“There were two other girls of whom brother was very fond at that time; Cornelia Anne Smith and Rebecca Fish.  Cornelia Anne was older than the other girls, about fourteen, I think, and was the fondest of learning of the trio.  I remember that she often used to bring her school-books to brother when some difficulty had arisen in her lessons, and he would explain the hard points.  I think that he always corresponded with these girls, and visited them occasionally after they became women, for you know with what tenacity he clung to his early associations.  He has often spoken to me of Rebecca Fish, who is now Mrs. Whipple, of Fairhaven.

“You would be amused if I were to tell you how he used to pass the time that he spent with these three girls.  A city-bred boy of thirteen or fourteen would have been quite capable of arranging an elopement with the prettiest one, but brother’s style of courtship was quite unique; he used to correct their grammar when they conversed, and gravely lecture them upon the folly of wearing stays!

“The corsets which so aroused his ire were quite different from those of the present day.  At that time, you must know, the Empire dress, that you have seen in portraits of the time of the first Napoleon, was all the fashion; no crinoline, skirts so extremely scant and gored that they clung to the figure like drapery upon a statue, and waists a finger and a half in depth, with inch-wide bands instead of sleeves.  This style of dress was very graceful and becoming when worn by a woman of slender figure, and those who were not thus favored by Nature made the best of their figures by wearing what was then called ‘busks,’ or more popularly ‘boards.’  The corsets worn in those days did not clasp in front, but merely laced behind, and inserted in the lining of the front was the ‘busk,’ a piece of steel, or (among poorer people) wood two inches wide, and the depth of the corset.  This busk, with the addition of very tightly drawn lacing-strings, was supposed to give great symmetry to the figure.  No village belle ever liked to own that she laced tightly, or that she wore a board; as it was a tacit admission that her figure could not bear unaided the test of the Empire dress; consequently brother’s remarks would be received by his young friends with an injured air, and a vehement protest against such a false accusation.  Brother would then test their truth by dropping his handkerchief and requesting them to pick it up; if they ‘wore a board,’ stooping would be impossible, or, at all events, very difficult; an ordeal that would cover them with confusion, when the philosopher of thirteen years old would resume his moral lecture upon the laws of hygiene, and the follies of fashion.”

CHAPTER XIV.

The Morning Mail—­A letter to Mrs. Cleveland—­Strange Contents—­Ida’s Letter Bag—­Appeals for Money, for Clothing, and for her Hand—­An Original Letter from a Trapper.