School-days in 1800

I WAS born in the town of Lee, Massachusetts, on the nineteenth day of October, 1781. The day of my birth was the anniversary of my father's forefathers' landing on this contine...

I THINK young children begin to notice and remember at a very much earlier age than people generally suppose. I am sure I recollect perfectly well my first going to meeting, tho...

I suppose I was an odd child. I remember hearing father say that with nine children out of ten one could tell pretty well what they would do, but I was the tenth, of whom there...

I HAD only one serious trouble in school, and that trouble's name was Sarah Millar. I cannot even now explain the influence she had over me. She was not handsome or specially br...

THE rest of the winter passed quietly, and pleasantly also, in spite of the whooping-cough, which ran through all our neighbourhood and almost broke up the school. Among the chi...

MY life went on the even tenor of its way as I have described it till I was eleven years old. At this time I was large of my age, though not as strong in health as most of my sc...

OF course the change in our circumstances soon became known to all our acquaintances in the little place, and it was no small part of our misfortunes to hear the remarks and con...

I cannot pretend to describe the next day, nor that which followed. I had bid good-bye to all my school-mates the day before, but they almost all came for a last word; and then...

WHETHER it was owing to the fact that I arrived at my new home on Friday or not I cannot say, but certain it is that I had the ill luck to displease my aunt before I had been in...

THE next morning my aunt called me into the library, a room I had not seen before. It was a handsome apartment, at the back of the house, well though soberly furnished, and line...

"You mean, I suppose, that another doll would not have the same associations," said my aunt. "But, Olivia, it is right that we should make restitution to those whom we have inju...

LATE in March that year we began to hear that the measles were prevailing in town, and in the course of a week all three of us children and Jane, the house-maid, were taken down...

ELMINA stayed up stairs for a week and then resumed her place in the family and school-room. I had dreaded meeting her, thinking how ashamed and mortified she must be, but she d...

THE fortnight came to an end, as all fortnights do, and the appointed day saw us on board the good ship "Speedwell" dropping rapidly down the bay with the tide, our party, consi...

IT was a good while, however, before I appreciated the state of the case. I understood, indeed, the words which were said to me, but they seemed to convey no real meaning to my...

THE next morning, after breakfast, Mrs. Deborah established me in the library with all the materials for writing and a large sheet of thin paper, which she rummaged out of the b...

I DID not expect an answer to my letter for six weeks at the very least; but when eight, ten, twelve, passed, and nothing came, I began to feel very home-sick and uneasy, and Mr...

book presented to Mr. Emmons, and heard his commendation of it, my cheeks burned, and I almost thought I would speak right out. But then how could I betray Isabella, who was so...

WHAT a time I made over that letter, to be sure! I kissed it a dozen times; and then I was taken with a cold fit of apprehension, and felt perfectly certain that it announced th...

HOW strange it seemed, that first evening at home!—so strange and yet so familiar. There was all the old furniture I knew so well, and the old faces, all less changed than I sho...

SO here we were, eight girls condemned to spend some weeks in the same house with no society but our own, and we naturally regarded each other very curiously. Four of us, the Wi...

EVERYBODY knows the pleasant feeling with which one contemplates the finishing up of a disagreeable piece of business. It was with this feeling that I returned home, to which wa...