“These books that I have mentioned were not new to mother:  she had read and knew them almost by heart long before she commenced reading them to us, and her mind was an inexhaustible source of knowledge.  Although her school-days were limited, she was not ignorant of the common branches.  She had studied, she told me, the ‘Ladies’ Lexicon,’ from which she had obtained a very thorough knowledge of English grammar.  She wrote a trim hand, she had a practical knowledge of arithmetic, and geography had claimed a portion of her time in school; but what she had learnt there was but a commencement.  She must subsequently have studied astronomy, for she taught me without books to recognize the planets and trace the constellations, and at any hour of the night she could tell the time by looking at the position of the stars.  She had the talent for dates that you have inherited, Marguerite, and was authority for the neighborhood upon all disputed points in politics since the days of Washington; indeed, it was quite amusing to see the men all come to consult ‘Aunt Mary’ rather than father, when a knotty question arose.”

“As you have described grandmamma,” said Marguerite, “she appears to be superior to grandpapa.  Do you so consider her?”

“Mother was father’s superior,” replied mamma, “intellectually and morally.  Father was rather cold in his nature, but mother had a warm heart.  She was an enthusiastic friend, and she loved every living thing.  I do not remember ever hearing her speak an ill word of a neighbor, and I am sure she never had an enemy in her life.

“Though I do not call father warm-hearted, he certainly had great affection for mother, and was sincerely attached to his family.  I have heard him say that he would walk all night, rather than stop short of his home.

“Father was sometimes called by our neighbors a hard parent.  He never was, it is true, demonstrative in his affection, but he was strictly just, and never harsh in his treatment of us.  As I have often told you, he believed in work for himself and his family, and I have heard him say that sooner than have a child of his grow up idle, he would make him pick up stones in one lot, and throw them over into the next one.  He considered that he had been generous in allowing brother Horace to leave home, or, as country people call it, ’giving him his time,’ six years before he became of age, and he was willing at any time to allow his daughters to seek their fortunes away from home, should they desire to do so.

“This winter of 1826-27 was the last one that we four children spent at home together.  The next year sister Arminda, although only twelve years old, opened a school in the little log-house upon our west farm—­”

“When only twelve years old!” we interrupted in chorus; “pray whom did she teach?  Babies?”

“No,” replied mamma, “she had a dozen or fourteen pupils, little boys and girls, some of whom were older than herself, for very young children could not have walked that distance—­three and four miles.”