“April 18, 1855.  A young sailor boy came to see me to-day.  It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.  They always say, with pride, ‘I can take a lunar, Miss Mitchell, and work it up!’

“This boy I had known only as a boy, but he has suddenly become a man and seems to be full of intelligence.  He will go once more as a sailor, he says, and then try for the position of second mate.  He looked as if he had been a good boy and would make a good man.

“He said that he had been ill so much that he had been kept out of temptation; but that the forecastle of a ship was no place for improvement of mind or morals.  He said the captain with whom he came home asked him if he knew me, because he had heard of me.  I was glad to find that the captain was a man of intelligence and had been kind to the boy.”

Miss Mitchell was an inveterate reader.  She devoured books on all subjects.  If she saw that boys were eagerly reading a certain book she immediately read it; if it were harmless she encouraged them to read it; if otherwise, she had a convenient way of losing the book.  In November, when the trustees made their annual examination, the book appeared upon the shelf, but the next day after it was again lost.  At this time Nantucket was a thriving, busy town.  The whale-fishery was a very profitable business, and the town was one of the wealthiest in the State.  There was a good deal of social and literary life.  In a Friend’s family neither music nor dancing was allowed.

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell were by no means narrow sectarians, but they believed it to be best to conform to the rules of Friends as laid down in the “Discipline.”  George Fox himself, the founder of the society, had blown a blast against music, and especially instrumental music in churches.  It will be remembered that the Methodists have but recently yielded to the popular demand in this respect, and have especially favored congregational singing.

It is most likely that George Fox had no ear for music himself, and thus entailed upon his followers an obligation from which they are but now freeing themselves.

There was plenty of singing in the Mitchell family, and the parents liked it, especially the father, who, when he sat down in the evening with the children, would say, “Now sing something.”  But there could be no instruction in singing; the children sang the songs that they picked up from their playmates.

However, one of the daughters bought a piano, and Maria’s purse opened to help that cause along.  It would not have been proper for Mr. Mitchell to help pay for it, but he took a great interest in it, nevertheless.  So indeed did the mother, but she took care not to express herself outwardly.

The piano was kept in a neighboring building not too far off to be heard from the house.  Maria had no ear for music herself, but she was always to be depended upon to take the lead in an emergency, so the sisters put their heads together and decided that the piano must be brought into the house.  When they had made all the preparations the father and mother were invited to take tea with their married daughter, who lived in another part of the town and had been let into the secret.