandigee's. He is a very nice man +and likes children. One morning they had muffins for breakfast and Anna +asked if they were ragamuffins. Mr. Brandigee said, "Yes, they are made +of rags and brown paper," but we knew he was just joking. When we came +away Mrs. Brandigee gave me a prayer book and Anna a vase, but she +didn't like it and said she should tell Mrs. Brandigee she wanted a +prayer book too, so I had to change with her. When we came home Mr. +Brandigee put us in care of the conductor. There was a fine soldier +looking man in the car with us and we thought it was his wife with him. +He wore a blue coat and brass buttons, and some one said his name was +Custer and that he was a West Point cadet and belonged to the regular +army. I told Anna she had better behave or he would see her, but she +would go out and stand on the platform until the conductor told her not +to. I pulled her dress and looked very stern at her and motioned toward +Mr. Custer, but it did not seem to have any impression on her. I saw Mr. +Custer smile once because my words had no effect. I was glad when we got +to Canandaigua. I heard some one say that Dr. Jewett was at the depot to +take Mr. Custer and his wife to his house, but I only saw Grandfather +coming after us. He said, "Well, girls, you have been and you have got +back," but I could see that he was glad to have us at home again, even +if we are "troublesome comforts," as he sometimes says. + +_July_ 4.--Barnum's circus was in town to-day and if Grandmother had not +seen the pictures on the hand bills I think she would have let us go. +She said it was all right to look at the creatures God had made but she +did not think He ever intended that women should go only half dressed +and stand up and ride on horses bare back, or jump through hoops in the +air. So we could not go. We saw the street parade though and heard the +band play and saw the men and women in a chariot, all dressed so fine, +and we saw a big elephant and a little one and a camel with an awful +hump on his back, and we could hear the lion roar in the cage, as they +went by. It must have been nice to see them close to and probably we +will some day. + +[Illustration: Grandmother's Rocking Chair, "The Grandfather Clock"] + +_August_ 8.--Grandfather has given me his whole set of Waverley novels +and his whole set of Shakespeare's plays, and has ordered Mr. Jahn, the +cabinetmaker, to make me a black walnut bookcase, with glass doors and +three deep drawers underneath, with brass handles. He is so good. Anna +says perhaps he thinks I am going to be married and go to housekeeping +some day. Well, perhaps he does. Stranger things have happened. "Barkis +is willin'," and I always like to please Grandfather. I have just read +David Copperfield and was so interested I could not leave it alone till +I finished it. + +_September_ 1.--Anna and I have been in Litchfield, Conn., at Father's +school for boys. It is kept in the old Beecher house, where Dr. Lyman +Beecher lived. We went up into the attic, which is light and airy, where +they say he used to write his famous sermons. James is one of the +teachers and he came for us. We went to Farmington and saw all the +Cowles families, as they are our cousins. Then we drove by the Charter +Oak and saw all there is left of it. It was blown down last year but the +stump is fenced around. In Hartford we visited Gallaudet's Institution +for the deaf and dumb and went to the historical rooms, where we saw +some of George Washington's clothes and his watch and his penknife, but +we did not see his little hatchet. We stayed two weeks in New York and +vicinity before we came home. Uncle Edward took us to Christie's +Minstrels and the Hippodrome, so we saw all the things we missed seeing +when the circus was here in town. Grandmother seemed surprised when we +told her, but she didn't say much because she was so glad to have us at +home again. Anna said we ought to bring a present to Grandfather and +Grandmother, for she read one time about some children who went away and +came back grown up and brought home "busts of the old philosophers for +the sitting-room," so as we saw some busts of George Washington and +Benjamin Franklin in plaster of paris we bought them, for they look +almost like marble and Grandfather and Grandmother like them. Speaking +of busts reminds me of a conundrum I heard while I was gone. "How do we +know that Poe's Raven was a dissipated bird? Because he was all night on +a bust." Grandfather took us down to the bank to see how he had it made +over while we were gone. We asked him why he had a beehive hanging out +for a sign and he said, "Bees store their honey in the summer for winter +use and men ought to store their money against a rainy day." He has a +swing door to the bank with "Push" on it. He said he saw a man studying +it one day and finally looking up he spelled p-u-s-h, push (and +pronounced it like mush). "What does that mean?" Grandfather showed him +what it meant and he thought it was very convenient. He was about as +thick-headed as the man who saw some snuffers and asked what they were +for and when told to snuff the candle with, he immediately snuffed the +candle with his fingers and put it in the snuffers and said, "Law sakes, +how handy!" Grandmother really laughed when she read this in the paper. + +_September_.--Mrs. Martin, of Albany, is visiting Aunt Ann, and she +brought Grandmother a fine fish that was caught in the Atlantic Ocean. +We went over and asked her to come to dinner to-morrow and help eat it +and she said if it did not rain pitchforks she would come, so I think we +may expect her. Her granddaughter, Hattie Blanchard, has come here to go +to the seminary and will live with Aunt Ann. She is a very pretty girl. +Mary Field came over this morning and we went down street together. +Grandfather went with us to Mr. Nat Gorham's store, as he is selling off +at cost, and got Grandmother and me each a new pair of kid gloves. Hers +are black and mine are green. Hers cost six shillings and mine cost five +shillings and six pence; very cheap for such nice ones. Grandmother let +Anna have six little girls here to supper to-night: Louisa Field, Hattie +Paddock, Helen Coy, Martha Densmore, Emma Wheeler and Alice Jewett. We +had a splendid supper and then we played cards. I do not mean regular +cards, mercy no! Grandfather thinks those kind are contagious or +outrageous or something dreadful and never keeps them in the house. +Grandmother said they found a pack once, when the hired man's room was +cleaned, and they went into the fire pretty quick. The kind we played +was just "Dr. Busby," and another "The Old Soldier and His Dog." There +are counters with them, and if you don't have the card called for you +have to pay one into the pool. It is real fun. They all said they had a +very nice time, indeed, when they bade Grandmother good-night, and said: +"Mrs. Beals, you must let Carrie and Anna come and see us some time," +and she said she would. I think it is nice to have company. + +_Christmas_.--Grandfather and Grandmother do not care much about making +Christmas presents. They say, when they were young no one observed +Christmas or New Years, but they always kept Thanksgiving day. Our +cousins, the Fields and Carrs, gave us several presents and Uncle Edward +sent us a basket full from New York by express. Aunt Ann gave me one of +the Lucy books and a Franconia story book and to Anna, "The Child's Book +on Repentance." When Anna saw the title, she whispered to me and said if +she had done anything she was sorry for she was willing to be forgiven. +I am afraid she will never read hers but I will lend her mine. Miss Lucy +Ellen Guernsey, of Rochester, gave me "Christmas Earnings" and wrote in +it, "Carrie C. Richards with the love of the author." I think that is +very nice. Anna and I were chattering like two magpies to-day, and a man +came in to talk to Grandfather on business. He told us in an undertone +that children should be seen and not heard. After he had gone I saw Anna +watching him a long time till he was only a speck in the distance and I +asked her what she was doing. She said she was doing it because it was a +sign if you watched persons out of sight you would never see them again. +She does not seem to have a very forgiving spirit, but you can't always +tell. + +Mr. William Wood, the venerable philanthropist of whom Canandaigua has +been justly proud for many years, is dead. I have preserved this poem, +written by Mrs. George Willson in his honor: + +Mr. Editor,--The following lines were written by a lady of this village, +and have been heretofore published, but on reading in your last paper +the interesting extract relating to the late William Wood, Esq., it was +suggested that they be again published, not only for their merit, but +also to keep alive the memory of one who has done so much to ornament +our village. + + When first on this stage of existence we come + Blind, deaf, puny, helpless, but not, alas, dumb, + What can please us, and soothe us, and make us sleep good? + To be rocked in a cradle;--and cradles are wood. + When older we grow, and we enter the schools + Where masters break rulers o'er boys who break rules, + What can curb and restrain and make laws understood + But the birch-twig and ferule?--and both are of wood. + When old age--second childhood, takes vigor away, + And we totter along toward our home in the clay, + What can aid us to stand as in manhood we stood + But our tried, trusty staff?--and the staff is of wood. + And when from this stage of existence we go, + And death drops the curtain on all scenes below, + In our coffins we rest, while for worms we are food, + And our last sleeping place, like our first, is of wood. + Then honor to wood! fresh and strong may it grow, + 'Though winter has silvered its summit with snow; + Embowered in its shade long our village has stood; + She'd scarce be Canandaigua if stripped of her Wood. + +Stanza added after the death of Mr. Wood + + The sad time is come; she is stript of her Wood, + 'Though the trees that he planted still stand where they stood, + Still with storms they can wrestle with arms stout and brave; + Still they wave o'er our dwellings--they droop o'er his grave! + Alas! that the life of the cherished and good + Is more frail and more brief than the trees of the wood! + + + + +1858 + +_February_ 24, 1858.--The boarders at the Seminary had some tableaux +last evening and invited a great many from the village. As we went in +with the crowd, we heard some one say, "Are they going to have tableaux? +Well, I thought I smelt them!" They were splendid. Mr. Chubbuck was in +nearly all of them. The most beautiful one was Abraham offering up +Isaac. Mr. Chubbuck was Abraham and Sarah Ripley was Isaac. After the +tableaux they acted a charade. The word was "Masterpiece." It was fine. +After the audience got half way out of the chapel Mr. Richards announced +"The Belle of the Evening." The curtain rose and every one rushed back, +expecting to see a young lady dressed in the height of fashion, when +immediately the Seminary bell rang! Mr. Blessner's scholars gave all the +music and he stamped so, beating time, it almost drowned the music. Some +one suggested a bread and milk poultice for his foot. Anna has been +taking part in some private theatricals. The play is in contrast to "The +Spirit of '76" and the idea carried out is that the men should stay at +home and rock the cradles and the women should take the rostrum. +Grandmother was rather opposed to the idea, but every one wanted Anna to +take the part of leading lady, so she consented. She even helped Anna +make her bloomer suit and sewed on the braid for trimming on the skirt +herself. She did not know that Anna's opening sentence was, "How are +you, sir? Cigar, please!" It was acted at Mrs. John Bates' house on +Gibson Street and was a great success, but when they decided to repeat +it another evening Grandmother told Anna she must choose between going +on the stage and living with her Grandmother, so Anna gave it up and +some one else took her part. + +_March_.--There is a great deal said about spirits nowadays and a lot of +us girls went into one of the recitation rooms after school to-night and +had a spiritual seance. We sat around Mr. Chubbuck's table and put our +hands on it and it moved around and stood on two legs and sometimes on +one. I thought the girls helped it but they said they didn't. We heard +some loud raps, too, but they sounded very earthly to me. Eliza Burns, +one of the boarders, told us if we would hold our breath we could pick +up one of the girls from the floor and raise her up over our heads with +one finger of each hand, if the girl held her breath, too. We tried it +with Anna and did it, but we had such hard work to keep from laughing I +expected we would drop her. There is nothing very spirituelle about any +of us. I told Grandmother and she said we reminded her of Jemima +Wilkinson, who told all her followers that the world was to come to an +end on a certain day and they should all be dressed in white and get up +on the roofs of the houses and be prepared to ascend and meet the Lord +in the air. I asked Grandmother what she said when nothing happened and +she said she told them it was because they did not have faith enough. If +they had, everything would have happened just as she said. Grandmother +says that one day at a time has always been enough for her and that +to-morrow will take care of the things of itself. + +_May,_ 1858.--Several of us girls went up into the top of the new Court +House to-day as far as the workmen would allow us. We got a splendid +view of the lake and of all the country round. Abbie Clark climbed up on +a beam and recited part of Alexander Selkirk's soliloquy: + + "I'm monarch of all I survey, + My rights there are none to dispute: + From the center, all round to the sea, + I'm lord of the fowl and brute." + +I was standing on a block and she said I looked like "Patience on a +monument smiling at Grief." I am sure she could not be taken for +"Grief." She always has some quotation on her tongue's end. We were down +at Sucker Brook the other day and she picked her way out to a big stone +in the middle of the stream and, standing on it, said, in the words of +Rhoderick Dhu, + + "Come one, come all, this rock shall fly + From its firm base, as soon as I." + +Just then the big stone tipped over and she had to wade ashore. She is +not at all afraid of climbing and as we left the Court House she said +she would like to go outside on the cupola and help Justice balance the +scales. + +A funny old man came to our house to-day as he wanted to deposit some +money and reached the bank after it was closed. We were just sitting +down to dinner so Grandfather asked him to stay and have "pot luck" with +us. He said that he was very much "obleeged" and stayed and passed his +plate a second time for more of our very fine "pot luck." We had boiled +beef and dumplings and I suppose he thought that was the name of the +dish. He talked so queer we couldn't help noticing it. He said he +"heered" so and he was "afeered" and somebody was very "deef" and they +"hadn't ought to have done it" and "they should have went" and such +things. Anna and I almost laughed but Grandmother looked at us with her +eye and forefinger so we sobered down. She told us afterwards that there +are many good people in the world whose verbs and nouns do not agree, +and instead of laughing at them we should be sure that we always speak +correctly ourselves. Very true. Dr. Daggett was at the Seminary one day +when we had public exercises and he told me afterwards that I said +"sagac-ious" for "saga-cious" and Aunt Ann told me that I said +"epi-tome" for "e-pit-o-me." So "people that live in glass houses +shouldn't throw stones." + +_Sunday._--Grandfather read his favorite parable this morning at +prayers--the one about the wise man who built his house upon a rock and +the foolish man who built upon the sand. He reads it good, just like a +minister. He prays good, too, and I know his prayer by heart. He says, +"Verily Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel +acknowledge us not," and he always says, "Thine arm is not shortened +that it cannot save, or Thine ear heavy that it cannot hear." I am glad +that I can remember it. + +_June._--Cyrus W. Field called at our house to-day. He is making a trip +through the States and stopped here a few hours because Grandmother is +his aunt. He made her a present of a piece of the Atlantic cable about +six inches long, which he had mounted for her. It is a very nice +souvenir. He is a tall, fine looking man and very pleasant. + +_Sunday, July_ 4, 1858.--This is Communion Sunday and quite a number +united with the church on profession of their faith. Mr. Gideon Granger +was one of them. Grandmother says that she has known him always and his +father and mother, and she thinks he is like John, the beloved disciple. +I think that any one who knows him, knows what is meant by a gentle-man. +I have a picture of Christ in the Temple with the doctors, and His face +is almost exactly like Mr. Granger's. Some others who joined to-day were +Miss Belle Paton, Miss Lottie Clark and Clara Willson, Mary Wheeler and +Sarah Andrews. Dr. Daggett always asks all the communicants to sit in +the body pews and the noncommunicants in the side pews. We always feel +like the goats on the left when we leave Grandfather and Grandmother and +go on the side, but we won't have to always. Abbie Clark, Mary Field and +I think we will join at the communion in September. Grandmother says she +hopes we realize what a solemn thing it is. We are fifteen years old so +I think we ought to. No one who hears Dr. Daggett say in his beautiful +voice, "I now renounce all ways of sin as what I truly abhor and choose +the service of God as my greatest privilege," could think it any +trifling matter. I feel as though I couldn't be bad if I wanted to be, +and when he blesses them and says, "May the God of the Everlasting +Covenant keep you firm and holy to the end through Jesus Christ our +Lord," everything seems complete. He always says at the close, "And when +they had sung an hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives." Then he +gives out the hymn, beginning: + + "According to Thy gracious word, + In deep humility, + This will I do, my dying Lord + I will remember Thee." + +And the last verse: + + "And when these failing lips grow dumb, + And mind and memory flee, + When in Thy kingdom Thou shalt come, + Jesus remember me." + +[Illustration: Hon. Francis Granger, Mr. Gideon Granger] + +Deacon Taylor always starts the hymn. Deacon Taylor and Deacon Tyler sit +on one side of Dr. Daggett and Deacon Clarke and Deacon Castle on the +other. Grandfather and Grandmother joined the church fifty-one years ago +and are the oldest living members. She says they have always been glad +that they took this step when they were young. + +_August_ 17.--There was a celebration in town to-day because the Queen's +message was received on the Atlantic cable. Guns were fired and church +bells rung and flags were waving everywhere. In the evening there was a +torchlight procession and the town was all lighted up except Gibson +Street. Allie Antes died this morning, so the people on that street kept +their houses as usual. Anna says that probably Allie Antes was better +prepared to die than any other little girl in town. Atwater hall and the +academy and the hotel were more brilliantly illuminated than any other +buildings. Grandfather saw something in a Boston paper that a minister +said in his sermon about the Atlantic cable and he wants me to write it +down in my journal. This is it: "The two hemispheres are now +successfully united by means of the electric wire, but what is it, after +all, compared with the instantaneous communication between the Throne of +Divine Grace and the heart of man? Offer up your silent petition. It is +transmitted through realms of unmeasured space more rapidly than the +lightning's flash, and the answer reaches the soul e're the prayer has +died away on the sinner's lips. Yet this telegraph, performing its +saving functions ever since Christ died for men on Calvary, fills not +the world with exultation and shouts of gladness, with illuminations and +bonfires and the booming of cannon. The reason is, one is the telegraph +of this world and may produce revolutions on earth; the other is the +sweet communication between Christ and the Christian soul and will +secure a glorious immortality in Heaven." Grandfather appreciates +anything like that and I like to please him. + +Grandfather says he thinks the 19th Psalm is a prophecy of the electric +telegraph. "Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words +to the end of the world." It certainly sounds like it. + +_Sunday_.--Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is staying at Judge Taylor's and came +with them to church to-day. Everybody knew that he was here and thought +he would preach and the church was packed full. When he came in he went +right to Judge Taylor's pew and sat with him and did not preach at all, +but it was something to look at him. Mr. Daggett was away on his +vacation and Rev. Mr. Jervis of the M. E. church preached. I heard some +people say they guessed even Mr. Beecher heard some new words to-day, +for Mr. Jervis is quite a hand to make them up or find very long hard +ones in the dictionary. + +_August_ 30, 1858.--Rev. Mr. Tousley was hurt to-day by the falling of +his barn which was being moved, and they think his back is broken and if +he lives he can never sit up again. Only last Sunday he was in Sunday +School and had us sing in memory of Allie Antes: + + "A mourning class, a vacant seat, + Tell us that one we loved to meet + Will join our youthful throng no more, + 'Till all these changing scenes are o'er." + +And now he will never meet with us again and the children will never +have another minister all their own. He thinks he may be able to write +letters to the children and perhaps write his own life. We all hope he +may be able to sit up if he cannot walk. + +We went to our old home in Penn Yan visiting last week and stayed at +Judge Ellsworth's. We called to see the Tunnicliffs and the Olivers, +Wells, Jones, Shepards, Glovers, Bennetts, Judds and several other +families. They were glad to see us for the sake of our father and +mother. Father was their pastor from 1841 to 1847. + +Some one told us that when Bob and Henry Antes were small boys they +thought they would like to try, just for once, to see how it would seem +to be bad, so in spite of all of Mr. Tousley's sermons they went out +behind the barn one day and in a whisper Bob said, "I swear," and Henry +said, "So do I." Then they came into the house looking guilty and quite +surprised, I suppose, that they were not struck dead just as Ananias and +Sapphira were for lying. + +_September_.--I read in a New York paper to-day that Hon. George +Peabody, of England, presented Cyrus W. Field with a solid silver tea +service of twelve pieces, which cost $4,000. The pieces bear likenesses +of Mr. Peabody and Mr. Field, with the coat of arms of the Field family. +The epergne is supported by a base representing the genius of America. + +We had experiments in the philosophy class to-day and took electric +shocks. Mr. Chubbuck managed the battery which has two handles attached. +Two of the girls each held one of these and we all took hold of hands +making the circuit complete. After a while it jerked us almost to pieces +and we asked Mr. Chubbuck to turn it off. Dana Luther, one of the +Academy boys, walked up from the post-office with me this noon. He lives +in Naples and is Florence Younglove's cousin. We went to a ball game +down on Pleasant Street after school. I got so far ahead of Anna coming +home she called me her "distant relative." + + + + +1859 + +_January_, 1859.--Mr. Woodruff came to see Grandfather to ask him if we +could attend his singing school. He is going to have it one evening each +week in the chapel of our church. Quite a lot of the boys and girls are +going, so we were glad when Grandfather gave his consent. Mr. Woodruff +wants us all to sing by note and teaches "do re me fa sol la si do" from +the blackboard and beats time with a stick. He lets us have a recess, +which is more fun than all the rest of it. He says if we practise well +we can have a concert in Bemis Hall to end up with. What a treat that +will be! + +_February_.--Anna has been teasing me all the morning about a verse +which John Albert Granger Barker wrote in my album. He has a most +fascinating lisp when he talks, so she says this is the way the verse +reads: + + "Beauty of perthon, ith thertainly chawming + Beauty of feachure, by no meanth alawming + But give me in pwefrence, beauty of mind, + Or give me Cawwie, with all thwee combined." + +It takes Anna to find "amuthement" in "evewything." + +Mary Wheeler came over and pierced my ears to-day, so I can wear my new +earrings that Uncle Edward sent me. She pinched my ear until it was numb +and then pulled a needle through, threaded with silk. Anna would not +stay in the room. She wants hers done but does not dare. It is all the +fashion for girls to cut off their hair and friz it. Anna and I have cut +off ours and Bessie Seymour got me to cut off her lovely long hair +to-day. It won't be very comfortable for us to sleep with curl papers +all over our heads, but we must do it now. I wanted my new dress waist +which Miss Rosewarne is making, to hook up in front, but Grandmother +said I would have to wear it that way all the rest of my life so I had +better be content to hook it in the back a little longer. She said when +Aunt Glorianna was married, in 1848, it was the fashion for grown up +women to have their waists fastened in the back, so the bride had hers +made that way but she thought it was a very foolish and inconvenient +fashion. It is nice, though, to dress in style and look like other +people. I have a Garibaldi waist and a Zouave jacket and a balmoral +skirt. + +_Sunday_.--I asked Grandmother if I could write a letter to Father +to-day, and she said I could begin it and tell him that I went to church +and what Mr. Daggett's text was and then finish it to-morrow. I did so, +but I wish I could do it all after I began. She said a verse from the +Tract Primer: + + "A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content + And strength for the toil of to-morrow, + But a Sabbath profaned, whatever be gained, + Is a certain forerunner of sorrow." + +_Monday_.--We dressed up in new fangled costumes to-day and wore them to +school. Some of us wore dresses almost up to our knees and some wore +them trailing on the ground. Some wore their hair twisted in knots and +some let theirs hang down their backs. I wore my new waterfall for the +first time and Abbie Clark said I looked like "Hagar in the Wilderness." +When she came in she looked like a fashion plate, bedecked with bows and +ribbons and her hair up in a new way. When she came in the door she +stopped and said solemnly: "If you have tears prepare to shed them now!" +Laura Chapin would not participate in the fun, for once. She said she +thought "Beauty unadorned was the dorndest." We did not have our lesson +in mental philosophy very well so we asked Mr. Richards to explain the +nature of dreams and their cause and effect. He gave us a very +interesting talk, which occupied the whole hour. We listened with +breathless attention, so he must have marked us 100. + +There was a lecture at the seminary to-night and Rev. Dr. Hibbard, the +Methodist minister, who lives next door above the Methodist church, came +home with us. Grandmother was very much pleased when we told her. + +_March_ 1.--Our hired man has started a hot bed and we went down behind +the barn to see it. Grandfather said he was up at 6 o'clock and walked +up as far as Mr. Greig's lions and back again for exercise before +breakfast. He seems to have the bloom of youth on his face as a reward. +Anna says she saw "Bloom of youth" advertised in the drug store and she +is going to buy some. I know Grandmother won't let her for it would be +like "taking coal to Newcastle." + +_April._--Anna wanted me to help her write a composition last night, and +we decided to write on "Old Journals," so we got hers and mine both out +and made selections and then she copied them. When we were on our way to +school this morning we met Mr. E. M. Morse and Anna asked him if he did +not want to read her composition that Carrie wrote for her. He made a +very long face and pretended to be much shocked, but said he would like +to read it, so he took it and also her album, which she asked him to +write in. At night, on his way home, he stopped at our door and left +them both. When she looked in her album, she found this was what he had +written: + +"Anna, when you have grown old and wear spectacles and a cap, remember +the boyish young man who saw your fine talents in 1859 and was certain +you would add culture to nature and become the pride of Canandaigua. Do +not forget also that no one deserves praise for anything done by others +and that your progress in wisdom and goodness will be watched by no one +more anxiously than by your true friend, + E. M. Morse." + +I think she might as well have told Mr. Morse that the old journals were +as much hers as mine; but I think she likes to make out she is not as +good as she is. Sarah Foster helped us to do our arithmetic examples +to-day. She is splendid in mathematics. + +Much to our surprise Bridget Flynn, who has lived with us so long, is +married. We didn't know she thought of such a thing, but she has gone. +Anna and I have learned how to make rice and cornstarch puddings. We +have a new girl in Bridget's place but I don't think she will do. +Grandmother asked her to-day if she seasoned the gravy and she said, +either she did or she didn't, she couldn't tell which. Grandfather says +he thinks she is a little lacking in the "upper story." + +_June._--A lot of us went down to Sucker Brook this afternoon. Abbie +Clark was one and she told us some games to play sitting down on the +grass. We played "Simon says thumbs up" and then we pulled the leaves +off from daisies and said, + + "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, + Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief," + +to see which we would marry. The last leaf tells the story. Anna's came +"rich man" every time and she thinks it is true because Eugene Stone has +asked to marry her and he is quite well off. She is 13 and he is 17. He +is going now to his home in St. Paul, Minn., but he is coming back for +her some day. Tom Eddy is going to be groomsman and Emma Wheeler +bridesmaid. They have all the arrangements made. She has not shown any +of Eugene Stone's notes to Grandmother yet for she does not think it is +worth while. Anna broke the seal on Tom Eddy's page in her mystic book, +although he wrote on it, "Not to be opened until December 8, 1859." He +says: + +Dear Anna,-- + +I hope that in a few years I will see you and Stone living on the banks +of the Mississippi, in a little cottage, as snug as a bug in a rug, +living in peace, so that I can come and see you and have a good +time.--Yours, + Thos. C. Eddy." + +Anna says if she does marry Eugene Stone and he forgets, after two or +three years to be as polite to her as he is now she shall look up at him +with her sweetest smile and say, "Miss Anna, won't you have a little +more sugar in your tea?" When I went to school this morning Juliet +Ripley asked, "Where do you think Anna Richards is now? Up in a cherry +tree in Dr. Cheney's garden." Anna loves cherries. We could see her from +the chapel window. + +_June_ 7.--Alice Jewett took Anna all through their new house to-day +which is being built and then they went over to Mr. Noah T. Clarke's +partly finished house and went all through that. A dog came out of Cat +Alley and barked at them and scared Anna awfully. She said she almost +had a conniption fit but Emma kept hold of her. She is so afraid of +thunder and lightning and dogs. + +Old Friend Burling brought Grandfather a specimen of his handwriting +to-day to keep. It is beautifully written, like copper plate. This is +the verse he wrote and Grandfather gave it to me to paste in my book of +extracts: + + DIVINE LOVE. + + Could we with ink the ocean fill, + Was the whole earth of parchment made, + Was every single stick a quill, + And every man a scribe by trade; + To write the love of God above + Would drain the ocean dry; + Nor could that scroll contain the whole + Though stretched from sky to sky. + +Transcribed by William S. Burling, Canandaigua, 1859, in the 83rd year +of his age. + +_Sunday, December_ 8, 1859.--Mr. E. M. Morse is our Sunday School +teacher now and the Sunday School room is so crowded that we go up into +the church for our class recitation. Abbie Clark, Fannie Gaylord and +myself are the only scholars, and he calls us the three Christian +Graces, faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity. I +am the tallest, so he says I am charity. We recite in Mr. Gibson's pew, +because it is farthest away and we do not disturb the other classes. He +gave us some excellent advice to-day as to what was right and said if we +ever had any doubts about anything we should never do it and should +always be perfectly sure we are in the right before we act. He gave us +two weeks ago a poem to learn by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is an +apostrophe to God and very hard to learn. It is blank verse and has 85 +lines in it. I have it committed at last and we are to recite it in +concert. The last two lines are, "Tell thou the silent sky and tell the +stars and tell yon rising sun, Earth with its thousand voices praises +God." Mr. Morse delivered a lecture in Bemis Hall last Thursday night. +The subject was, "You and I." It was splendid and he lent me the +manuscript afterwards to read. Dick Valentine lectured in the hall the +other night too. His subject was "Prejudice." There was some difference +in the lectures and the lecturers. The latter was more highly . + +_Friday._--The older ladies of the town have formed a society for the +relief of the poor and are going to have a course of lectures in Bemis +Hall under their auspices to raise funds. The lecturers are to be from +the village and are to be: Rev. O. E. Daggett, subject, "Ladies and +Gentlemen"; Dr. Harvey Jewett, "The House We Live In"; Prof. F. E. R. +Chubbuck, "Progress"; Hon. H. W. Taylor, "The Empty Place"; Prof. E. G. +Tyler, "Finance"; Mr. N. T. Clark, "Chemistry"; E. M. Morse, "Graybeard +and His Dogmas." The young ladies have started a society, too, and we +have great fun and fine suppers. We met at Jennie Howell's to organize. +We are to meet once in two weeks and are to present each member with an +album bed quilt with all our names on when they are married. Susie +Daggett says she is never going to be married, but we must make her a +quilt just the same. Laura Chapin sang, "Mary Lindsey, Dear," and we got +to laughing so that Susie Daggett and I lost our equilibrium entirely, +but I found mine by the time I got home. Yesterday afternoon Grandfather +asked us if we did not want to go to ride with him in the big two seated +covered carriage which he does not get out very often. We said yes, and +he stopped for Miss Hannah Upham and took her with us. She sat on the +back seat with me and we rode clear to Farmington and kept up a brisk +conversation all the way. She told us how she became lady principal of +the Ontario Female Seminary in 1830. She was still telling us about it +when we got back home. + +_December_ 23.--We have had a Christmas tree and many other attractions +in Seminary chapel. The day scholars and townspeople were permitted to +participate and we had a post office and received letters from our +friends. Mr. E. M. Morse wrote me a fictitious one, claiming to be +written from the north pole ten years hence. I will copy it in my +journal for I may lose the letter. I had some gifts on the Christmas +tree and gave some. I presented my teacher, Mr. Chubbuck, with two large +hemstitched handkerchiefs with his initials embroidered in a corner of +each. As he is favored with the euphonious name of Frank Emery Robinson +Chubbuck it was a work of art to make his initials look beautiful. I +inclosed a stanza in rhyme: + + Amid the changing scenes of life + If any storm should rise, + May you ever have a handkerchief + To wipe your weeping eyes. + +Here is Mr. Morse's letter: + + North Pole, 10 _January_ 1869. +Miss Carrie Richards, + +"My Dear Young Friend.--It is very cold here and the pole is covered +with ice. I climbed it yesterday to take an observation and arrange our +flag, the Stars and Stripes, which I hoisted immediately on my arrival +here, ten years ago. I thought I should freeze and the pole was so +slippery that I was in great danger of coming down faster than was +comfortable. Although this pole has been used for more than 6,000 years +it is still as good as new. The works of the Great Architect do not wear +out. It is now ten years since I have seen you and my other two +Christian Graces and I have no doubt of your present position among the +most brilliant, noble and excellent women in all America. I always knew +and recognized your great abilities. Nature was very generous to you all +and you were enjoying fine advantages at the time I last knew you. I +thought your residence with your Grandparents an admirable school for +you, and you and your sister were most evidently the best joy of their +old age. You certainly owe much to them. At the time that I left my +three Christian Graces, Mrs. Grundy was sometimes malicious enough to +say that they were injuring themselves by flirting. I always told the +old lady that I had the utmost confidence in the judgment and discretion +of my pupils and that they would be very careful and prudent in all +their conduct. I confessed that flirting was wrong and very injurious to +any one who was guilty of it, but I was very sure that you were not. I +could not believe that you would disappoint us all and become only +ordinary women, but that you would become the most exalted characters, +scorning all things unworthy of ladies and Christians and I was right +and Mrs. Grundy was wrong. When the ice around the pole thaws out I +shall make a flying visit to Canandaigua. I send you a tame polar bear +for a playfellow. This letter will be conveyed to you by Esquimaux +express.--Most truly yours, + E. M. Morse." + +I think some one must have shown some verses that we girls wrote, to +Mrs. Grundy and made her think that our minds were more upon the young +men than they were upon our studies, but if people knew how much time we +spent on Paley's "Evidences of Christianity" and Butler's Analogy and +Kames' Elements of Criticism and Tytler's Ancient History and Olmstead's +Mathematical Astronomy and our French and Latin and arithmetic and +algebra and geometry and trigonometry and bookkeeping, they would know +we had very little time to think of the masculine gender. + + + + +1860 + +_New Year's Day._--We felt quite grown up to-day and not a little scared +when we saw Mr. Morse and Mr. Wells and Mr. Mason and Mr. Chubbuck all +coming in together to make a New Year's call. They made a tour of the +town. We did not feel so flustrated when Will Schley and Horace Finley +came in later. Mr. Oliver Phelps, Jr., came to call upon Grandmother. +Grandfather made a few calls, too. + +_January_ 5.--Abbie Clark and I went up to see Miss Emma Morse because +it is her birthday. We call her sweet Miss Emma and we think Mr. Manning +Wells does, too. We went to William Wirt Howe's lecture in Bemis Hall +this evening. He is a very smart young man. + +Anna wanted to walk down a little ways with the girls after school so +she crouched down between Helen Coy and Hattie Paddock and walked past +the house. Grandmother always sits in the front window, so when Anna +came in she asked her if she had to stay after school and Anna gave her +an evasive answer. It reminds me of a story I read, of a lady who told +the servant girl if any one called to give an evasive answer as she did +not wish to receive calls that day. By and by the door bell rang and the +servant went to the door. When she came back the lady asked her how she +dismissed the visitor. She said, "Shure ye towld me to give an evasive +answer, so when the man asked if the lady of the house was at home I +said, 'Faith! is your grandmother a monkey!'" We never say anything like +that to our "dear little lady," but we just change the subject and +divert the conversation into a more agreeable channel. To-day some one +came to see Grandmother when we were gone and told her that Anna and +some others ran away from school. Grandmother told Anna she hoped she +would never let any one bring her such a report again. Anna said she +would not, if she could possibly help it! I wonder who it was. Some one +who believes in the text, "Look not every man on his own things, but +every man also on the things of others." Grandfather told us to-night +that we ought to be very careful what we do as we are making history +every day. Anna says she shall try not to have hers as dry as some that +she had to learn at school to-day. + +_February_ 9.--Dear Miss Mary Howell was married to-day to Mr. +Worthington, of Cincinnati. + +_February_ 28.--Grandfather asked me to read Abraham Lincoln's speech +aloud which he delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, last evening, +under the auspices of the Republican Club. He was escorted to the +platform by David Dudley Field and introduced by William Cullen Bryant. +The _New York Times_ called him "a noted political exhorter and Prairie +orator." It was a thrilling talk and must have stirred men's souls. + +_April_ 1.--Aunt Ann was over to see us yesterday and she said she made +a visit the day before out at Mrs. William Gorham's. Mrs. Phelps and +Miss Eliza Chapin also went and they enjoyed talking over old times when +they were young. Maggie Gorham is going to be married on the 25th to Mr. +Benedict of New York. She always said she would not marry a farmer and +would not live in a cobblestone house and now she is going to do both, +for Mr. Benedict has bought the farm near theirs and it has a +cobblestone house. We have always thought her one of the jolliest and +prettiest of the older set of young ladies. + +_June._--James writes that he has seen the Prince of Wales in New York. +He was up on the roof of the Continental Fire Insurance building, out on +the cornice, and looked down on the procession. Afterwards there was a +reception for the Prince at the University Law School and James saw him +close by. He says he has a very pleasant youthful face. There was a ball +given for him one evening in the Academy of Music and there were 3,000 +present. The ladies who danced with him will never forget it. They say +that he enters into every diversion which is offered to him with the +greatest tact and good nature, and when he visited Mount Vernon he +showed great reverence for the memory of George Washington. He attended +a literary entertainment in Boston, where Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson, +Thoreau, and other Americans of distinction were presented to him. He +will always be a favorite in America. + +_June._--Mrs. Annie Granger asked Anna and me to come over to her house +and see her baby. We were very eager to go and wanted to hold it and +carry it around the room. She was willing but asked us if we had any +pins on us anywhere. She said she had the nurse sew the baby's clothes +on every morning so that if she cried she would know whether it was +pains or pins. We said we had no pins on us, so we stayed quite a while +and held little Miss Hattie to our heart's content. She is named for her +aunt, Hattie Granger. Anna says she thinks Miss Martha Morse will give +medals to her and Mary Daggett for being the most meddlesome girls in +school, judging from the number of times she has spoken to them to-day. +Anna is getting to be a regular punster, although I told her that +Blair's Rhetoric says that punning is not the highest kind of wit. Mr. +Morse met us coming from school in the rain and said it would not hurt +us as we were neither sugar nor salt. Anna said, "No, but we are +'lasses." Grandmother has been giving us sulphur and molasses for the +purification of the blood and we have to take it three mornings and then +skip three mornings. This morning Anna commenced going through some sort +of gymnastics and Grandmother asked her what she was doing, and she said +it was her first morning to skip. + +Abbie Clark had a large tea-party this afternoon and evening--Seminary +girls and a few Academy boys. We had a fine supper and then played +games. Abbie gave us one which is a test of memory and we tried to learn +it from her but she was the only one who could complete it. I can write +it down, but not say it: + +A good fat hen. + +Two ducks and a good fat hen. + +Three plump partridges, two ducks and a good fat hen. + +Four squawking wild geese, three plump partridges, etc. + +Five hundred Limerick oysters. + +Six pairs of Don Alfonso's tweezers. + +Seven hundred rank and file Macedonian horsemen drawn up in line of +battle. + +Eight cages of heliogabalus sparrow kites. + +Nine sympathetical, epithetical, categorical propositions. + +Ten tentapherical tubes. + +Eleven flat bottom fly boats sailing between Madagascar and Mount +Palermo. + +Twelve European dancing masters, sent to teach the Egyptian mummies how +to dance, against Hercules' wedding day. + +Abbie says it was easier to learn than the multiplication table. They +wanted some of us to recite and Abbie Clark gave us Lowell's poem, "John +P. Robinson, he, says the world'll go right if he only says Gee!" I gave +another of Lowell's poems, "The Courtin'." Julia Phelps had her guitar +with her by request and played and sang for us very sweetly. Fred +Harrington went home with her and Theodore Barnum with me. + +_Sunday._--Frankie Richardson asked me to go with her to teach a class +in the Sunday School on Chapel Street this afternoon. I asked +Grandmother if I could go and she said she never noticed that I was +particularly interested in the race and she said she thought I +only wanted an excuse to get out for a walk Sunday afternoon. However, +she said I could go just this once. When we got up as far as the +Academy, Mr. Noah T. Clarke's brother, who is one of the teachers, came +out and Frank said he led the singing at the Sunday School and she said +she would give me an introduction to him, so he walked up with us and +home again. Grandmother said that when she saw him opening the gate for +me, she understood my zeal in missionary work. "The dear little lady," +as we often call her, has always been noted for her keen discernment and +wonderful sagacity and loses none of it as she advances in years. Some +one asked Anna the other day if her Grandmother retained all her +faculties and Anna said, "Yes, indeed, to an alarming degree." +Grandmother knows that we think she is a perfect angel even if she does +seem rather strict sometimes. Whether we are 7 or 17 we are children to +her just the same, and the Bible says, "Children obey your parents in +the Lord for this is right." We are glad that we never will seem old to +her. I had the same company home from church in the evening. His home is +in Naples. + +_Monday._--This morning the cook went to early mass and Anna told +Grandmother she would bake the pancakes for breakfast if she would let +her put on gloves. She would not let her, so Hannah baked the cakes. I +was invited to Mary Paul's to supper to-night and drank the first cup of +tea I ever drank in my life. I had a very nice time and Johnnie Paul +came home with me. + +Imogen Power and I went down together Friday afternoon to buy me a +Meteorology. We are studying that and Watts on the Mind, instead of +Philosophy. + +_Tuesday._--I went with Fanny Gaylord to see Mrs. Callister at the hotel +to-night. She is so interested in all that we tell her, just like "one +of the girls." + +[Illustration: The Old Canandaigua Academy] + +I was laughing to-day when I came in from the street and Grandmother +asked me what amused me so. I told her that I met Mr. and Mrs. Putnam on +the street and she looked so immense and he so minute I couldn't help +laughing at the contrast. Grandmother said that size was not everything, +and then she quoted Cowper's verse: + + "Were I so tall to reach the skies or grasp the ocean in a span, + I must be measured by my soul, the mind is the stature of the man." + +I don't believe that helps Mr. Putnam out. + +_Friday._--We went to Monthly Concert of prayer for Foreign Missions +this evening. I told Grandmother that I thought it was not very +interesting. Judge Taylor read the _Missionary Herald_ about the +Madagascans and the Senegambians and the Terra del Fuegans and then +Deacon Tyler prayed and they sang "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" and +took up a collection and went home. She said she was afraid I did not +listen attentively. I don't think I did strain every nerve. I believe +Grandmother will give her last cent to Missions if the Boards get into +worse straits than they are now. + +In Latin class to-day Anna translated the phrase Deo Volente "with +violence," and Mr. Tyler, who always enjoys a joke, laughed so, we +thought he would fall out of his chair. He evidently thought it was the +best one he had heard lately. + +_November_ 21.--Aunt Ann gave me a sewing bird to screw on to the table +to hold my work instead of pinning it to my knee. Grandmother tells us +when we sew or read not to get everything around us that we will want +for the next two hours because it is not healthy to sit in one position +so long. She wants us to get up and "stir around." Anna does not need +this advice as much as I do for she is always on what Miss Achert calls +the "qui vive." I am trying to make a sofa pillow out of little pieces +of silk. Aunt Ann taught me how. You have to cut pieces of paper into +octagonal shape and cover them with silk and then sew them together, +over and over. They are beautiful, with bright colors, when they are +done. There was a hop at the hotel last night and some of the girls went +and had an elegant time. Mr. Hiram Metcalf came here this morning to +have Grandmother sign some papers. He always looks very dignified, and +Anna and I call him "the deed man." We tried to hear what he said to +Grandmother after she signed her name but we only heard something about +"fear or compulsion" and Grandmother said "yes." It seems very +mysterious. Grandfather took us down street to-day to see the new Star +Building. It was the town house and he bought it and got Mr. Warren +Stoddard of Hopewell to superintend cutting it in two and moving the +parts separately to Coach Street. When it was completed the shout went +up from the crowd, "Hurrah for Thomas Beals, the preserver of the old +Court House." No one but Grandfather thought it could be done. + +_December._--I went with the girls to the lake to skate this afternoon. +Mr. Johnson, the barber, is the best skater in town. He can +skate forwards and backwards and cut all sorts of curlicues, although he +is such a heavy man. He is going to Liberia and there his skates won't +do him any good. I wish he would give them to me and also his skill to +use them. Some one asked me to sit down after I got home and I said I +preferred to stand, as I had been sitting down all the afternoon! Gus +Coleman took a load of us sleigh-riding this evening. Of course he had +Clara Willson sit on the front seat with him and help him drive. + +_Thursday._--We had a special meeting of our society this evening at +Mary Wheeler's and invited the gentlemen and had charades and general +good time. Mr. Gillette and Horace Finley made a great deal of fun for +us. We initiated Mr. Gillette into the Dorcas Society, which consists in +seating the candidate in a chair and propounding some very solemn +questions and then in token of desire to join the society, you ask him +to open his mouth very wide for a piece of cake which you swallow, +yourself, instead! Very disappointing to the new member! + +We went to a concert at the Seminary this evening. Miss Mollie Bull sang +"Coming Through the Rye" and Miss Lizzie Bull sang "Annie Laurie" and +"Auld Lang Syne." Jennie Lind, herself, could not have done better. + +_December_ 15.--Alice Jewett, Emma Wheeler and Anna are in Mrs. +Worthington's Sunday School class and as they have recently united with +the church, she thought they should begin practical Christian work by +distributing tracts among the neglected classes. So this afternoon they +ran away from school to begin the good work. It was so bright and +pleasant, they thought a walk to the lake would be enjoyable and they +could find a welcome in some humble home. The girls wanted Anna to be +the leader, but she would only promise that if something pious came into +her mind, she would say it. They knocked at a door and were met by a +smiling mother of twelve children and asked to come in. They sat down +feeling somewhat embarrassed, but spying a photograph album on the +table, they became much interested, while the children explained the +pictures. Finally Anna felt that it was time to do something, so when no +one was looking, she slipped under one of the books on the table, three +tracts entitled "Consolation for the Bereaved," "Systematic Benevolence" +and "The Social Evils of dancing, card playing and theater-going." Then +they said goodbye to their new friends and started on. They decided not +to do any more pastoral work until another day, but enjoyed the outing +very much. + +_Christmas._--We all went to Aunt Mary Carr's to dinner excepting +Grandmother, and in the evening we went to see some tableaux at Dr. +Cook's and Dr. Chapin's at the asylum. We were very much pleased with +the entertainment. Between the acts Mr. del Pratt, one of the patients, +said every time, "What next!" which made every one laugh. + +Grandfather was requested to add his picture to the gallery of portraits +of eminent men for the Court Room, so he has had it painted. An artist +by the name of Green, who lives in town, has finished it after numerous +sittings and brought it up for our approval. We like it but we do not +think it is as good looking as he is. No one could really satisfy us +probably, so we may as well try to be suited. + +I asked Grandmother if Mr. Clarke could take Sunday night supper with us +and she said she was afraid he did not know the catechism. I asked him +Friday night and he said he would learn it on Saturday so that he could +answer every third question any way. So he did and got along very well. +I think he deserved a pretty good supper. + + + + +1861 + +_March_ 4, 1861.--President Lincoln was inaugurated to-day. + +_March_ 5.--I read the inaugural address aloud to Grandfather this +evening. He dwelt with such pathos upon the duty that all, both North +and South, owe to the Union, it does not seem as though there could be +war! + +_April._--We seem to have come to a sad, sad time. The Bible says, "A +man's worst foes are those of his own household." The whole United +States has been like one great household for many years. "United we +stand, divided we fall!" has been our watchword, but some who should +have been its best friends have proven false and broken the bond. Men +are taking sides, some for the North, some for the South. Hot words and +fierce looks have followed, and there has been a storm in the air for a +long time. + +_April_ 15.--The storm has broken upon us. The Confederates fired on +Fort Sumter, just off the coast of South Carolina, and forced her on +April 14 to haul down the flag and surrender. President Lincoln has +issued a call for 75,000 men and many are volunteering to go all around +us. How strange and awful it seems. + +_May,_ 1861.--Many of the young men are going from Canandaigua and all +the neighboring towns. It seems very patriotic and grand when they are +singing, "It is sweet, Oh, 'tis sweet, for one's country to die," and we +hear the martial music and see the flags flying and see the recruiting +tents on the square and meet men in uniform at every turn and see train +loads of the boys in blue going to the front, but it will not seem so +grand if we hear they are dead on the battlefield, far from home. A lot +of us girls went down to the train and took flowers to the soldiers as +they were passing through and they cut buttons from their coats and gave +to us as souvenirs. We have flags on our paper and envelopes, and have +all our stationery bordered with red, white and blue. We wear little +flag pins for badges and tie our hair with red, white and blue ribbon +and have pins and earrings made of the buttons the soldiers gave us. We +are going to sew for them in our society and get the garments all cut +from the older ladies' society. They work every day in one of the rooms +of the court house and cut out garments and make them and scrape lint +and roll up bandages. They say they will provide us with all the +garments we will make. We are going to write notes and enclose them in +the garments to cheer up the soldier boys. It does not seem now as +though I could give up any one who belonged to me. The girls in our +society say that if any of the members do send a soldier to the war they +shall have a flag bed quilt, made by the society, and have the girls' +names on the stars. + +_May_ 20.--I recited "Scott and the Veteran" to-day at school, and Mary +Field recited, "To Drum Beat and Heart Beat a Soldier Marches By"; Anna +recited "The Virginia Mother." Every one learns war poems nowadays. +There was a patriotic rally in Bemis Hall last night and a quartette +sang, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" and "Dixie" and "John Brown's Body Lies +a Mouldering in the Grave," and many other patriotic songs. We have one +West Point cadet, Albert M. Murray, who is in the thick of the fight, +and Charles S. Coy represents Canandaigua in the navy. + +[Illustration: The Ontario Female Seminary] + +_June,_ 1861.--At the anniversary exercises, Rev. Samuel M. Hopkins of +Auburn gave the address. I have graduated from Ontario Female Seminary +after a five years course and had the honor of receiving a diploma from +the courtly hands of General John A. Granger. I am going to have it +framed and handed down to my grandchildren as a memento, not exactly of +sleepless nights and midnight vigils, but of rising betimes, at what +Anna calls the crack of dawn. She likes that expression better than +daybreak. I heard her reciting in the back chamber one morning about 4 +o'clock and listened at the door. She was saying in the most nonchalant +manner: "Science and literature in England were fast losing all traces +of originality, invention was discouraged, research unvalued and the +examination of nature proscribed. It seemed to be generally supposed +that the treasure accumulated in the preceding ages was quite sufficient +for all national purposes and that the only duty which authors had to +perform was to reproduce what had thus been accumulated, adorned with +all the graces of polished style. Tameness and monotony naturally result +from a slavish adherence to all arbitrary rules and every branch of +literature felt this blighting influence. History, perhaps, was in some +degree an exception, for Hume, Robertson and more especially Gibbon, +exhibited a spirit of original investigation which found no parallel +among their contemporaries." I looked in and asked her where her book +was, and she said she left it down stairs. She has "got it" all right, I +am sure. We helped decorate the seminary chapel for two days. Our motto +was, "Still achieving, still pursuing." Miss Guernsey made most of the +letters and Mr. Chubbuck put them up and he hung all the paintings. It +was a very warm week. General Granger had to use his palm leaf fan all +the time, as well as the rest of us. There were six in our class, Mary +Field, Lucy Petherick, Kate Lilly, Sarah Clay, Abby Scott and myself. +Abbie Clark would have been in the class, but she went to Pittsfield, +Mass., instead. General Granger said to each one of us, "It gives me +great pleasure to present you with this diploma," and when he gave Miss +Scott hers, as she is from Alabama, he said he wished it might be as a +flag of truce between the North and the South, and this sentiment was +loudly cheered. General Granger looked so handsome with his black dress +suit and ruffled shirt front and all the natural grace which belongs to +him. The sheepskin has a picture of the Seminary on it and this +inscription: "The Trustees and Faculty of the Ontario Female Seminary +hereby certify that __________ has completed the course of study +prescribed in this Institution, maintained the requisite scholarship and +commendable deportment and is therefore admitted to the graduating +honors of this Institution. President of Board, John A. Granger; +Benjamin F. Richards, Edward G. Tyler, Principals." Mr. Morse wrote +something for the paper: + +"To the Editor of the Repository: + +"Dear Sir--June roses, etc., make our loveliest of villages a paradise +this week. The constellations are all glorious and the stars of earth +far outshine those of the heavens. The lake shore, 'Lovers' Lane,' 'Glen +Kitty' and the 'Points' are full of romance and romancers. The yellow +moon and the blue waters and the dark green shores and the petrified +Indians, whispering stony words at the foot of Genundewah, and Squaw +Island sitting on the waves, like an enchanted grove, and 'Whalesback' +all humped up in the East and 'Devil's Lookout' rising over all, made +the 'Sleeping Beauty' a silver sea of witchery and love; and in the +cottages and palaces we ate the ambrosia and drank the nectar of the +sweet goddesses of this new and golden age. + +"I may as well say to you, Mr. Editor, that the Ontario Female Seminary +closed yesterday and 'Yours truly' was present at the commencement. +Being a bachelor I shall plead guilty and appeal to the mercy of the +Court, if indicted for undue prejudice in favor of the charming young +orators. After the report of the Examining Committee, in which the +scholarship of the young ladies was not too highly praised, came the +Latin Salutatory by Miss Clay, a most beautiful and elegant production +(that sentence, sir, applies to both salutatory and salutatorian). The +'Shadows We Cast,' by Miss Field, carried us far into the beautiful +fields of nature and art and we saw the dark, or the brilliant shades, +which our lives will cast, upon society and history. Then 'Tongues in +Trees' began to whisper most bewitchingly, and 'Books in the Running +Brooks' were opened, and 'Sermons in Stones' were preached by Miss +Richards, and this old bachelor thought if all trees would talk so well, +and every brook would babble so musically, and each precious stone would +exhort so brilliantly, as they were made to do by the 'enchantress,' +angels and dreams would henceforth be of little consequence; and whether +the orator should be called 'Tree of Beauty,' 'Minnehaha' or the +'Kohinoor' is a 'vexata questio.' + +"In the evening Mr. Hardick, 'our own,' whose hand never touches the +piano without making delicious music, and Misses Daggett and Wilson, +also 'our own,' and the musical pupils of the Institution, gave a +concert. 'The Young Volunteer' was imperatively demanded, and this for +the third time during the anniversary exercises, and was sung amid +thunders of applause, 'Star of the South,' Miss Stella Scott, shining +meanwhile in all her radiant beauty. May her glorious light soon rest on +a Union that shall never more be broken.--Soberly yours, + + A Very Old Bachelor." + +_June,_ 1861.--There was a patriotic rally this afternoon on the campus +of Canandaigua Academy and we Seminary girls went. They raised a flag on +the Academy building. General Granger presided, Dr. Coleman led the +choir and they sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Mr. Noah T. Clarke made +a stirring speech and Mr. Gideon Granger, James C. Smith and E. M. Morse +followed. Canandaigua has already raised over $7,000 for the war. Capt. +Barry drills the Academy boys in military tactics on the campus every +day. Men are constantly enlisting. Lester P. Thompson, son of "Father +Thompson," among the others. + +A young man asked Anna to take a drive to-day, but Grandmother was not +willing at first to let her go. She finally gave her consent, after +Anna's plea that he was so young and his horse was so gentle. Just as +they were ready to start, I heard Anna run upstairs and I heard him say, +"What an Anna!" I asked her afterwards what she went for and she said +she remembered that she had left the soap in the water. + +_June._--Dr. Daggett's war sermon from the 146th Psalm was wonderful. + +_December_ 1.--Dr. Carr is dead. He had a stroke of paralysis two weeks +ago and for several days he has been unconscious. The choir of our +church, of which he was leader for so long, and some of the young people +came and stood around his bed and sang, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." They +did not know whether he was conscious or not, but they thought so +because the tears ran down his cheeks from his closed eyelids, though he +could not speak or move. The funeral was from the church and Dr. +Daggett's text was, "The Beloved Physician." + + + + +1862 + +_January_ 26.--We went to the Baptist Church this evening to hear Rev. +A. H. Lung preach his last sermon before going into the army. + +_February_ 17.--Glorious news from the war to-day. Fort Donelson is +taken with 1,500 rebels. The right and the North will surely triumph! + +_February_ 21.--Our society met at Fanny Palmer's this afternoon. I went +but did not stay to tea as we were going to Madame Anna Bishop's concert +in the evening. The concert was very, very good. Her voice has great +scope and she was dressed in the latest stage costume, but it took so +much material for her skirt that there was hardly any left for the +waist. + +[Illustration: "Old Friend Burling", Madame Anna Bishop] + +_Washington's Birthday._--Patriotic services were held in the +Congregational Church this morning. Madame Anna Bishop sang, and +National songs were sung. Hon. James C. Smith read Washington's Farewell +Address. In the afternoon a party of twenty-two, young and old, took a +ride in the Seminary boat and went to Mr. Paton's on the lake shore +road. We carried flags and made it a patriotic occasion. I sat next to +Spencer F. Lincoln, a young man from Naples who is studying law in Mr. +Henry Chesebro's office. I never met him before but he told me he had +made up his mind to go to the war. It is wonderful that young men who +have brilliant prospects before them at home, will offer themselves upon +the altar of their country. I have some new patriotic stationery. There +is a picture of the flag on the envelope and underneath, "If any one +attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot.-- +John A. Dix." + +_Sunday, February_ 23.--Everybody came out to church this morning, +expecting to hear Madame Anna Bishop sing. She was not there, and an +"agent" made a "statement." The audience did not appear particularly +edified. + +_March_ 4.--John B. Gough lectured in Bemis Hall last night and was +entertained by Governor Clark. I told Grandfather that I had an +invitation to the lecture and he asked me who from. I told him from Mr. +Noah T. Clarke's brother. He did not make the least objection and I was +awfully glad, because he has asked me to the whole course. Wendell +Phillips and Horace Greeley, E. H. Chapin and John G. Saxe and Bayard +Taylor are expected. John B. Gough's lecture was fine. He can make an +audience laugh as much by wagging his coat tails as some men can by +talking an hour. + +_March_ 26.--I have been up at Laura Chapin's from 10 o'clock in the +morning until 10 at night, finishing Jennie Howell's bed quilt, as she +is to be married very soon. Almost all of the girls were there. We +finished it at 8 p. m. and when we took it off the frames we gave three +cheers. Some of the youth of the village came up to inspect our +handiwork and see us home. Before we went Julia Phelps sang and played +on the guitar and Captain Barry also sang and we all sang together, "O! +Columbia, the gem of the ocean, three cheers for the red, white and +blue." + +_June_ 19.--Our cousin, Ann Eliza Field, was married to-day to George B. +Bates at her home on Gibson Street. We went and had an elegant time. +Charlie Wheeler made great fun and threw the final shower of rice as +they drove away. + +_June._--There was great excitement in prayer meeting last night, it +seemed to Abbie Clark, Mary Field and me on the back seat where we +always sit. Several people have asked us why we sit away back there by +old Mrs. Kinney, but we tell them that she sits on the other side of the +stove from us and we like the seat, because we have occupied it so long. +I presume we would see less and hear more if we sat in front. To-night +just after Mr. Walter Hubbell had made one of his most beautiful prayers +and Mr. Cyrus Dixon was praying, a big June bug came zipping into the +room and snapped against the wall and the lights and barely escaped +several bald heads. Anna kept dodging around in a most startling manner +and I expected every moment to see her walk out and take Emma Wheeler +with her, for if she is afraid of anything more than dogs it is June +bugs. At this crisis the bug flew out and a cat stealthily walked in. We +knew that dear Mrs. Taylor was always unpleasantly affected by the sight +of cats and we didn't know what would happen if the cat should go near +her. The cat very innocently ascended the steps to the desk and as Judge +and Mrs. Taylor always sit on the front seat, she couldn't help +observing the ambitious animal as it started to assist Dr. Daggett in +conducting the meeting. The result was that Mrs. Taylor just managed to +reach the outside door before fainting away. We were glad when the +benediction was pronounced. + +_June._--Anna and I had a serenade last night from the Academy Glee +Club, I think, as their voices sounded familiar. We were awakened by the +music, about 11 p. m., quite suddenly and I thought I would step across +the hall to the front chamber for a match to light the candle. I was +only half awake, however, and lost my bearings and stepped off the +stairs and rolled or slid to the bottom. The stairs are winding, so I +must have performed two or three revolutions before I reached my +destination. I jumped up and ran back and found Anna sitting up in bed, +laughing. She asked me where I had been and said if I had only told her +where I was going she would have gone for me. We decided not to strike a +light, but just listen to the singing. Anna said she was glad that the +leading tenor did not know how quickly I "tumbled" to the words of his +song, "O come my love and be my own, nor longer let me dwell alone," for +she thought he would be too much flattered. Grandfather came into the +hall and asked if any bones were broken and if he should send for a +doctor. We told him we guessed not, we thought we would be all right in +the morning. He thought it was Anna who fell down stairs, as he is never +looking for such exploits in me. We girls received some verses from the +Academy boys, written by Greig Mulligan, under the assumed name of Simon +Snooks. The subject was, "The Poor Unfortunate Academy Boys." We have +answered them and now I fear Mrs. Grundy will see them and imagine +something serious is going on. But she is mistaken and will find, at the +end of the session, our hearts are still in our own possession. + +When we were down at Sucker Brook the other afternoon we were watching +the water and one of the girls said, "How nice it would be if our lives +could run along as smoothly as this stream." I said I thought it would +be too monotonous. Laura Chapin said she supposed I would rather have an +"eddy" in mine. + +We went to the examination at the Academy to-day and to the gymnasium +exercises afterwards. Mr. Noah T. Clarke's brother leads them and they +do some great feats with their rings and swings and weights and ladders. +We girls can do a few in the bowling alley at the Seminary. + +_June._--I visited Eureka Lawrence in Syracuse and we attended +commencement at Hamilton College, Clinton, and saw there, James +Tunnicliff and Stewart Ellsworth of Penn Yan. I also saw Darius Sackett +there among the students and also became acquainted with a very +interesting young man from Syracuse, with the classic name of Horace +Publius Virgilius Bogue. Both of these young men are studying for the +ministry. I also saw Henry P. Cook, who used to be one of the Academy +boys, and Morris Brown, of Penn Yan. They talk of leaving college and +going to the war and so does Darius Sackett. + +_July,_ 1862.--The President has called for 300,000 more brave men to +fill up the ranks of the fallen. We hear every day of more friends and +acquaintances who have volunteered to go. + +_August_ 20.--The 126th Regiment, just organized, was mustered into +service at Camp Swift, Geneva. Those that I know who belong to it are +Colonel E. S. Sherrill, Lieutenant Colonel James M. Bull, Captain +Charles A. Richardson, Captain Charles M. Wheeler, Captain Ten Eyck +Munson, Captain Orin G. Herendeen, Surgeon Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, Hospital +Steward Henry T. Antes, First Lieutenant Charles Gage, Second Lieutenant +Spencer F. Lincoln, First Sergeant Morris Brown, Corporal Hollister N. +Grimes, Privates Darius Sackett, Henry Willson, Oliver Castle, William +Lamport. + +Dr. Hoyt wrote home: "God bless the dear ones we leave behind; and while +you try to perform the duties you owe to each other, we will try to +perform ours." + +We saw by the papers that the volunteers of the regiment before leaving +camp at Geneva allotted over $15,000 of their monthly pay to their +families and friends at home. One soldier sent this telegram to his +wife, as the regiment started for the front: "God bless you. Hail +Columbia. Kiss the baby. Write soon." A volume in ten words. + +_August._--The New York State S. S. convention is convened here and the +meetings are most interesting. They were held in our church and lasted +three days. A Mr. Hart, from New York, led the singing and Mr. Ralph +Wells was Moderator. Mr. Noah T. Clarke was in his element all through +the meetings. Mr. Pardee gave some fine blackboard exercises. During the +last afternoon Mr. Tousley was wheeled into the church, in his invalid +chair, and said a few words, which thrilled every one. So much +tenderness, mingled with his old time enthusiasm and love for the cause. +It is the last time probably that his voice will ever be heard in +public. They closed the grand meeting with the hymn beginning: + + "Blest be the tie that binds + Our hearts in Christian love." + +In returning thanks to the people of Canandaigua for their generous +entertainment, Mr. Ralph Wells facetiously said that the cost of the +convention must mean something to Canandaigua people, for the cook in +one home was heard to say, "These religiouses do eat awful!" + +_September_ 13.--Darius Sackett was wounded by a musket shot in the leg, +at Maryland Heights, Va., and in consequence is discharged from the +service. + +_September._--Edgar A. Griswold of Naples is recruiting a company here +for the 148th Regiment, of which he is captain. Hiram P. Brown, Henry S. +Murray and Charles H. Paddock are officers in the company. Dr. Elnathan +W. Simmons is surgeon. + +_September_ 22.--I read aloud to Grandfather this evening the +Emancipation Proclamation issued as a war measure by President Lincoln, +to take effect January 1, liberating over three million slaves. He +recommends to all thus set free, to labor faithfully for reasonable +wages and to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary +self-defense, and he invokes upon this act "the considerate judgment of +mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." + +_November_ 21.--This is my twentieth birthday. Anna wanted to write a +poem for the occasion and this morning she handed me what she called "An +effort." She said she wrestled with it all night long and could not +sleep and this was the result: + + "One hundred years from now, Carrie dear, + In all probability you'll not be here; + But we'll all be in the same boat, too, + And there'll be no one left + To say boo hoo!" + +Grandfather gave me for a present a set of books called "Irving's +Catechisms on Ancient Greeks and Romans." They are four little books +bound in leather, which were presented to our mother for a prize. It is +thus inscribed on the front page, "Miss Elizabeth Beals at a public +examination of the Female Boarding School in East Bloomfield, October +15, 1825, was judged to excel the school in Reading. In testimony of +which she receives this Premium from her affectionate instructress, S. +Adams." + +I cannot imagine Grandmother sending us away to boarding school, but I +suppose she had so many children then, she could spare one or two as +well as not. She says they sent Aunt Ann to Miss Willard's school at +Troy. I received a birthday letter from Mrs. Beaumont to-day. She wants +to know how everything goes at the Seminary and if Anna still occupies +the front seat in the school room most of the time. She says she +supposes she is quite a sedate young lady now but she hopes there is a +whole lot of the old Anna left. I think there is. + +_December._--Hon. William H. Lamport went down to Virginia to see his +son and found that he had just died in the hospital from measles and +pneumonia. Their only son, only eighteen years old! + + + + +1863 + +_January._--Grandmother went to Aunt Mary Carr's to tea to-night, very +much to our surprise, for she seldom goes anywhere. Anna said she was +going to keep house exactly as Grandmother did, so after supper she took +a little hot water in a basin on a tray and got the tea-towels and +washed the silver and best china but she let the ivory handles on the +knives and forks get wet, so I presume they will all turn black. +Grandmother never lets her little nice things go out into the kitchen, +so probably that is the reason that everything is forty years old and +yet as good as new. She let us have the Young Ladies' Aid Society here +to supper because I am President. She came into the parlor and looked at +our basket of work, which the elder ladies cut out for us to make for +the soldiers. She had the supper table set the whole length of the +dining room and let us preside at the table. Anna made the girls laugh +so, they could hardly eat, although they said everything was splendid. +They said they never ate better biscuit, preserves, or fruit cake and +the coffee was delicious. After it was over, the "dear little lady" said +she hoped we had a good time. After the girls were gone Grandmother +wanted to look over the garments and see how much we had accomplished +and if we had made them well. Mary Field made a pair of drawers with No. +90 thread. She said she wanted them to look fine and I am sure they did. +Most of us wrote notes and put inside the garments for the soldiers in +the hospitals. + +Sarah Gibson Howell has had an answer to her letter. His name is +Foster--a Major. She expects him to come and see her soon. + +All the girls wear newspaper bustles to school now and Anna's rattled +to-day and Emma Wheeler heard it and said, "What's the news, Anna?" They +both laughed out loud and found that "the latest news from the front" +was that Miss Morse kept them both after school and they had to copy +Dictionary for an hour. War prices are terrible. I paid $3.50 to-day for +a hoop skirt. + +_January_ 13.--P. T. Barnum delivered his lecture on "The Art of Money +Getting" in Bemis Hall this evening for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid +Society, which is working for the soldiers. We girls went and enjoyed +it. + +_February._--The members of our society sympathized with General +McClellan when he was criticised by some and we wrote him the following +letter: + + "Canandaigua, Feb. 13, 1863. + +"Maj. Gen. Geo. McClellan: + +"Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our addressing you, and +attribute it to the impulsive love and admiration of hearts which see in +you, the bravest and noblest defender of our Union. We cannot resist the +impulse to tell you, be our words ever so feeble, how our love and trust +have followed you from Rich Mountain to Antietam, through all slanderous +attacks of traitorous politicians and fanatical defamers--how we have +admired, not less than your calm courage on the battlefield, your lofty +scorn of those who remained at home in the base endeavor to strip from +your brow the hard earned laurels placed there by a grateful country: to +tell further, that in your forced retirement from battlefields of the +Republic's peril, you have 'but changed your country's arms for +more,--your country's heart,'--and to assure you that so long as our +country remains to us a sacred name and our flag a holy emblem, so long +shall we cherish your memory as the defender and protector of both. We +are an association whose object it is to aid, in the only way in which +woman, alas! can aid our brothers in the field. Our sympathies are with +them in the cause for which they have periled all--our hearts are with +them in the prayer, that ere long their beloved commander may be +restored to them, and that once more as of old he may lead them to +victory in the sacred name of the Union and Constitution. + +"With united prayers that the Father of all may have you and yours ever +in His holy keeping, we remain your devoted partisans." + + Signed by a large number. + +The following in reply was addressed to the lady whose name was first +signed to the above: + + "New York, Feb. 21, 1863. + +Madam--I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the very +kind letter of the 13th inst., from yourself and your friends. Will you +do me the favor to say to them how much I thank them for it, and that I +am at a loss to express my gratitude for the pleasant and cheering terms +in which it is couched. Such sentiments on the part of those whose +brothers have served with me in the field are more grateful to me than +anything else can be. I feel far more than rewarded by them for all I +have tried to accomplish.--I am, Madam, with the most sincere respect +and friendship, yours very truly, + + Geo. B. McClellan." + +_May._--A number of the teachers and pupils of the Academy have enlisted +for the war. Among them E. C. Clarke, H. C. Kirk, A. T. Wilder, Norman +K. Martin, T. C. Parkhurst, Mr. Gates. They have a tent on the square +and are enlisting men in Canandaigua and vicinity for the 4th N. Y. +Heavy Artillery. I received a letter from Mr. Noah T. Clarke's mother in +Naples. She had already sent three sons, Bela, William and Joseph, to +the war and she is very sad because her youngest has now enlisted. She +says she feels as did Jacob of old when he said, "I am bereaved of my +children. Joseph is not and Simeon is not and now you will take Benjamin +away." I have heard that she is a beautiful singer but she says she +cannot sing any more until this cruel war is over. I wish that I could +write something to comfort her but I feel as Mrs. Browning puts it: "If +you want a song for your Italy free, let none look at me." + +Our society met at Fannie Pierce's this afternoon. Her mother is an +invalid and never gets out at all, but she is very much interested in +the soldiers and in all young people, and loves to have us come in and +see her and we love to go. She enters into the plans of all of us young +girls and has a personal interest in us. We had a very good time +to-night and Laura Chapin was more full of fun than usual. Once there +was silence for a minute or two and some one said, "awful pause." Laura +said, "I guess you would have awful paws if you worked as hard as I do." +We were talking about how many of us girls would be entitled to flag bed +quilts, and according to the rules, they said that, up to date, Abbie +Clark and I were the only ones. The explanation is that Captain George +N. Williams and Lieutenant E. C. Clarke are enlisted in their country's +service. Susie Daggett is Secretary and Treasurer of the Society and she +reported that in one year's time we made in our society 133 pairs of +drawers, 101 shirts, 4 pairs socks for soldiers, and 54 garments for the +families of soldiers. + +Abbie Clark and I had our ambrotypes taken to-day for two young braves +who are going to the war. William H. Adams is also commissioned Captain +and is going to the front. + +_July_ 4.--The terrible battle of Gettysburg brings to Canandaigua sad +news of our soldier boys of the 126th Regiment. Colonel Sherrill was +instantly killed, also Captains Wheeler and Herendeen, Henry Willson and +Henry P. Cook. Captain Richardson was wounded. + +[Illustration: "Abbie Clark and I had our ambrotypes taken to-day", +"Mr. Noah T. Clark's Brother and I"] + +_July_ 26.--Charlie Wheeler was buried with military honors from the +Congregational church to-day. Two companies of the 54th New York State +National Guard attended the funeral, and the church was packed, +galleries and all. It was the saddest funeral and the only one of a +soldier that I ever attended. I hope it will be the last. He was killed +at Gettysburg, July 3, by a sharpshooter's bullet. He was a very bright +young man, graduate of Yale college and was practising law. He was +captain of Company K, 126th N. Y. Volunteers. I have copied an extract +from Mr. Morse's lecture, "You and I": "And who has forgotten that +gifted youth, who fell on the memorable field of Gettysburg? To win a +noble name, to save a beloved country, he took his place beneath the +dear old flag, and while cannon thundered and sabers clashed and the +stars of the old Union shone above his head he went down in the shock of +battle and left us desolate, a name to love and a glory to endure. And +as we solemnly know, as by the old charter of liberty we most sacredly +swear, he was truly and faithfully and religiously + + Of all our friends the noblest, + The choicest and the purest, + The nearest and the dearest, + In the field at Gettysburg. + Of all the heroes bravest, + Of soul the brightest, whitest, + Of all the warriors greatest, + Shot dead at Gettysburg. + + And where the fight was thickest, + And where the smoke was blackest, + And where the fire was hottest, + On the fields of Gettysburg, + There flashed his steel the brightest, + There blazed his eyes the fiercest, + There flowed his blood the reddest + On the field of Gettysburg. + + O wailing winds of heaven! + O weeping dew of evening! + O music of the waters + That flow at Gettysburg, + Mourn tenderly the hero, + The rare and glorious hero, + The loved and peerless hero, + Who died at Gettysburg. + + His turf shall be the greenest, + His roses bloom the sweetest, + His willow droop the saddest + Of all at Gettysburg. + His memory live the freshest, + His fame be cherished longest, + Of all the holy warriors, + Who fell at Gettysburg. + +These were patriots, these were our jewels. When shall we see their like +again? And of every soldier who has fallen in this war his friends may +write just as lovingly as you and I may do of those to whom I pay my +feeble tribute." + +_August,_ 1863.--The U. S. Sanitary Commission has been organized. +Canandaigua sent Dr. W. Fitch Cheney to Gettysburg with supplies for the +sick and wounded and he took seven assistants with him. Home bounty was +brought to the tents and put into the hands of the wounded soldiers. A +blessed work. + +_August_ 12.--Lucilla Field was married in our church to-day to Rev. S. +W. Pratt. I always thought she was cut out for a minister's wife. Jennie +Draper cried herself sick because Lucilla, her Sunday School teacher, is +going away. + +_October_ 8.--News came to-day of the death of Lieutenant Hiram Brown. +He died of fever at Portsmouth, only little more than a year after he +went away. + +_November_ 1.--The 4th New York Heavy Artillery is stationed at Fort +Hamilton, N. Y. harbor. Uncle Edward has invited me down to New York to +spend a month! Very opportune! Grandfather says that I can go and Miss +Rosewarne is beginning a new dress for me to-day. + +_November_ 6.--We were saddened to-day by news of the death of Augustus +Torrey Wilder in the hospital at Fort Ethan Allen. + +_November_ 9.--No. 68 E. 19th Street, New York City. Grandfather and I +came from Canandaigua yesterday. He is at Gramercy Park Hotel. We were +met by a military escort of "one" at Albany and consequently came +through more safely, I suppose. James met us at 42d Street Grand Central +Station. He lives at Uncle Edward's; attends to all of his legal +business and is his confidential clerk. I like it very much here. They +are very stylish and grand but I don't mind that. Aunt Emily is reserved +and dignified but very kind. People do not pour their tea or coffee into +their saucers any more to cool it, but drink it from the cup, and you +must mind and not leave your teaspoon in your cup. I notice everything +and am very particular. Mr. Morris K. Jesup lives right across the +street and I see him every day, as he is a friend of Uncle Edward. +Grandfather has gone back home and left me in charge of friends "a la +militaire" and others. + +_November_ 15.--"We" went out to Fort Hamilton to-day and are going to +Blackwell's Island to-morrow and to many other places of interest down +the Bay. Soldiers are everywhere and I feel quite important, walking +around in company with blue coat and brass buttons--very becoming style +of dress for men and the military salute at every turn is what one reads +about. + +_Sunday_.--Went to Broadway Tabernacle to church to-day and heard Rev. +Joseph P. Thompson preach. Abbie Clark is visiting her sister, Mrs. Fred +Thompson, and sat a few seats ahead of us in church. She turned around +and saw us. We also saw Henrietta Francis Talcott, who was a "Seminary +girl." She wants me to come to see her in her New York home. + +_November_ 19.--We wish we were at Gettysburg to-day to hear President +Lincoln's and Edward Everett's addresses at the dedication of the +National Cemetery. We will read them in to-morrow's papers, but it will +not be like hearing them. + +_Author's Note,_ 1911.--Forty-eight years have elapsed since Lincoln's +speech was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at +Gettysburg. So eloquent and remarkable was his utterance that I believe +I am correct in stating that every word spoken has now been translated +into all known languages and is regarded as one of the World Classics. +The same may be said of Lincoln's letter to the mother of five sons lost +in battle. I make no apology for inserting in this place both the speech +and the letter. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador to Great +Britain, in an address on Lincoln delivered at the University of +Birmingham in December, 1910, remarked in reference to this letter, +"What classic author in our common English tongue has surpassed that?" +and next may I ask, "What English or American orator has on a similar +occasion surpassed this address on the battlefield of Gettysburg?" + +"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a +great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived +and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of +that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final +resting place for those who gave their lives that that nation might +live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in +a larger sense we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot +hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here +have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here--but it can +never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to +the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take +increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve, that these dead shall +not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth +of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people and for the +people, shall not perish from the earth." + +It was during the dark days of the war that he wrote this simple letter +of sympathy to a bereaved mother:-- + +"I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement that +you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of +battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which +should attempt to beguile you from your grief for a loss so overwhelming, +but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation which may be +found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our +Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave +you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn +pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the +altar of Freedom." + +_November_ 21.--Abbie Clark and her cousin Cora came to call and invited +me and her soldier cousin to come to dinner to-night, at Mrs. +Thompson's. He will be here this afternoon and I will give him the +invitation. James is asked for the evening. + +_November_ 22.--We had a delightful visit. Mr. Thompson took us up into +his den and showed us curios from all over the world and as many +pictures as we would find in an art gallery. + +_Friday_.--Last evening Uncle Edward took a party of us, including Abbie +Clark, to Wallack's Theater to see "Rosedale," which is having a great +run. I enjoyed it and told James it was the best play I ever "heard." He +said I must not say that I "heard" a play. I "saw" it. I stand +corrected. + +I told James that I heard of a young girl who went abroad and on her +return some one asked her if she saw King Lear and she said, no, he was +sick all the time she was there! I just loved the play last night and +laughed and cried in turn, it seemed so real. I don't know what +Grandmother will say, but I wrote her about it and said, "When you are +with the Romans, you must do as the Romans do." I presume she will say +"that is not the way you were brought up." + +_December_ 7.--The 4th New York Heavy Artillery has orders to move to +Fort Ethan Allen, near Washington, and I have orders to return to +Canandaigua. I have enjoyed the five weeks very much and as "the +soldier" was on parole most of the time I have seen much of interest in +the city. Uncle Edward says that he has lived here forty years but has +never visited some of the places that we have seen, so he told me when I +mentioned climbing to the top of Trinity steeple. + +Canandaigua, _December_ 8.--Home again. I had military attendance as far +as Paterson, N. J., and came the rest of the way with strangers. Not +caring to talk I liked it just as well. When I said good bye I could not +help wondering whether it was for years, or forever. This cruel war is +terrible and precious lives are being sacrificed and hearts broken every +day. What is to be the result? We can only trust and wait. + +_Christmas Eve,_ 1863.--Sarah Gibson Howell was married to Major Foster +this evening. She invited all the society and many others. It was a +beautiful wedding and we all enjoyed it. Some time ago I asked her to +write in my album and she sewed a lock of her black curling hair on the +page and in the center of it wrote, "Forget not Gippie." + +_December_ 31.--Our brother John was married in Boston to-day to Laura +Arnold, a lovely girl. + + + + +1864 + +_April_ 1.--Grandfather had decided to go to New York to attend the fair +given by the Sanitary Commission, and he is taking two immense books, +which are more than one hundred years old, to present to the Commission, +for the benefit of the war fund. + +_April_ 18.--Grandfather returned home to-day, unexpectedly to us. I +knew he was sick when I met him at the door. He had traveled all night +alone from New York, although he said that a stranger, a fellow +passenger, from Ann Arbor, Mich., on the train noticed that he was +suffering and was very kind to him. He said he fell in his room at +Gramercy Park Hotel in the night, and his knee was very painful. We sent +for old Dr. Cheney and he said the hurt was a serious one and needed +most careful attention. I was invited to a spelling school at Abbie +Clark's in the evening and Grandmother said that she and Anna would take +care of Grandfather till I got back, and then I could sit up by him the +rest of the night. We spelled down and had quite a merry time. Major C. +S. Aldrich had escaped from prison and was there. He came home with me, +as my soldier is down in Virginia. + +_April_ 19.--Grandfather is much worse. He was delirious all night. We +have sent for Dr. Rosewarne in counsel and Mrs. Lightfoote has come to +stay with us all the time and we have sent for Aunt Glorianna. + +_April_ 20.--Grandfather dictated a letter to-night to a friend of his +in New York. After I had finished he asked me if I had mended his +gloves. I said no, but I would have them ready when he wanted them. Dear +Grandfather! he looks so sick I fear he will never wear his gloves +again. + +_May_ 16.--I have not written in my diary for a month and it has been +the saddest month of my life. Dear, dear Grandfather is dead. He was +buried May 2, just two weeks from the day that he returned from New +York. We did everything for him that could be done, but at the end of +the first week the doctors saw that he was beyond all human aid. Uncle +Thomas told the doctors that they must tell him. He was much surprised +but received the verdict calmly. He said "he had no notes out and +perhaps it was the best time to go." He had taught us how to live and he +seemed determined to show us how a Christian should die. He said he +wanted "Grandmother and the children to come to him and have all the +rest remain outside." When we came into the room he said to Grandmother, +"Do you know what the doctors say?" She bowed her head, and then he +motioned for her to come on one side and Anna and me on the other and +kneel by his bedside. He placed a hand upon us and upon her and said to +her, "All the rest seem very much excited, but you and I must be +composed." Then he asked us to say the 23d Psalm, "The Lord is my +Shepherd," and then all of us said the Lord's Prayer together after +Grandmother had offered a little prayer for grace and strength in this +trying hour. Then he said, "Grandmother, you must take care of the +girls, and, girls, you must take care of Grandmother." We felt as though +our hearts would break and were sure we never could be happy again. +During the next few days he often spoke of dying and of what we must do +when he was gone. Once when I was sitting by him he looked up and smiled +and said, "You will lose all your roses watching over me." A good many +business men came in to see him to receive his parting blessing. The two +McKechnie brothers, Alexander and James, came in together on their way +home from church the Sunday before he died. Dr. Daggett came very often. +Mr. Alexander Howell and Mrs. Worthington came, too. + +He lived until Saturday, the 30th, and in the morning he said, "Open the +door wide." We did so and he said, "Let the King of Glory enter in." +Very soon after he said, "I am going home to Paradise," and then sank +into that sleep which on this earth knows no waking. I sat by the window +near his bed and watched the rain beat into the grass and saw the +peonies and crocuses and daffodils beginning to come up out of the +ground and I thought to myself, I shall never see the flowers come up +again without thinking of these sad, sad days. He was buried Monday +afternoon, May 2, from the Congregational church, and Dr. Daggett +preached a sermon from a favorite text of Grandfather's, "I shall die in +my nest." James and John came and as we stood with dear Grandmother and +all the others around his open grave and heard Dr. Daggett say in his +beautiful sympathetic voice, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to +dust," we felt that we were losing our best friend; but he told us that +we must live for Grandmother and so we will. + +The next Sabbath, Anna and I were called out of church by a messenger, +who said that Grandmother was taken suddenly ill and was dying. When we +reached the house attendants were all about her administering +restoratives, but told us she was rapidly sinking. I asked if I might +speak to her and was reluctantly permitted, as they thought best not to +disturb her. I sat down by her and with tearful voice said, +"Grandmother, don't you know that Grandfather said we were to care for +you and you were to care for us and if you die we cannot do as +Grandfather said?" She opened her eyes and looked at me and said +quietly, "Dry your eyes, child, I shall not die to-day or to-morrow." +She seems well now. + +Inscribed in my diary: + + "They are passing away, they are passing away, + Not only the young, but the aged and gray. + Their places are vacant, no longer we see + The armchair in waiting, as it used to be. + The hat and the coat are removed from the nail, + Where for years they have hung, every day without fail. + The shoes and the slippers are needed no more, + Nor kept ready waiting, as they were of yore, + The desk which he stood at in manhood's fresh prime, + Which now shows the marks of the finger of time, + The bright well worn keys, which were childhood's delight + Unlocking the treasures kept hidden from sight. + These now are mementoes of him who has passed, + Who stands there no longer, as we saw him last. + Other hands turn the keys, as he did, before, + Other eyes will his secrets, if any, explore. + The step once elastic, but feeble of late, + No longer we watch for through doorway or gate, + Though often we turn, half expecting to see, + The loved one approaching, but ah! 'tis not he. + We miss him at all times, at morn when we meet, + For the social repast, there is one vacant seat. + At noon, and at night, at the hour of prayer, + Our hearts fill with sadness, one voice is not there. + Yet not without hope his departure we mourn, + In faith and in trust, all our sorrows are borne, + Borne upward to Him who in kindness and love + Sends earthly afflictions to draw us above. + Thus hoping and trusting, rejoicing, we'll go, + Both upward and onward through weal and through woe + 'Till all of life's changes and conflicts are past + Beyond the dark river, to meet him at last." + + In Memoriam + +Thomas Beals died in Canandaigua, N. Y., on Saturday, April 30th, 1864, +in the 81st year of his age. Mr. Beals was born in Boston, Mass., +November 13, 1783. + +He came to this village in October, 1803, only 14 years after the first +settlement of the place. He was married in March, 1805, to Abigail +Field, sister of the first pastor of the Congregational church here. Her +family, in several of its branches, have since been distinguished in the +ministry, the legal profession, and in commercial enterprise. + +Living to a good old age, and well known as one of our most wealthy and +respected citizens, Mr. Beals is another added to the many examples of +successful men who, by energy and industry, have made their own fortune. + +On coming to this village, he was teacher in the Academy for a time, and +afterward entered into mercantile business, in which he had his share of +vicissitude. When the Ontario Savings Bank was established, 1832, he +became the Treasurer, and managed it successfully till the institution +ceased, in 1835, with his withdrawal. In the meantime he conducted, +also, a banking business of his own, and this was continued until a week +previous to his death, when he formally withdrew, though for the last +five years devolving its more active duties upon his son. + +As a banker, his sagacity and fidelity won for him the confidence and +respect of all classes of persons in this community. The business +portion of our village is very much indebted to his enterprise for the +eligible structures he built that have more than made good the losses +sustained by fires. More than fifty years ago he was actively concerned +in the building of the Congregational church, and also superintended the +erection of the county jail and almshouse; for many years a trustee of +Canandaigua Academy, and trustee and treasurer of the Congregational +church. At the time of his death he and his wife, who survives him, were +the oldest members of the church, having united with it in 1807, only +eight years after its organization. Until hindered by the infirmities of +age, he was a constant attendant of its services and ever devoutly +maintained the worship of God in his family. No person has been more +generally known among all classes of our citizens. Whether at home or +abroad he could not fail to be remarked for his gravity and dignity. His +character was original, independent, and his manners remarkable for a +dignified courtesy. Our citizens were familiar with his brief, emphatic +answers with the wave of his hand. He was fond of books, a great reader, +collected a valuable number of volumes, and was happy in the use of +language both in writing and conversation. In many unusual ways he often +showed his kind consideration for the poor and afflicted, and many +persons hearing of his death gratefully recollect instances, not known +to others, of his seasonable kindness to them in trouble. In his +charities he often studied concealment as carefully as others court +display. His marked individuality of character and deportment, together +with his shrewd discernment and active habits, could not fail to leave a +distinct impression on the minds of all. + +For more than sixty years he transacted business in one place here, and +his long life thus teaches more than one generation the value of +sobriety, diligence, fidelity and usefulness. + +In his last illness he remarked to a friend that he always loved +Canandaigua; had done several things for its prosperity, and had +intended to do more. He had known his measure of affliction; only four +of eleven children survive him, but children and children's children +ministered to the comfort of his last days. Notwithstanding his years +and infirmities, he was able to visit New York, returning April 18th +quite unwell, but not immediately expecting a fatal termination. As the +final event drew near, he seemed happily prepared to meet it. He +conversed freely with his friends and neighbors in a softened and +benignant spirit, at once receiving and imparting benedictions. His end +seemed to realize his favorite citation from Job: "I shall die in my +nest." + +His funeral was attended on Monday in the Congregational church by a +large assembly, Dr. Daggett, the pastor, officiating on the +occasion.--Written by Dr. O. E. Daggett in 1864. + +_May._--The 4th New York Heavy Artillery is having hard times in the +Virginia mud and rain. They are near Culpeper. It is such a change from +their snug winter quarters at Fort Ethan Allen. There are 2,800 men in +the Regiment and 1,200 are sick. Dr. Charles S. Hoyt of the 126th, which +is camping close by, has come to the help of these new recruits so +kindly as to win every heart, quite in contrast to the heartlessness of +their own surgeons. They will always love him for this. It is just like +him. + +_June_ 22.--Captain Morris Brown, of Penn Yan, was killed to-day by a +musket shot in the head, while commanding the regiment before +Petersburg. + +_June_ 23, 1864.--Anna graduated last Thursday, June 16, and was +valedictorian of her class. There were eleven girls in the class, Ritie +Tyler, Mary Antes, Jennie Robinson, Hattie Paddock, Lillie Masters, +Abbie Hills, Miss McNair, Miss Pardee and Miss Palmer, Miss Jasper and +Anna. The subject of her essay was "The Last Time." I will copy an +account of the exercises as they appeared in this week's village paper. +Every one thinks it was written by Mr. E. M. Morse. + +A WORD FROM AN OLD MAN + +"Mr. Editor: + +"Less than a century ago I was traveling through this enchanted region +and accidentally heard that it was commencement week at the seminary. I +went. My venerable appearance seemed to command respect and I received +many attentions. I presented my snowy head and patriarchal beard at the +doors of the sacred institution and was admitted. I heard all the +classes, primary, secondary, tertiary, et cetera. All went merry as a +marriage bell. Thursday was the great day. I made vast preparation. I +rose early, dressed with much care. I affectionately pressed the hands +of my two landlords and left. When I arrived at the seminary I saw at a +glance that it was a place where true merit was appreciated. I was +invited to a seat among the dignitaries, but declined. I am a modest +man, I always was. I recognized the benign Principals of the school. You +can find no better principles in the states than in Ontario Female +Seminary. After the report of the committee a very lovely young lady +arose and saluted us in Latin. I looked very wise, I always do. So did +everybody. We all understood it. As she proceeded, I thought the grand +old Roman tongue had never sounded so musically and when she pronounced +the decree, 'Richmond delenda est,' we all hoped it might be prophetic. +Then followed the essays of the other young ladies and then every one +waited anxiously for 'The Last Time.' At last it came. The story was +beautifully told, the adieux were tenderly spoken. We saw the withered +flowers of early years scattered along the academic ways, and the golden +fruit of scholarly culture ripening in the gardens of the future. +Enchanted by the sorrowful eloquence, bewildered by the melancholy +brilliancy, I sent a rosebud to the charming valedictorian and wandered +out into the grounds. I went to the concert in the evening and was +pleased and delighted. So was everybody. I shall return next year unless +the gout carries me off. I hope I shall hear just such beautiful music, +see just such beautiful faces and dine at the same excellent hotel. + + Senex." + +Anna closed her valedictory with these words: + +"May we meet at one gate when all's over; + The ways they are many and wide, +And seldom are two ways the same; + Side by side may we stand +At the same little door when all's done. + The ways they are many, + The end it is one." + +_July_ 10.--We have had word of the death of Spencer F. Lincoln. One +more brave soldier sacrificed. + +_August._--The New York State S. S. Convention was held in Buffalo and +among others Fanny Gaylord, Mary Field and myself attended. We had a +fine time and were entertained at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sexton. Her +mother is living with her, a dear old lady who was Judge Atwater's +daughter and used to go to school to Grandfather Beals. We went with +other delegates on an excursion to Niagara Falls and went into the +express office at the R. R. station to see Grant Schley, who is express +agent there. He said it seemed good to see so many home faces. + +_September_ 1.--My war letters come from Georgetown Hospital now. Mr. +Noah T. Clarke is very anxious and sends telegrams to Andrew Chesebro +every day to go and see his brother. + +_September_ 30.--To-day the "Benjamin" of the family reached home under +the care of Dr. J. Byron Hayes, who was sent to Washington after him. I +went over to Mr. Noah T. Clarke's to see him and found him just a shadow +of his former self. However, "hope springs eternal in the human breast" +and he says he knows he will soon be well again. This is his thirtieth +birthday and it is glorious that he can spend it at home. + +_October_ 1.--Mr. Noah T. Clarke accompanied his brother to-day to the +old home in Naples and found two other soldier brothers, William and +Joseph, had just arrived on leave of absence from the army so the +mother's heart sang "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." The +fourth brother has also returned to his home in Illinois, disabled. + +_November._--They are holding Union Revival Services in town now. One +evangelist from out of town said he would call personally at the homes +and ask if all were Christians. Anna told Grandmother if he came here +she should tell him about her. Grandmother said we must each give an +account for ourselves. Anna said she should tell him about her little +Grandmother anyway. We saw him coming up the walk about 11 a.m. and Anna +went to the door and asked him in. They sat down in the parlor and he +remarked about the pleasant weather and Canandaigua such a beautiful +town and the people so cultured. She said yes, she found the town every +way desirable and the people pleasant, though she had heard it remarked +that strangers found it hard to get acquainted and that you had to have +a residence above the R. R. track and give a satisfactory answer as to +who your Grandfather was, before admittance was granted to the best +society. He said he had been kindly received everywhere. She said +"everybody likes ministers." (He was quite handsome and young.) He asked +her how long she had lived here and she told him nearly all of her brief +existence! She said if he had asked her how old she was she would have +told him she was so young that Will Adams last May was appointed her +guardian. He asked how many there were in the family and she said her +Grandmother, her sister and herself. He said, "They are Christians, I +suppose." "Yes," she said, "my sister is a S. S. teacher and my +Grandmother was born a Christian, about 80 years ago." "Indeed," he +said. "I would like to see her." Anna said she would have to be excused +as she seldom saw company. When he arose to go he said, "My dear young +lady, I trust that you are a Christian." "Mercy yes," she said, "years +ago." He said he was very glad and hoped she would let her light shine. +She said that was what she was always doing--that the other night at a +revival meeting she sang every verse of every hymn and came home feeling +as though she had herself personally rescued by hand at least fifty +"from sin and the grave." He smiled approvingly and bade her good bye. +She told Grandmother she presumed he would say "he had not found so +great faith, no not in Israel." + +We have Teachers' meetings now and Mrs. George Wilson leads and +instructs us on the Sunday School lesson for the following Sunday. We +met at Mrs. Worthington's this evening. I think Mrs. Wilson knows +Barnes' notes, Cruden's Concordance, the Westminster Catechism and the +Bible from beginning to end. + + + + +1865 + +_March_ 5.--I have just read President Lincoln's second inaugural +address. It only takes five minutes to read it but, oh, how much it +contains. + +_March_ 20.--Hardly a day passes that we do not hear news of Union +victories. Every one predicts that the war is nearly at an end. + +_March_ 29.--An officer arrived here from the front yesterday and he +said that, on Saturday morning, shortly after the battle commenced which +resulted so gloriously for the Union in front of Petersburg, President +Lincoln, accompanied by General Grant and staff, started for the +battlefield, and reached there in time to witness the close of the +contest and the bringing in of the prisoners. His presence was +immediately recognized and created the most intense enthusiasm. He +afterwards rode over the battlefield, listened to the report of General +Parke to General Grant, and added his thanks for the great service +rendered in checking the onslaught of the rebels and in capturing so +many of their number. I read this morning the order of Secretary Stanton +for the flag raising on Fort Sumter. It reads thus: "War department, +Adjutant General's office, Washington, March 27th, 1865, General Orders +No. 50. Ordered, first: That at the hour of noon, on the 14th day of +April, 1865, Brevet Major General Anderson will raise and plant upon the +ruins of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, the same U. S. Flag which +floated over the battlements of this fort during the rebel assault, and +which was lowered and saluted by him and the small force of his command +when the works were evacuated on the 14th day of April, 1861. Second, +That the flag, when raised be saluted by 100 guns from Fort Sumter and +by a national salute from every fort and rebel battery that fired upon +Fort Sumter. Third, That suitable ceremonies be had upon the occasion, +under the direction of Major-General William T. Sherman, whose military +operations compelled the rebels to evacuate Charleston, or, in his +absence, under the charge of Major-General Q. A. Gillmore, commanding +the department. Among the ceremonies will be the delivery of a public +address by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Fourth, That the naval forces at +Charleston and their Commander on that station be invited to participate +in the ceremonies of the occasion. By order of the President of the +United States. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War." + +_April,_ 1865.--What a month this has been. On the 6th of April Governor +Fenton issued this proclamation: "Richmond has fallen. The wicked men +who governed the so-called Confederate States have fled their capital, +shorn of their power and influence. The rebel armies have been defeated, +broken and scattered. Victory everywhere attends our banners and our +armies, and we are rapidly moving to the closing scenes of the war. +Through the self-sacrifice and heroic devotion of our soldiers, the life +of the republic has been saved and the American Union preserved. I, +Reuben E. Fenton, Governor of the State of New York, do designate +Friday, the 14th of April, the day appointed for the ceremony of raising +the United States flag on Fort Sumter, as a day of Thanksgiving, prayer +and praise to Almighty God, for the signal blessings we have received at +His hands." + +_Saturday, April_ 8.--The cannon has fired a salute of thirty-six guns +to celebrate the fall of Richmond. This evening the streets were +thronged with men, women and children all acting crazy as if they had +not the remotest idea where they were or what they were doing. Atwater +block was beautifully lighted and the band was playing in front of it. +On the square they fired guns, and bonfires were lighted in the streets. +Gov. Clark's house was lighted from the very garret and they had a +transparency in front, with "Richmond" on it, which Fred Thompson made. +We didn't even light "our other candle," for Grandmother said she +preferred to keep Saturday night and pity and pray for the poor +suffering, wounded soldiers, who are so apt to be forgotten in the hour +of victory. + +_Sunday Evening, April_ 9.--There were great crowds at church this +morning. Dr. Daggett's text was from Prov. 18: 10: "The name of the Lord +is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." It was a +very fine sermon. They sang hymns relating to our country and Dr. +Daggett's prayers were full of thanksgiving. Mr. Noah T. Clarke had the +chapel decorated with flags and opened the Sunday School by singing, +"Marching On," "My Country, 'tis of Thee," "The Star Spangled Banner," +"Glory, Hallelujah," etc. Hon. Wm. H. Lamport talked very pleasantly and +paid a very touching tribute to the memory of the boys, who had gone out +to defend their country, who would never come "marching home again." He +lost his only son, 18 years old (in the 126th), about two years ago. I +sat near Mary and Emma Wheeler and felt so sorry for them. They could +not sing. + +_Monday Morning, April_ 10.--"Whether I am in the body, or out of the +body, I know not, but one thing I know," Lee has surrendered! and all +the people seem crazy in consequence. The bells are ringing, boys and +girls, men and women are running through the streets wild with +excitement; the flags are all flying, one from the top of our church, +and such a "hurrah boys" generally, I never dreamed of. We were quietly +eating our breakfast this morning about 7 o'clock, when our church bell +commenced to ring, then the Methodist bell, and now all the bells in +town are ringing. Mr. Noah T. Clarke ran by, all excitement, and I don't +believe he knows where he is. No school to-day. I saw Capt. Aldrich +passing, so I rushed to the window and he waved his hat. I raised the +window and asked him what was the matter? He came to the front door +where I met him and he almost shook my hand off and said, "The war is +over. We have Lee's surrender, with his own name signed." I am going +down town now, to see for myself, what is going on. Later--I have +returned and I never saw such performances in my life. Every man has a +bell or a horn, and every girl a flag and a little bell, and every one +is tied with red, white and blue ribbons. I am going down town again +now, with my flag in one hand and bell in the other and make all the +noise I can. Mr. Noah T. Clarke and other leading citizens are riding +around on a dray cart with great bells in their hands ringing them as +hard as they can. Dr. Cook beat upon an old gong. The latest musical +instrument invented is called the "Jerusalem fiddle." Some boys put a +dry goods box upon a cart, put some rosin on the edge of the box and +pulled a piece of timber back and forth across it, making most unearthly +sounds. They drove through all the streets, Ed Lampman riding on the +horse and driving it. + +_Monday evening, April_ 10.--I have been out walking for the last hour +and a half, looking at the brilliant illuminations, transparencies and +everything else and I don't believe I was ever so tired in my life. The +bells have not stopped ringing more than five minutes all day and every +one is glad to see Canandaigua startled out of its propriety for once. +Every yard of red, white and blue ribbon in the stores has been sold, +also every candle and every flag. One society worked hard all the +afternoon making transparencies and then there were no candles to put in +to light them, but they will be ready for the next celebration when +peace is proclaimed. The Court House, Atwater Block, and hotel have +about two dozen candles in each window throughout, besides flags and +mottoes of every description. It is certainly the best impromptu display +ever gotten up in this town. "Victory is Grant-ed," is in large red, +white and blue letters in front of Atwater Block. The speeches on the +square this morning were all very good. Dr. Daggett commenced with +prayer, and such a prayer, I wish all could have heard it. Hon. Francis +Granger, E. G. Lapham, Judge Smith, Alexander Howell, Noah T. Clarke and +others made speeches and we sang "Old Hundred" in conclusion, and Rev. +Dr. Hibbard dismissed us with the benediction. I shook hands with Mr. +Noah T. Clarke, but he told me to be careful and not hurt him, for he +blistered his hands to-day ringing that bell. He says he is going to +keep the bell for his grandchildren. Between the speeches on the square +this morning a song was called for and Gus Coleman mounted the steps and +started "John Brown" and all the assembly joined in the chorus, "Glory, +Hallelujah." This has been a never to be forgotten day. + +_April_ 15.--The news came this morning that our dear president, Abraham +Lincoln, was assassinated yesterday, on the day appointed for +thanksgiving for Union victories. I have felt sick over it all day and +so has every one that I have seen. All seem to feel as though they had +lost a personal friend, and tears flow plenteously. How soon has sorrow +followed upon the heels of joy! One week ago to-night we were +celebrating our victories with loud acclamations of mirth and good +cheer. Now every one is silent and sad and the earth and heavens seem +clothed in sack-cloth. The bells have been tolling this afternoon. The +flags are all at half mast, draped with mourning, and on every store and +dwelling-house some sign of the nation's loss is visible. Just after +breakfast this morning, I looked out of the window and saw a group of +men listening to the reading of a morning paper, and I feared from their +silent, motionless interest that something dreadful had happened, but I +was not prepared to hear of the cowardly murder of our President. And +William H. Seward, too, I suppose cannot survive his wounds. Oh, how +horrible it is! I went down town shortly after I heard the news, and it +was wonderful to see the effect of the intelligence upon everybody, +small or great, rich or poor. Every one was talking low, with sad and +anxious looks. But we know that God still reigns and will do what is +best for us all. Perhaps we're "putting our trust too much in princes," +forgetting the Great Ruler, who alone can create or destroy, and +therefore He has taken from us the arm of flesh that we may lean more +confidingly and entirely upon Him. I trust that the men who committed +these foul deeds will soon be brought to justice. + +_Sunday, Easter Day, April_ 16.--I went to church this morning. The +pulpit and choir-loft were covered with flags festooned with crape. +Although a very disagreeable day, the house was well filled. The first +hymn sung was "Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to +come." Dr. Daggett's prayer, I can never forget, he alluded so +beautifully to the nation's loss, and prayed so fervently that the God +of our fathers might still be our God, through every calamity or +affliction, however severe or mysterious. All seemed as deeply affected +as though each one had been suddenly bereft of his best friend. The hymn +sung after the prayer, commenced with "Yes, the Redeemer rose." Dr. +Daggett said that he had intended to preach a sermon upon the +resurrection. He read the psalm beginning, "Lord, Thou hast been our +dwelling-place in all generations." His text was "That our faith and +hope might be in God." He commenced by saying, "I feel as you feel this +morning: our sad hearts have all throbbed in unison since yesterday +morning when the telegram announced to us Abraham Lincoln is shot." He +said the last week would never be forgotten, for never had any of us +seen one come in with so much joy, that went out with so much sorrow. +His whole sermon related to the President's life and death, and, in +conclusion, he exhorted us not to be despondent, for he was confident +that the ship of state would not go down, though the helmsman had +suddenly been taken away while the promised land was almost in view. He +prayed for our new President, that he might be filled with grace and +power from on High, to perform his high and holy trust. On Thursday we +are to have a union meeting in our church, but it will not be the day of +general rejoicing and thanksgiving we expected. All noisy demonstrations +will be omitted. In Sunday school the desk was draped with mourning, and +the flag at half-mast was also festooned with crape. Mr. Noah T. Clarke +opened the exercises with the hymn "He leadeth me," followed by "Though +the days are dark with sorrow," "We know not what's before us," "My days +are gliding swiftly by." Then, Mr. Clarke said that we always meant to +sing "America," after every victory, and last Monday he was wondering if +we would not have to sing it twice to-day, or add another verse, but our +feelings have changed since then. Nevertheless he thought we had better +sing "America," for we certainly ought to love our country more than +ever, now that another, and such another, martyr, had given up his life +for it. So we sang it. Then he talked to the children and said that last +Friday was supposed to be the anniversary of the day upon which our Lord +was crucified, and though, at the time the dreadful deed was committed, +every one felt the day to be the darkest one the earth ever knew; yet +since then, the day has been called "Good Friday," for it was the death +of Christ which gave life everlasting to all the people. So he thought +that life would soon come out of darkness, which now overshadows us all, +and that the death of Abraham Lincoln might yet prove the nation's life +in God's own most mysterious way. + +_Wednesday evening, April_ 19, 1865.--This being the day set for the +funeral of Abraham Lincoln at Washington, it was decided to hold the +service to-day, instead of Thursday, as previously announced in the +Congregational church. All places of business were closed and the bells +of the village churches tolled from half past ten till eleven o'clock. +It is the fourth anniversary of the first bloodshed of the war at +Baltimore. It was said to-day, that while the services were being held +in the White House and Lincoln's body lay in state under the dome of the +capitol, that more than twenty-five millions of people all over the +civilized world were gathered in their churches weeping over the death +of the martyred President. We met at our church at half after ten +o'clock this morning. The bells tolled until eleven o'clock, when the +services commenced. The church was beautifully decorated with flags and +black and white cloth, wreaths, mottoes and flowers, the galleries and +all. The whole effect was fine. There was a shield beneath the arch of +the pulpit with this text upon it: "The memory of the just is blessed." +It was beautiful. Under the choir-loft the picture of Abraham Lincoln +hung amid the flags and drapery. The motto, beneath the gallery, was +this text: "Know ye that the Lord He is God." The four pastors of the +place walked in together and took seats upon the platform, which was +constructed for the occasion. The choir chanted "Lord, Thou hast been +our dwelling-place in all generations," and then the Episcopal rector, +Rev. Mr. Leffingwell, read from the psalter, and Rev. Dr. Daggett +followed with prayer. Judge Taylor was then called upon for a short +address, and he spoke well, as he always does. The choir sang "God is +our refuge and our strength." + +_Thursday, April_ 20.--The papers are full of the account of the funeral +obsequies of President Lincoln. We take Harper's Weekly and every event +is pictured so vividly it seems as though we were eye witnesses of it +all. The picture of "Lincoln at home" is beautiful. What a dear, kind +man he was. It is a comfort to know that the assassination was not the +outcome of an organized plot of Southern leaders, but rather a +conspiracy of a few fanatics, who undertook in this way to avenge the +defeat of their cause. It is rumored that one of the conspirators has +been located. + +_April_ 24.--Fannie Gaylord and Kate Lapham have returned from their +eastern trip and told us of attending the President's funeral in Albany, +and I had a letter from Bessie Seymour, who is in New York, saying that +she walked in the procession until half past two in the morning, in +order to see his face. They say that they never saw him in life, but in +death he looked just as all the pictures represent him. We all wear +Lincoln badges now, with pin attached. They are pictures of Lincoln upon +a tiny flag, bordered with crape. Susie Daggett has just made herself a +flag, six feet by four. It was a lot of work. Mrs. Noah T. Clarke gave +one to her husband upon his birthday, April 8. I think everybody ought +to own a flag. + +_April_ 26.--Now we have the news that J. Wilkes Booth, who shot the +President and who has been concealing himself in Virginia, has been +caught, and refusing to surrender was shot dead. It has taken just +twelve days to bring him to retribution. I am glad that he is dead if he +could not be taken alive, but it seems as though shooting was too good +for him. However, we may as well take this as really God's way, as the +death of the President, for if he had been taken alive, the country +would have been so furious to get at him and tear him to pieces the +turmoil would have been great and desperate. It may be the best way to +dispose of him. Of course, it is best, or it would not be so. Mr. Morse +called this evening and he thinks Booth was shot by a lot of cowards. +The flags have been flying all day, since the news came, but all, +excepting Albert Granger, seem sorry that he was not disabled instead of +being shot dead. Albert seems able to look into the "beyond" and also to +locate departed spirits. His "latest" is that he is so glad that Booth +got to h--l before Abraham Lincoln got to Springfield. + +Mr. Fred Thompson went down to New York last Saturday and while stopping +a few minutes at St. Johnsville, he heard a man crowing over the death +of the President. Mr. Thompson marched up to him, collared him and +landed him nicely in the gutter. The bystanders were delighted and +carried the champion to a platform and called for a speech, which was +given. Quite a little episode. Every one who hears the story, says: +"Three cheers for F. F. Thompson." + +The other afternoon at our society Kate Lapham wanted to divert our +minds from gossip I think, and so started a discussion upon the +respective characters of Washington and Napoleon. It was just after +supper and Laura Chapin was about resuming her sewing and she exclaimed, +"Speaking of Washington, makes me think that I ought to wash my hands," +so she left the room for that purpose. + +_May_ 7.--Anna and I wore our new poke bonnets to church this morning +and thought we looked quite "scrumptious," but Grandmother said after we +got home, if she had realized how unbecoming they were to us and to the +house of the Lord, she could not have countenanced them enough to have +sat in the same pew. However, she tried to agree with Dr. Daggett in his +text, "It is good for us to be here." It was the first time in a month +that he had not preached about the affairs of the Nation. + +In the afternoon the Sacrament was administered and Rev. A. D. Eddy, D. +D., who was pastor from 1823 to 1835, was present and officiated. Deacon +Castle and Deacon Hayes passed the communion. Dr. Eddy concluded the +services with some personal memories. He said that forty-two years ago +last November, he presided upon a similar occasion for the first time in +his life and it was in this very church. He is now the only surviving +male member who was present that day, but there are six women living, +and Grandmother is one of the six. + +The Monthly Concert of Prayer for Missions was held in the chapel in the +evening. Dr. Daggett told us that the collection taken for missions +during the past year amounted to $500. He commended us and said it was +the largest sum raised in one year for this purpose in the twenty years +of his pastorate. Dr. Eddy then said that in contrast he would tell us +that the collection for missions the first year he was here, amounted to +$5, and that he was advised to touch very lightly upon the subject in +his appeals as it was not a popular theme with the majority of the +people. One member, he said, annexed three ciphers to his name when +asked to subscribe to a missionary document which was circulated, and +another man replied thus to an appeal for aid in evangelizing a portion +of Asia: "If you want to send a missionary to Jerusalem, Yates county, I +will contribute, but not a cent to go to the other side of the world." + +Rev. C. H. A. Buckley was present also and gave an interesting talk. By +way of illustration, he said he knew a small boy who had been earning +twenty-five cents a week for the heathen by giving up eating butter. The +other day he seemed to think that his generosity, as well as his +self-denial, had reached the utmost limit and exclaimed as he sat at the +table, "I think the heathen have had gospel enough, please pass the +butter." + +_May_ 10.--Jeff Davis was captured to-day at Irwinsville, Ga., when he +was attempting to escape in woman's apparel. Mr. Green drew a picture of +him, and Mr. Finley made photographs from it. We bought one as a +souvenir of the war. + +The big headlines in the papers this morning say, "The hunt is up. He +brandisheth a bowie-knife but yieldeth to six solid arguments. At +Irwinsville, Ga., about daylight on the 10th instant, Col. Prichard, +commanding the 4th Michigan Cavalry, captured Jeff Davis, family and +staff. They will be forwarded under strong guard without delay." The +flags have been flying all day, and every one is about as pleased over +the manner of his capture as over the fact itself. Lieutenant Hathaway, +one of the staff, is a friend of Mr. Manning Wells, and he was pretty +sure he would follow Davis, so we were not surprised to see his name +among the captured. Mr. Wells says he is as fine a horseman as he ever +saw. + +_Monday evg., May_ 22.--I went to Teachers' meeting at Mrs. +Worthington's to-night. Mrs. George Willson is the leader and she told +us at the last meeting to be prepared this evening to give our opinion +in regard to the repentance of Solomon before he died. We concluded that +he did repent although the Bible does not absolutely say so. Grandmother +thinks such questions are unprofitable, as we would better be repenting +of our sins, instead of hunting up Solomon's at this late day. + +_May_ 23.--We arise about 5:30 nowadays and Anna does not like it very +well. I asked her why she was not as good natured as usual to-day and +she said it was because she got up "s'urly." She thinks Solomon must +have been acquainted with Grandmother when he wrote "She ariseth while +it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her +maidens." Patrick Burns, the "poet," who has also been our man of all +work the past year, has left us to go into Mr. McKechnie's employ. He +seemed to feel great regret when he bade us farewell and told us he +never lived in a better regulated home than ours and he hoped his +successor would take the same interest in us that he had. Perhaps he +will give us a recommendation! He left one of his poems as a souvenir. +It is entitled, "There will soon be an end to the war," written in +March, hence a prophecy. He said Mr. Morse had read it and pronounced it +"tip top." It was mostly written in capitals and I asked him if he +followed any rule in regard to their use. He said "Oh, yes, always begin +a line with one and then use your own discretion with the rest." + +_May_ 25.--I wish that I could have been in Washington this week, to +have witnessed the grand review of Meade's and Sherman's armies. The +newspaper accounts are most thrilling. The review commenced on Tuesday +morning and lasted two days. It took over six hours for Meade's army to +pass the grand stand, which was erected in front of the President's +house. It was witnessed by the President, Generals Grant, Meade, and +Sherman, Secretary Stanton, and many others in high authority. At ten +o'clock, Wednesday morning, Sherman's army commenced to pass in review. +His men did not show the signs of hardship and suffering which marked +the appearance of the Army of the Potomac. The scenes enacted were +historic and wonderful. Flags were flying everywhere and windows, +doorsteps and sidewalks were crowded with people, eager to get a view of +the grand armies. The city was as full of strangers, who had come to see +the sight, as on Inauguration Day. Very soon, all that are left of the +companies, who went from here, will be marching home, "with glad and +gallant tread." + +_June_ 3.--I was invited up to Sonnenberg yesterday and Lottie and Abbie +Clark called for me at 5:30 p.m., with their pony and democrat wagon. +Jennie Rankine was the only other lady present and, for a wonder, the +party consisted of six gentlemen and five ladies, which has not often +been the case during the war. After supper we adjourned to the lawn and +played croquet, a new game which Mr. Thompson just brought from New +York. It is something like billiards, only a mallet is used instead of a +cue to hit the balls. I did not like it very well, because I couldn't +hit the balls through the wickets as I wanted to. "We" sang all the +songs, patriotic and sentimental, that we could think of. + +Mr. Lyon came to call upon me to-day, before he returned to New York. He +is a very pleasant young man. I told him that I regretted that I could +not sing yesterday, when all the others did, and that the reason that I +made no attempts in that line was due to the fact that one day in +church, when I thought I was singing a very good alto, my grandfather +whispered to me, and said: "Daughter, you are off the key," and ever +since then, I had sung with the spirit and with the understanding, but +not with my voice. He said perhaps I could get some one to do my singing +for me, some day. I told him he was very kind to give me so much +encouragement. Anna went to a Y.M.C.A. meeting last evening at our +chapel and said, when the hymn "Rescue the perishing," was given out, +she just "raised her Ebenezer" and sang every verse as hard as she +could. The meeting was called in behalf of a young man who has been +around town for the past few days, with only one arm, who wants to be a +minister and sells sewing silk and needles and writes poetry during +vacation to help himself along. I have had a cough lately and +Grandmother decided yesterday to send for the doctor. He placed me in a +chair and thumped my lungs and back and listened to my breathing while +Grandmother sat near and watched him in silence, but finally she said, +"Caroline isn't used to being pounded!" The doctor smiled and said he +would be very careful, but the treatment was not so severe as it seemed. +After he was gone, we asked Grandmother if she liked him and she said +yes, but if she had known of his "new-fangled" notions and that he wore +a full beard she might not have sent for him! Because Dr. Carr was +clean-shaven and also Grandfather and Dr. Daggett, and all of the +Grangers, she thinks that is the only proper way. What a funny little +lady she is! + +_June_ 8.--There have been unusual attractions down town for the past +two days. About 5 p.m. a man belonging to the +Ravel troupe walked a rope, stretched across Main street from the third +story of the Webster House to the chimney of the building opposite. He +is said to be Blondin's only rival and certainly performed some +extraordinary feats. He walked across and then returned backwards. Then +took a wheel-barrow across and returned with it backwards. He went +across blindfolded with a bag over his head. Then he attached a short +trapeze to the rope and performed all sorts of gymnastics. There were at +least 1,000 people in the street and in the windows gazing at him. +Grandmother says that she thinks all such performances are wicked, +tempting Providence to win the applause of men. Nothing would induce her +to look upon such things. She is a born reformer and would abolish all +such schemes. This morning she wanted us to read the 11th chapter of +Hebrews to her, about faith, and when we had finished the forty verses, +Anna asked her what was the difference between her and Moses. +Grandmother said there were many points of difference. Anna was not +found in the bulrushes and she was not adopted by a king's daughter. +Anna said she was thinking how the verse read, "Moses was a proper +child," and she could not remember having ever done anything strictly +"proper" in her life. I noticed that Grandmother did not contradict her, +but only smiled. + +_June_ 13.--Van Amburgh's circus was in town to-day and crowds attended +and many of our most highly respected citizens, but Grandmother had +other things for us to consider. + +_June_ 16.--The census man for this town is Mr. Jeudevine. He called +here to-day and was very inquisitive, but I think I answered all of his +questions although I could not tell him the exact amount of my property. +Grandmother made us laugh to-day when we showed her a picture of the +Siamese twins, and I said, "Grandmother, if I had been their mother I +should have cut them apart when they were babies, wouldn't you?" The +dear little lady looked up so bright and said, "If I had been Mrs. Siam, +I presume I should have done just as she did." I don't believe that we +will be as amusing as she is when we are 82 years old. + +_Saturday, July_ 8.--What excitement there must have been in Washington +yesterday over the execution of the conspirators. It seems terrible that +Mrs. Surratt should have deserved hanging with the others. I saw a +picture of them all upon a scaffold and her face was screened by an +umbrella. I read in one paper that the doctor who dressed Booth's broken +leg was sentenced to the Dry Tortugas. Jefferson Davis, I suppose, is +glad to have nothing worse served upon him, thus far, than confinement +in Fortress Monroe. It is wonderful that 800,000 men are returning so +quietly from the army to civil life that it is scarcely known, save by +the welcome which they receive in their own homes. + +_July_ 16.--Rev. Dr. Buddington, of Brooklyn, preached to-day. His wife +was Miss Elizabeth Willson, Clara Coleman's sister. My Sunday School +book is "Mill on the Floss," but Grandmother says it is not Sabbath +reading, so I am stranded for the present. + +_December_ 8.--Yesterday was Thanksgiving day. I do not remember that it +was ever observed in December before. President Johnson appointed it as +a day of national thanksgiving for our many blessings as a people, and +Governor Fenton and several governors of other states have issued +proclamations in accordance with the President's recommendation. The +weather was very unpleasant, but we attended the union thanksgiving +service held in our church. The choir sang America for the opening +piece. Dr. Daggett read Miriam's song of praise: "The Lord hath +triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the +sea." Then he offered one of his most eloquent and fervent prayers, in +which the returned soldiers, many of whom are in broken health or maimed +for life, in consequence of their devotion and loyalty to their country, +were tenderly remembered. His text was from the 126th Psalm, "The Lord +hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." It was one of his +best sermons. He mentioned three things in particular which the Lord has +done for us, whereof we are glad: First, that the war has closed; +second, that the Union is preserved; third, for the abolition of +slavery. After the sermon, a collection was taken for the poor, and Dr. +A. D. Eddy, who was present, offered prayer. The choir sang an anthem +which they had especially prepared for the occasion, and then all joined +in the doxology. Uncle Thomas Beals' family of four united with our +three at Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle sent to New York for the oysters, +and a famous big turkey, with all the usual accompaniments, made us a +fine repast. Anna and Ritie Tyler are reading together Irving's Life of +Washington, two afternoons each week. I wonder how long they will keep +it up. + +_December_ 11.--I have been down town buying material for garments for +our Home Missionary family which we are to make in our society. Anna and +I were cutting them out and basting them ready for sewing, and +grandmother told us to save all the basting threads when we were through +with them and tie them and wind them on a spool for use another time. +Anna, who says she never wants to begin anything that she cannot finish +in 15 minutes, felt rather tired at the prospect of this unexpected task +and asked Grandmother how she happened to contract such economical +ideas. Grandmother told her that if she and Grandfather had been +wasteful in their younger days, we would not have any silk dresses to +wear now. Anna said if that was the case she was glad that Grandmother +saved the basting thread! + + + + +1866 + +_February_ 13.--Our brother James was married to-day to Louise +Livingston James of New York City. + +_February_ 20.--Our society is going to hold a fair for the Freedmen, in +the Town Hall. Susie Daggett and I have been there all day to see about +the tables and stoves. We got Mrs. Binks to come and help us. + +_February_ 21.--Been at the hall all day, trimming the room. Mr. +Thompson and Mr. Backus came down and if they had not helped us we would +not have done much. Mr. Backus put up all the principal drapery and made +it look beautiful. + +_February_ 22.--At the hall all day. The fair opened at 2 p.m. We had +quite a crowd in the evening and took in over three hundred dollars. +Charlie Hills and Ellsworth Daggett stayed there all night to take care +of the hall. We had a fish pond, a grab-bag and a post-office. Anna says +they had all the smart people in the post-office to write the +letters,--Mr. Morse, Miss Achert, Albert Granger and herself. Some one +asked Albert Granger if his law business was good and he said one man +thronged into his office one day. + +_February_ 23.--We took in two hundred dollars to-day at the fair. We +wound up with an auction. We asked Mrs. George Willson if she could not +write a poem expressing our thanks to Mr. Backus and she stepped aside +for about five minutes and handed us the following lines which we sent +to him. We think it is about the nicest thing in the whole fair. + + "In ancient time the God of Wine + They crowned with vintage of the vine, + And sung his praise with song and glee + And all their best of minstrelsy. + The Backus whom we honor now + Would scorn to wreathe his generous brow + With heathen emblems--better he + Will love our gratitude to see + Expressed in all the happy faces + Assembled in these pleasant places. + May joy attend his footsteps here + And crown him in a brighter sphere." + +_February_ 24.--Susie Daggett and I went to the hall this morning to +clean up. We sent back the dishes, not one broken, and disposed of +everything but the tables and stoves, which were to be taken away this +afternoon. We feel quite satisfied with the receipts so far, but the +expenses will be considerable. + +In _Ontario County Times_ of the following week we find this card of +thanks: + +_February_ 28.--The Fair for the benefit of the Freedmen, held in the +Town Hall on Thursday and Friday of last week was eminently successful, +and the young ladies take this method of returning their sincere thanks +to the people of Canandaigua and vicinity for their generous +contributions and liberal patronage. It being the first public +enterprise in which the Society has ventured independently, the young +ladies were somewhat fearful of the result, but having met with such +generous responses from every quarter they feel assured that they need +never again doubt of success in any similar attempt so long as +Canandaigua contains so many large hearts and corresponding purses. But +our village cannot have all the praise this time. The Society is +particularly indebted to Mr. F. F. Thompson and Mr. S. D. Backus of New +York City, for their very substantial aid, not only in gifts and +unstinted patronage, but for their invaluable labor in the decoration of +the hall and conduct of the Fair. But for them most of the manual labor +would have fallen upon the ladies. The thanks of the Society are +especially due, also, to those ladies who assisted personally with their +superior knowledge and older experience. Also to Mr. W. P. Fiske for his +valuable services as cashier, and to Messrs. Daggett, Chapin and Hills +for services at the door; and to all the little boys and girls who +helped in so many ways. + +The receipts amounted to about $490, and thanks to our cashier, the +money is all good, and will soon be on its way carrying substantial +visions of something to eat and to wear to at least a few of the poor +Freedmen of the South. + + By order of Society, + Carrie C. Richards, Pres't. + Emma H. Wheeler, Sec'y. + +Mr. Editor--I expected to see an account of the Young Ladies' Fair in +your last number, but only saw a very handsome acknowledgment by the +ladies to the citizens. Your "local" must have been absent; and I beg +the privilege in behalf of myself and many others of doing tardy justice +to the successful efforts of the Aid Society at their debut February +22nd. + +Gotham furnished an artist and an architect, and the Society did the +rest. The decorations were in excellent taste, and so were the young +ladies. The eatables were very toothsome. The skating pond was never in +better condition. On entering the hall I paused first before the table +of toys, fancy work and perfumery. Here was the President, and I hope I +shall be pardoned for saying that no President since the days of +Washington can compare with the President of this Society. Then I +visited a candy table, and hesitated a long time before deciding which I +would rather eat, the delicacies that were sold, or the charming +creatures who sold them. One delicious morsel, in a pink silk, was so +tempting that I seriously contemplated eating her with a +spoon--waterfall and all. [By the way, how do we know that the Romans +wore waterfalls? Because Marc Antony, in his funeral oration on Mr. +Caesar, exclaimed, "O water fall was there, my countrymen!"] At this +point my attention was attracted by a fish pond. I tried my luck, caught +a whale, and seeing all my friends beginning to blubber, I determined to +visit the old woman who lived in a shoe.--She was very glad to see me. I +bought one of her children, which the Society can redeem for $1,000 in +smoking caps. + +The fried oysters were delicious; a great many of the bivalves got into +a stew, and I helped several of them out. Delicate ice cream, nicely +"baked in cowld ovens," was destroyed in immense quantities. I scream +when I remember the plates full I devoured, and the number of bright +women to whom I paid my devours. Beautiful cigar girls sold fragrant +Havanas, and bit off the ends at five cents apiece, extra. The fair +post-mistress and her fair clerks, so fair that they were almost +fairies, drove a very thriving business. + +It was altogether a "great moral show."--Let no man say hereafter that +the young ladies of Canandaigua are uneducated in all that makes women +lovely and useful. Anna Dickinson has no mission to this town. The +members of this Society have won the admiration of all their friends, +and especially of the most devoted of their servants, + Q. E. D. + +If I had written that article, I should have given the praise to Susie +Daggett, for it belongs to her. + +_Sunday, June_ 24.--My Sunday School scholars are learning the shorter +catechism. One recited thirty-five answers to questions to-day, another +twenty-six, another twenty, the others eleven. Very well indeed. They do +not see why it is called the "shorter" Catechism! They all had their +ambrotypes taken with me yesterday at Finley's--Mary Hoyt, Fannie and +Ella Lyon, Ella Wood, Ella Van Tyne, Mary Vanderbrook, Jennie Whitlaw +and Katie Neu. They are all going to dress in white and sit on the front +seat in church at my wedding. Grandmother had Mrs. Gooding make +individual fruit cakes for each of them and also some for each member of +our sewing society. + +_Thursday, June_ 21.--We went to a lawn fete at Mrs. F. F. Thompson's +this afternoon. It was a beautiful sight. The flowers, the grounds, the +young people and the music all combined to make the occasion perfect. + +_Note:_ Canandaigua is the summer home of Mrs. Thompson, who has +previously given the village a children's playground, a swimming school, +a hospital and a home for the aged, and this year (1911) has presented a +park as a beauty spot at foot of Canandaigua Lake. + +_June_ 28.--Dear Abbie Clark and Captain Williams were married in the +Congregational church this evening. The church was trimmed beautifully +and Abbie looked sweet. We attended the reception afterwards at her +house. "May calm and sunshine hallow their clasped hands." + +_July_ 15.--The girls of the Society have sent me my flag bed quilt, +which they have just finished. It was hard work quilting such hot days +but it is done beautifully. Bessie Seymour wrote the names on the stars. +In the center they used six stars for "Three rousing cheers for the +Union." The names on the others are Sarah McCabe, Mary Paul, Fannie +Paul, Fannie Palmer, Nettie Palmer, Susie Daggett, Fannie Pierce, Sarah +Andrews, Lottie Clark, Abbie Williams, Carrie Lamport, Isadore Blodgett, +Nannie Corson, Laura Chapin, Mary F. Fiske, Lucilla F. Pratt, Jennie H. +Hazard, Sarah H. Foster, Mary Jewett, Mary C. Stevens, Etta Smith, +Cornelia Richards, Ella Hildreth, Emma Wheeler, Mary Wheeler, Mrs. +Pierce, Alice Jewett, Bessie Seymour, Clara Coleman, Julia Phelps. It +kept the girls busy to get Abbie Clark's quilt and mine finished within +one month. They hope that the rest of the girls will postpone their +nuptials till there is a change in the weather. Mercury stands 90 +degrees in the shade. + +_July_ 19, 1866.--Our wedding day. We saw the dear little Grandmother, +God bless her, watching us from the window as we drove away. + +Alexandria Bay, _July_ 26.--Anna writes me that Charlie Wells said he +had always wanted a set of Clark's Commentaries, but I had carried off +the entire Ed. + +_July_ 28.--As we were changing boats at Burlington, Vt, for Saratoga, +to our surprise, we met Captain and Abbie Williams, but could only stop +a moment. + +Saratoga, 29_th._--We heard Rev. Theodore Cuyler preach to-day from the +text, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." He +leads devotional exercises every morning in the parlors of the Columbian +Hotel. I spoke to him this morning and he said my father was one of his +best and earliest friends. + +Canandaigua, _September_ 1.--A party of us went down to the Canandaigua +hotel this morning to see President Johnson, General Grant and Admiral +Farragut and other dignitaries. The train stopped about half an hour and +they all gave brief speeches. + +_September_ 2.--Rev. Darius Sackett preached for Dr. Daggett this +evening. + + + + +1867 + +_July_ 27.--Col. James M. Bull was buried from the home of Mr. Alexander +Howell to-day, as none of his family reside here now. + +_November_ 13.--Our brother John and wife and baby Pearl have gone to +London, England, to live. + +_December_ 28.--A large party of Canandaiguans went over to Rochester +last evening to hear Charles Dickens' lecture, and enjoyed it more than +I can possibly express. He was quite hoarse and had small bills +distributed through the Opera House with the announcement: + + MR. CHARLES DICKENS + + Begs indulgence for a Severe Cold, but hopes its effects + may not be very perceptible after a few minutes' Reading. + + Friday, December 27th, 1867. + +We brought these notices home with us for souvenirs. He looks exactly +like his pictures. It was worth a great deal just to look upon the man +who wrote Little Dorrit, David Copperfield and all the other books, +which have delighted us so much. We hope that he will live to write a +great many more. He spoke very appreciatively of his enthusiastic +reception in this country and almost apologized for some of the opinions +that he had expressed in his "American Notes," which he published, after +his first visit here, twenty-five years ago. He evidently thinks that +the United States of America are quite worth while. + + + + +1871 + +_August_ 6.--Under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A., Hon. George H. Stuart, +President of the U. S. Christian Commission, spoke in an open air +meeting on the square this afternoon and in our church this evening. The +house was packed and such eloquence I never heard from mortal lips. He +ought to be called the Whitefield of America. He told of the good the +Christian Commission had done before the war and since. Such war stories +I never heard. They took up a collection which must have amounted to +hundreds of dollars. + + + + +1872 + +_Naples, June._--John has invited Aunt Ann Field, and James, his wife +and me and Babe Abigail to come to England to make them a visit, and we +expect to sail on the Baltic July sixth. + +_On board S.S. Baltic, July_ 7.--We left New York yesterday under +favorable circumstances. It was a beautiful summer day, flags were +flying and everything seemed so joyful we almost forgot we were leaving +home and native land. There were many passengers, among them being Mr. +and Mrs. Anthony Drexel and U. S. Grant, Jr., who boarded the steamer +from a tug boat which came down the bay alongside when we had been out +half an hour. President Grant was with him and stood on deck, smoking +the proverbial cigar. We were glad to see him and the passengers gave +him three cheers and three times three, with the greatest enthusiasm. + +_Liverpool, July_ 16.--We arrived here to-day, having been just ten days +on the voyage. There were many clergymen of note on board, among them, +Rev. John H. Vincent, D.D., eminent in the Methodist Episcopal Church, +who is preparing International Sunday School lessons. He sat at our +table and Philip Phillips also, who is a noted evangelistic singer. They +held services both Sabbaths, July 7 and 15, in the grand saloon of the +steamer, and also in the steerage where the text was "And they willingly +received him into the ship." The immigrants listened eagerly, when the +minister urged them all to "receive Jesus." We enjoyed several evening +literary entertainments, when it was too cold or windy to sit on deck. + +We had the most luscious strawberries at dinner to-night, that I ever +ate. So large and red and ripe, with the hulls on and we dipped them in +powdered sugar as we ate them, a most appetizing way. + +_London, July_ 17.--On our way to London to-day I noticed beautiful +flower beds at every station, making our journey almost a path of roses. +In the fields, men and women both, were harvesting the hay, making +picturesque scenes, for the sky was cloudless and I was reminded of the +old hymn, commencing + + "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, + Stand dressed in living green." + +We performed the journey from Liverpool to London, a distance of 240 +miles, in five hours. John, Laura and little Pearl met us at Euston +Station, and we were soon whirled away in cabs to 24 Upper Woburn Place, +Tavistock Square, John's residence. Dinner was soon ready, a most +bountiful repast. We spent the remainder of the day visiting and +enjoying ourselves generally. It seemed so good to be at the end of the +journey, although we had only two days of really unpleasant weather on +the voyage. John and Laura are so kind and hospitable. They have a +beautiful home, lovely children and apparently every comfort and luxury +which this world can afford. + +_Sunday, July_ 22.--We went to Spurgeon's Tabernacle this morning to +listen to this great preacher, with thousands of others. I had never +looked upon such a sea of faces before, as I beheld from the gallery +where we sat. The pulpit was underneath one gallery, so there seemed as +many people over the preacher's head, as there were beneath and around +him and the singing was as impressive as the sermon. I thought of the +hymn, "Hark ten thousand harps and voices, Sound the notes of praise +above." Mr. Spurgeon was so lame from rheumatism that he used two canes +and placed one knee on a chair beside him, when preaching. His text was +"And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth." I found that all I +had heard of his eloquence was true. + +_Sunday, July_ 29.--We have spent the entire week sightseeing, taking in +Hyde Park, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the +Tower of London and British Museum. We also went to Madame Tussaud's +exhibition of wax figures and while I was looking in the catalogue for +the number of an old gentleman who was sitting down apparently asleep, +he got up and walked away! We drove to Sydenham ten miles from London, +to see the Crystal Palace which Abbie called the "Christmas Palace." Mr. +Alexander Howell and Mr. Henry Chesebro of Canandaigua are here and came +to see us to-day. + +_August_ 13.--Amid the whirl of visiting, shopping and sightseeing in +this great city, my diary has been well nigh forgotten. The descriptive +letters to home friends have been numerous and knowing that they would +be preserved, I thought perhaps they would do as well for future +reference as a diary kept for the same purpose, but to-day, as St. +Pancras' bell was tolling and a funeral procession going by, we heard by +cable of the death of our dear, dear Grandmother, the one who first +encouraged us to keep a journal of daily deeds, and who was always most +interested in all that interested us and now I cannot refrain if I +would, from writing down at this sad hour, of all the grief that is in +my heart. I sorrow not for her. She has only stepped inside the +temple-gate where she has long been waiting for the Lord's entrance +call. I weep for ourselves that we shall see her dear face no more. It +does not seem possible that we shall never see her again on this earth. +She took such an interest in our journey and just as we started I put my +dear little Abigail Beals Clarke in her lap to receive her parting +blessing. As we left the house she sat at the front window and saw us go +and smiled her farewell. + +_August_ 20.--Anna has written how often Grandmother prayed that "He who +holds the winds in his fists and the waters in the hollow of his hands, +would care for us and bring us to our desired haven." She had received +one letter, telling of our safe arrival and how much we enjoyed going +about London, when she was suddenly taken ill and Dr. Hayes said she +could never recover. Anna's letter came, after ten days, telling us all +the sad news, and how Grandmother looked out of the window the last +night before she was taken ill, and up at the moon and stars and said +how beautiful they were. Anna says, "How can I ever write it? Our dear +little Grandmother died on my bed to-day." + +_August_ 30.--John, Laura and their nurse and baby John, Aunt Ann Field +and I started Tuesday on a trip to Scotland, going first to Glasgow +where we remained twenty-four hours. We visited the Cathedral and were +about to go down into the crypt when the guide told us that Gen. Sherman +of U.S.A. was just coming in. We stopped to look at him and felt like +telling him that we too were Americans. He was in good health and +spirits, apparently, and looked every inch a soldier with his cloak +a-la-militaire around him. We visited the Lochs and spent one night at +Inversnaid on Loch Lomond and then went on up Loch Katrine to the +Trossachs. When we took the little steamer, John said, "All aboard for +Naples," it reminded him so much of Canandaigua Lake. We arrived safely +in Edinburgh the next day by rail and spent four days in that charming +city, so beautiful in situation and in every natural advantage. We saw +the window from whence John Knox addressed the populace and we also +visited the Castle on the hill. Then we went to Melrose and visited the +Abbey and also Abbotsford, the residence of Sir Walter Scott. We went +through the rooms and saw many curios and paintings and also the +library. Sir Walter's chair at his desk was protected by a rope, but +Laura, nothing daunted, lifted the baby over it and seated him there for +a moment saying "I am sure, now, he will be clever." We continued our +journey that night and arrived in London the next morning. + +_Ventnor, Isle of Wight, September_ 9.--Aunt Ann, Laura's sister, +Florentine Arnold, nurse and two children, Pearl and Abbie, and I are +here for three weeks on the seashore. + +_September_ 16.--We have visited all the neighboring towns, the graves +of the Dairyman's daughter and little Jane, the young cottager, and the +scene of Leigh Richmond's life and labors. We have enjoyed bathing in +the surf, and the children playing in the sands and riding on the +donkeys. + +We have very pleasant rooms, in a house kept by an old couple, Mr. and +Mrs. Tuddenham, down on the esplanade. They serve excellent meals in a +most homelike way. We have an abundance of delicious milk and cream +which they tell me comes from "Cowes"! + +_London, September_ 30.--Anna has come to England to live with John for +the present. She came on the Adriatic, arriving September 24. We are so +glad to see her once more and will do all in our power to cheer her in +her loneliness. + +_Paris, October_ 18.--John, Laura, Aunt Ann and I, nurse and baby, +arrived here to-day for a few days' visit. We had rather a stormy +passage on the Channel. I asked one of the seamen the name of the vessel +and he answered me "The H'Albert H'Edward, Miss!" This information must +have given me courage, for I was perfectly sustained till we reached +Calais, although nearly every one around me succumbed. + +_October_ 22.--We have driven through the Bois de Boulogne, visited Pere +la Chaise, the Morgue, the ruins of the Tuileries, which are left just +as they were since the Commune. We spent half a day at the Louvre +without seeing half of its wonders. I went alone to a photographer's, Le +Jeune, to be "taken" and had a funny time. He queried "Parlez-vous +Francais?" I shook my head and asked him "Parlez-vous Anglaise?" at +which query he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head! I ventured to +tell him by signs that I would like my picture taken and he held up two +sizes of pictures and asked me "Le cabinet, le vignette?" I held up my +fingers, to tell him I would like six of each, whereupon he proceeded to +make ready and when he had seated me, he made me understand that he +hoped I would sit perfectly still, which I endeavored to do. After the +first sitting, he showed displeasure and let me know that I had swayed +to and fro. Another attempt was more satisfactory and he said "Tres +bien, Madame," and I gave him my address and departed. + +_October_ 26.--My photographs have come and all pronounce them indeed +"tres bien." We visited the Tomb of Napoleon to-day. + +_October_ 27.--We attended service to-day at the American Chapel and I +enjoyed it more than I can ever express. After hearing a foreign tongue +for the past ten days, it seemed like getting home to go into a +Presbyterian church and hear a sermon from an American pastor. The +singing in the choir was so homelike, that when they sang "Awake my soul +to joyful lays and sing thy great Redeemer's praise," it seemed to me +that I heard a well known tenor voice from across the sea, especially in +the refrain "His loving kindness, oh how free." The text was "As an +eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad +her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord did lead +him and there was no strange God with him." Deut. 32: 11. It was a +wonderful sermon and I shall never forget it. On our way home, we +noticed the usual traffic going on, building of houses, women were +standing in their doors knitting and there seemed to be no sign of +Sunday keeping, outside of the church. + +_London, October_ 31.--John and I returned together from Paris and now I +have only a few days left before sailing for home. There was an +Englishman here to-day who was bragging about the beer in England being +so much better than could be made anywhere else. He said, "In America, +you have the 'ops, I know, but you haven't the Thames water, you know." +I suppose that would make a vast difference! + +_Sunday, November_ 3.--We went to hear Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker preach at +Exeter Hall. He is a new light, comparatively, and bids fair to rival +Spurgeon and Newman Hall and all the rest. He is like a lion and again +like a lamb in the pulpit. + +_Liverpool, November_ 6.--I came down to Liverpool to-day with Abbie and +nurse, to sail on the Baltic, to-morrow. There were two Englishmen in +our compartment and hearing Abbie sing "I have a Father in the Promised +Land," they asked her where her Father lived and she said "In America," +and told them she was going on the big ship to-morrow to see him. Then +they turned to me and said they supposed I would be glad to know that +the latest cable from America was that U. S. Grant was elected for his +second term as President of the United States. I assured them that I was +very glad to hear such good news. + +_November_ 9.--I did not know any of the passengers when we sailed, but +soon made pleasant acquaintances. Near me at table are Mr. and Mrs. +Sykes from New York and in course of conversation I found that she as +well as myself, was born in Penn Yan, Yates County, New York, and that +her parents were members of my Father's church, which goes to prove that +the world is not so very wide after all. Abbie is a great pet among the +passengers and is being passed around from one to another from morning +till night. They love to hear her sing and coax her to say "Grace" at +table. She closes her eyes and folds her hands devoutly and says, "For +what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful." They +all say "Amen" to this, for they are fearful that they will not perhaps +be "thankful" when they finish! + +_November_ 15.--I have been on deck every day but one, and not missed a +single meal. There was a terrible storm one night and the next morning I +told one of the numerous clergymen, that I took great comfort in the +night, thinking that nothing could happen with so many of the Lord's +anointed, on board. He said that he wished he had thought of that, for +he was frightened almost to death! We have sighted eleven steamers and +on Wednesday we were in sight of the banks of Newfoundland all the +afternoon, our course being unusually northerly and we encountered no +fogs, contrary to the expectation of all. Every one pronounces the +voyage pleasant and speedy for this time of year. + +_Naples, N. Y., November_ 20.--We arrived safely in New York on Sunday. +Abbie spied her father very quickly upon the dock as we slowly came up +and with glad and happy hearts we returned his "Welcome home." We spent +two days in New York and arrived home safe and sound this evening. + +_November_ 21.--My thirtieth birthday, which we, a reunited family, are +spending happily together around our own fireside, pleasant memories of +the past months adding to the joy of the hour. + +From the _New York Evangelist_ of August 15, 1872, by Rev. Samuel Pratt, +D.D. + +"Died, at Canandaigua, N. Y., August 8, 1872, Mrs. Abigail Field Beals, +widow of Thomas Beals, in the 98th year of her age. Mrs. Beals, whose +maiden name was Field, was born in Madison, Conn., April 7, 1784. She +was a sister of Rev. David Dudley Field, D.D., of Stockbridge, Mass., +and of Rev. Timothy Field, first pastor of the Congregational church of +Canandaigua. She came to Canandaigua with her brother, Timothy, in 1800. +In 1805 she was married to Thomas Beals, Esq., with whom she lived +nearly sixty years, until he fell asleep. They had eleven children, of +whom only four survive. In 1807 she and her husband united with the +Congregational church, of which they were ever liberal and faithful +supporters. Mrs. Beals loved the good old ways and kept her house in the +simple and substantial style of the past. She herself belonged to an age +of which she was the last. With great dignity and courtesy of manner +which repelled too much familiarity, she combined a sweet and winning +grace, which attracted all to her, so that the youth, while they would +almost involuntarily 'rise up before her,' yet loved to be in her +presence and called her blessed. She possessed in a rare degree the +ornament of a meek and quiet spirit and lived in an atmosphere of love +and peace. Her home and room were to her children and her children's +children what Jerusalem was to the saints of old. There they loved to +resort and the saddest thing in her death is the sundering of that tie +which bound so many generations together. She never ceased to take a +deep interest in the prosperity of the beautiful village of which she +and her husband were the pioneers and for which they did so much and in +the church of which she was the oldest member. Her mind retained its +activity to the last and her heart was warm in sympathy with every good +work. While she was well informed in all current events, she most +delighted in whatever concerned the Kingdom. Her Bible and religious +books were her constant companions and her conversation told much of her +better thoughts, which were in Heaven. Living so that those who knew her +never saw in her anything but fitness for Heaven, she patiently awaited +the Master's call and went down to her grave in a full age like a shock +of corn fully ripe that cometh in its season." + +I don't think I shall keep a diary any more, only occasionally jot down +things of importance. Mr. Noah T. Clarke's brother got possession of my +little diary in some way one day and when he returned it I found written +on the fly-leaf this inscription to the diary: + + "You'd scarce expect a volume of my size + To hold so much that's beautiful and wise, + And though the heartless world might call me cheap + Yet from my pages some much joy shall reap. + As monstrous oaks from little acorns grow, + And kindly shelter all who toil below, + So my future greatness and the good I do + Shall bless, if not the world, at least a few." + +I think I will close my old journal with the mottoes which I find upon +an old well-worn writing book which Anna used for jotting down her +youthful deeds. On the cover I find inscribed, "Try to be somebody," and +on the back of the same book, as if trying to console herself for +unexpected achievement which she could not prevent, "Some must be +great!" + + * * * * * + + + + +1880 + +_June_ 17.--Our dear Anna was married to-day to Mr. Alonzo A. Cummings +of Oakland, Cal., and has gone there to live. I am sorry to have her go +so far away, but love annihilates space. There is no real separation, +except in alienation of spirit, and that can never come--to us. + +THE END + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +BOOKS TO MAKE ELDERS YOUNG AGAIN + +By Inez Haynes Gillmore + +PHOEBE AND ERNEST + +With 30 illustrations by R. F. Schabelitz. $1.35 net. + +Parents will recognize themselves in the story, and laugh understandingly +with, and sometimes at, Mr. and Mrs. Martin and their children, Phoebe +and Ernest. + +"Attracted delighted attention in the course of its serial publication. +Sentiment and humor are deftly mingled in this clever book."--_New York +Tribune_. + +"We must go back to Louisa Alcott for their equals."--_Boston +Advertiser_. + +"For young and old alike we know of no more refreshing story."--_New +York Evening Post_. + +PHOEBE, ERNEST, AND CUPID + +Illustrated by R. F. Schabelitz. $1.35 net. + +In this sequel to the popular "Phoebe and Ernest," each of these +delightful young folk goes to the altar. + +"To all jaded readers of problem novels, to all weary wayfarers on the +rocky literary road of social pessimism and domestic woe, we recommend +'Phoebe, Ernest, and Cupid' with all our hearts: it is not only +cheerful, it's true."--_N. Y. Times Review_. + +"Wholesome, merry, absolutely true to life."--_The Outlook_. + +"All delicious--humorous and true."--_The Continent_. + +"Irresistibly fascinating. Mrs. Gillmore knows twice as much about +college boys as ----, and five times as much about girls."--_Boston +Globe_. + +JANEY + +Illustrated by Ada C. Williamson. $1.25 net. + +"Being the record of a short interval in the journey thru life and the +struggle with society of a little girl of nine." + +"Our hearts were captive to 'Phoebe and Ernest,' and now accept 'Janey.' +... She is so engaging.... Told so vivaciously and with such good-natured +and pungent asides for grown people."--_Outlook_. + +"Depicts youthful human nature as one who knows and loves it. Her +'Phoebe and Ernest' studies are deservedly popular, and now, in 'Janey,' +this clever writer has accomplished an equally charming portrait." +--_Chicago Record-Herald_. + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE HOME BOOK OF VERSE + +_American and English_ (1580-1912) + +Compiled by Burton E. Stevenson. Collects the best short poetry of the +English language--not only the poetry everybody says is good, but also +the verses that everybody reads. (3742 pages; India paper, 1 vol., 8vo, +complete author, title and first line indices, $7.50 net; carriage 40 +cents extra.) + +The most comprehensive and representative collection of American and +English poetry ever published, including 3,120 unabridged poems from +some 1,100 authors. + +It brings together in one volume the best short poetry of the English +language from the time of Spencer, with especial attention to American +verse. + +The copyright deadline has been passed, and some three hundred recent +authors are included, very few of whom appear in any other general +anthology, such as Lionel Johnson, Noyes, Housman, Mrs. Meynell, Yeats, +Dobson, Lang, Watson, Wilde, Francis Thompson, Gilder, Le Gallienne, Van +, Woodberry, Riley, etc., etc. + +The poems are arranged by subject, and the classification is unusually +close and searching. Some of the most comprehensive sections are: +Children's rhymes (300 pages); love poems (800 pages); nature poetry +(400 pages); humorous verse (500 pages); patriotic and historical poems +(600 pages); reflective and descriptive poetry (400 pages). No other +collection contains so many popular favorites and fugitive verses. + +DELIGHTFUL POCKET ANTHOLOGIES + +The following books are uniform, with full gilt flexible covers and +pictured cover linings. 16mo. Each, cloth, $1.50; leather, $2.50. + + +THE GARLAND OF CHILDHOOD + +A little book for all lovers of children. Compiled by Percy Withers. + +THE VISTA OF ENGLISH VERSE Compiled by Henry S. Pancoast. + +From Spencer to Kipling. + +LETTERS THAT LIVE Compiled by Laura E. Lockwood and Amy R. Kelly. + +Some 150 letters. + +POEMS FOR TRAVELLERS (About "The Continent.") Compiled by Miss Mary R. +J. DuBois. + +THE OPEN ROAD + +A little book for wayfarers. Compiled by E. V. Lucas. + +THE FRIENDLY TOWN + +A little book for the urbane, compiled by E. V. Lucas. + +THE POETIC OLD-WORLD Compiled by Miss L. H. Humphrey. + +Covers Europe, including Spain, Belgium and the British Isles. + +THE POETIC NEW-WORLD Compiled by Miss Humphrey. + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +34 WEST 33rd STREET--NEW YORK + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +NEW BOOKS PRIMARILY FOR WOMEN + +A MONTESSORI MOTHER. By Dorothy Canfield Fisher + +A thoroughly competent author who has been most closely associated with +Dr. Montessori tells just what American mothers want to know about this +new system of child training--the general principles underlying it; a +plain description of the apparatus, definite directions for its use, +suggestive hints as to American substitutes and additions, etc., etc. +(_Helpfully illustrated._ $1.25 _net, by mail_ $1.35.) + +MAKING A BUSINESS WOMAN. By Anne Shannon Monroe + +A young woman whose business assets are good sense, good health, and the +ability to use a typewriter goes to Chicago to earn her living. This +story depicts her experiences vividly and truthfully, tho the characters +are fictitious. ($1.30 _net, by mail_ $1.40.) + +WHY WOMEN ARE SO. By Mary R. Coolidge + +Explains and traces the development of the woman of 1800 into the woman +of to-day. ($1.50 _net, by mail_ $1.62.) + +THE SQUIRREL-CAGE. By Dorothy Canfield + +A novel recounting the struggle of an American wife and mother to call +her soul her own. + +"One has no hesitation in classing 'The Squirrel-Cage' with the best +American fiction of this or any other season."--_Chicago Record-Herald._ +(3rd printing. $1.35 _net, by mail_ $1.45.) + +HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS. By C. B. Davenport + +"One of the foremost authorities . . . tells just what scientific +investigation has established and how far it is possible to control what +the ancients accepted as inevitable."--_N. Y. Times Review._ + +(With diagrams. 3_rd printing._ $2.00 _net, by mail_ $2.16.) + +THE GLEAM. By Helen R. Albee + +A frank spiritual autobiography. ($1.35 _net, by mail_ $1.45.) + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +34 WEST 33rd STREET--NEW YORK + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +LEADING AMERICANS + +Edited by W. P. Trent, and generally confined to those no longer living. +Large 12mo. With portraits. Each $1.75, by mail $1.90. + +R. M. JOHNSTON'S LEADING AMERICAN SOLDIERS + +By the Author of "Napoleon," etc. + +Washington, Greene, Taylor, Scott, Andrew Jackson, Grant, Sherman, +Sheridan, McClellan, Meade, Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Joseph E. +Johnston. + +"Very interesting . . . much sound originality of treatment, and the +style is very clear."--_Springfield Republican._ + +JOHN ERSKINE'S LEADING AMERICAN NOVELISTS + +Charles Brockden Brown, Cooper, Simms, Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe, and Bret +Harte. + +"He makes his study of these novelists all the more striking because +of their contrasts of style and their varied purpose. . . . Well worth +any amount of time we may care to spend upon them."--_Boston Transcript._ + +W. M. PAYNE'S LEADING AMERICAN ESSAYISTS + +A General Introduction dealing with essay writing in America, and +biographies of Irving, Emerson, Thoreau, and George William Curtis. + +"It is necessary to know only the name of the author of this work to be +assured of its literary excellence."--_Literary Digest._ + +LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE + +Edited by President David Starr Jordan. + +Count Rumford and Josiah Willard Gibbs, by E. E. Slosson; Alexander +Wilson and Audubon, by Witmer Stone; Silliman, by Daniel C. Gilman; +Joseph Henry, by Simon Newcomb; Louis Agassiz and Spencer Fullerton +Baird, by Charles F. Holder; Jeffries Wyman, by B. G. Wilder; Asa Gray, +by John M. Coulter; James Dwight Dana, by William North Rice; Marsh, by +Geo. Bird Grinnell; Edward Drinker Cope, by Marcus Benjamin; Simon +Newcomb, by Marcus Benjamin; George Brown Goode, by D. S. Jordan; Henry +Augustus Rowland, by Ira Remsen; William Keith Brooks, by E. A. 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Certainly the novel of the year--the +book which everyone reads and discusses."--_The London Times._ $1.00 +net. + +Victor L. Whitechurch's A DOWNLAND CORNER + +By the author of The Canon in Residence. + +"One of those delightful studies in quaintness which we take to heart +and carry in the pocket."--_New York Times._ $1.20 net. + +H. H. Bashford's PITY THE POOR BLIND + +The story of a young English couple and an Anglican priest. + +"This novel, whose title is purely metaphorical, has an uncommon +literary quality and interest . . . its appeal, save to those who also +'having eyes see not,' must be as compelling as its theme is +original."--_Boston Transcript._ $1.35 net. + +John Maetter's THREE FARMS + +An "adventure in contentment" in France, Northwestern Canada and +Indiana. + +"A rare combination of philosophy and humor. The most remarkable part of +this book is the wonderful atmosphere of content which radiates from +it."--_Boston Transcript._ $1.20 net. + +Dorothy Canfield's THE SQUIRREL-CAGE + +A very human story of the struggle of an American wife and mother to +call her soul her own. 4th printing. Illustrated by J. A. Williams. + +"One has no hesitation in classing The Squirrel Cage with the best +American fiction of this or any season."--_Chicago Record-Herald._ $1.35 +net. + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +34 WEST 33rd STREET--NEW YORK + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +STANDARD CONTEMPORARY NOVELS + +WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S JOSEPH VANCE + +The story of a great sacrifice and a lifelong love. Over fourteen +printings. $1.75. + +List of Mr. De Morgan's other novels sent on application. + +PAUL LEICESTER FORD'S THE HON. PETER STIRLING + +This famous novel of New York political life has gone through over fifty +impressions. $1.50. + +ANTHONY HOPE'S PRISONER OF ZENDA + +This romance of adventure has passed through over sixty impressions. +With illustrations by C. D. Gibson. $1.50. + +ANTHONY HOPE'S RUPERT OF HENTZAU + +This story has been printed over a score of times. With illustrations by +C. D. Gibson. $1.50. + +ANTHONY HOPE'S DOLLY DIALOGUES + +Has passed through over eighteen printings. With illustrations by H. C. +Christy. $1.50. + +CHARLES BATTELL LOOMIS'S CHEERFUL AMERICANS + +By the author of "Poe's Raven in an Elevator" and "A Holiday Touch." +With 24 illustrations. Tenth printing. $1.25. + +MAY SINCLAIR'S THE DIVINE FIRE + +By the author of "The Helpmate," etc. Fifteenth printing. $1.50. + +BURTON E. STEVENSON'S MARATHON MYSTERY + +This mystery story of a New York apartment house is now in its seventh +printing, has been republished in England and translated into German and +Italian. With illustrations in color. $1.50. + +E. L. VOYNICH'S THE GADFLY + +An intense romance of the Italian uprising against the Austrians. +Twenty-third edition. $1.25. + +DAVID DWIGHT WELLS'S HER LADYSHIP'S ELEPHANT + +With cover by Wm. Nicholson. Eighteenth printing. $1.25. + +C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON'S LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR + +Over thirty printings. $1.50. + +C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON'S THE PRINCESS PASSES + +Illustrated by Edward Penfield. Eighth printing. $1.50. + +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Village Life in America 1852-1872, by +Caroline Cowles Richards + +*** \ No newline at end of file