But Eugene and Roswell, Jr., were not long to know the watchful tenderness and ambitious solicitude of that “mother love” of which the elder has so sweetly sung.  In November, 1856, when Eugene was six years old, their mother died and their father’s thoughts instinctively turned to his sister, hoping to find with her, amid scenes familiar to his own youth, a home and affectionate care for his motherless boys.  How the early loss of his mother affected the life of Eugene Field it is impossible to tell.  Not until the boy of six whom she left had become a man of forty did he attempt to pay a tribute of filial love to her memory.  The following lines, under the simple title, “To My Mother,” first appeared in his “Sharps and Flats” column, October 25th, 1890.  It was reprinted in his “Second Book of Verse.”  The opening lines summon up a tender picture of a “grace that is dead”: 

How fair you are, my mother!  Ah, though ’tis many a year Since you were here, Still do I see your beauteous face And with the glow Of your dark eyes cometh a grace Of long ago.

The Mistress French of our earlier acquaintance, who was a widow when we last knew her in Newfane, had married again and, as Mistress Thomas Jones, had moved with her daughter, Mary Field French, to Amherst, Mass.  To the home of Mrs. Jones and the loving care of Miss French, Eugene and Roswell, Jr., were entrusted.  Miss French was at this time a young woman, a spinster—­Eugene delighted to call her—­of about thirty years.  His old Munson tutor thus describes her: 

“Mary Field French, a daughter of Mrs. Jones by her first husband, was a lady of strong mind, and much culture, with a sound judgment and decision of character and very gracious manners.  She was always sociable and agreeable and so admirably adapted to the charge of the two brothers.”  They retained through manhood the warmest affection for this cousin-mother, and never wearied in showing toward her the grateful devotion of loyal sons.

“Here,” continues Dr. Tufts, “in this charming home, under the best of New England influences and religious instruction, with nothing harsh or repulsive, the boys could not have found a more congenial home.  Indeed, few mothers are able or even capable of doing so much for their own children as Miss French did for these two brothers, watching over them incessantly, yet not spoiling them by weak indulgence or repelling them by harsh discipline.”

[Illustration:  EUGENE FIELD’S COUSINS, MARY FIELD FRENCH AND HER YOUNGER HALF SISTER, AUGUSTA JONES. From a daguerreotype taken before Eugene and Roswell became members of Miss French’s family in Amherst, on the death of their mother.]