Daughters of genius: a series of sketches of authors, artists, reformers, and heroines, queens, princesses, and women of society, women eccentric and peculiar, from the most recent and authentic sources

Preface

THE most important result of the better civilization of our time is the increased power of women. We know that in limited spheres their influence was always incalculably great ; but now, without losing their ascendancy at home, they find a career in many of the trades, most of the professions, and all the arts. In those of the arts which give the most lively pleasure and reach the greatest number of persons, namely, fiction and the drama, women, in our day, have attained the first rank, and have made the first rank higher. As reformers and world-improvers, what men have surpassed the single-eyed and courageous devotion of such women as Miss Martineau?

We can set no limit to their future achievements except those which nature herself has established. So long as the chief business of every state was to defend itself against armed encroachment, all gifts and all character were of necessity subordinate to masculine force. Women were " the subject sex." The peace and safety resulting from the union of many states, and to become universal through federation and arbitration, will still further reduce the importance of muscle and brawn. The time is not very distant when the ballot will have rendered^ the bullet, not monstrous merely, but ridiculous, an(^ when there will be no " campaigns " except those of the blest American pattern, fought out in the pleasant autumn days with speeches, processions, fireworks, and bands of music.

4 PREFACE.

Ill this volume are presented some examples of women who have risen to the better chance afforded them through the general amelioration of manners. The most fortunate of them have been cruelly obstructed bj the large remainder o± barbarism which exists in every community, and they have done their work in the teeth of every conceivable disadvantage. They have had to snatch it from a cross-fire of hostile circumstances. That Charlotte Bronte, that Mary Anne Evans, that Mrs. Stowe, should have been able to exercise their beautiful talents at all, was wonderful. That they should have employed them so triumphantly, is a kind of miracle, at w^iich we can but stand amazed. In reading of their exploits w^e perceive that the Maid of Orleans was one of their kind, and saved her country by the exercise of qualities akin to theirs.

One pleasing duty remains to me. In the preparation of tliis volume, I have received the most essential and efficient assistance from my beloved niece, Miss Ethel Parton. Many of these articles I could not have done without her aid, w^hicli was rendered with a ready tact and sympathetic zeal beyond her twenty years, though they were to be expected from her lineage. Whenever the reader comes upon a passage that betrays a finer insight and a happier touch than ordinarily appears in the w^ork, he will know to whom to attribute it.

The chapters on Queen Victoria and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, subsequently added, are from the pen of Prof, John P. Lamberton, of Philadelphia.

Table Of Contents

SALLY BUSH— ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S GOOD STEP- MOTHER.

Thomas Lincoln's farm— Primeval Indiana — Beauty of the laud — The Lincoln log cabin — The want of furniture — The children neglected — How they were subsisted — Death of Abraham's mother — Thomas Lincoln courts a new wife — Her arrival in Indiana — Reforms the household — Takes care of the children — ]Makes a man of Abe — His gratitude to her — He visits her after his election to the Presidency — Her opinion of him — Her grave. . . . . . , . .17

II. The Bronte Sisters

Tlie Rev, Patrick Bronte — The family at the parsonage — The father's violent temper — Tlie six little children — Death of their mother — Aunt Branwell takes charge of the family — The deadly boarding-school — Charlotte's friend, Miss Ellen Nussey — Emily a teacher — Charlotte and Emily at Brussels — Emily's homesick poem — Branw^ell Bronte — The bed on fire — The book of poems — Novels of the three sisters — "The Professor " declined — ' ' Jane Eyre " — Its great success — " Agnes Grey " and "Wuthering Heights" — Branwell's illness and death — Death of Emily — "Shirley" published — Charlotte and Miss Martineau — " Yillette " — Charlotte's marriage and death 3^

O CONTENTS.

III. Queen A^ctoria

Her birth and education — Succeeds to the throne — ^Married to Prince Albeit — AboUtion of the corn laws — Friendship with France — Death of Prince Albert — Changes of ministry — Empress of India — Training of her children — Her books. . . 44

lY.

ELIZABETH BAIIIIETT BROWNIXa.

A precocious child— Her first WTitings — ' ' Prometheus Bound "— Between death and life — Study of the Greek poets — Her compliment to Robert Browning — Her marriage — Residence in Florence — Social and political problems — The noblest female poet 64

Y.

MRS. STOWE AND UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

The early writings of Mrs. Stowe — The Semicolon Club — Publication of the Mayflower — Arrival of a check from Dr. Bailey — Mrs. Stowe's early experiences of slavery — Uncle Tom begun — Writing under difficulties — Modest expectations of the authoress — Wonderful success of the work — The authoress not enriched by it. . . . . . .73

YI.

MISS ALCOTT.

Herself the original of Jo — Her early life — Her father's peculiar school — Whipping the teacher — Her first stories — Teaches school — Contril)utes to the Saturday Evening Gazette — She describes heV early successes — Writes a play — On the free list at the theatre — Becomes an author by profession — A volunteer nurse in the war — Her hos^Dital sketches published — Little Women — Translated into French — Her unbounded popularity — Her Concord home described. ..,,.. 78

YII.

GEORGE ELIOT.

Warwickshire — Birthplace and parentage — Clinractor of her father — His traits reproduced in Caleb Garth and Adam Bedc

CONTENTS. I

— Her education — Character of her mother — Housekeeper for her father — The little wench — Meets Ealph Waldo Emerson - — His ojDinion of her — Translates Strauss's Life of Jesus — Removal to London — Contributes to the Westminster Review — Scenes of Clerical Life — Opinion of Thackeray and Dickens ^ — Adam Bede — ]Marriage to Mr. Lewes — Mill on the Floss — parly religious experiences of the author — Correspondence with Professor Kaufmann — Her receptions described by an American lady — Her dress and appearance — Death of her husband — She marries J. "W. Cross — Her death. . . .91

YIII.

PRINCESS LOUISE.

Troubles in the palace — The political storm ox 1848 — Birth of the Princess — Her education — Her artistic temperament — Marries the Marquis of Lome — His family and lineage — The Princess described by Lord DufEerin — The uses of royalty. 115

IX.

FANNY MENDELSSOHN.

Her family — Educated with her brother Felix — Her talent for music — Attachment to her brother — Beloved by Wilhelm Hensel — Her early home — Garden parties — A German's observations upon London life — Marriage of Fanny Mendelssohn — Her son Sebastian — Her musical matinees — Success of her compositions — Felix at the Court- of Queen Victoria — The Queen sings one of Fanny's songs — Her journey to Italy — Her death. . . . ^ 124

X.

ANGELICA KAUFMANN.

Her career the subject of a novel by Miss Thackeray — Her education in art — Becomes a fashionable artist at fifteen — Her musical talents — Sir Joshua Reynolds proposes to lier — She refuses him — Count Horn's arrival in London — She marries him — Her husband an impostor — The marriage annulled — Her second marriage — Her later pictures — Death of her husband— Her death and funeral. ...... 143 b CONTENTS.

XL

BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.

Harriet Mellon upon the London stage — Thomas Coutts one of her admirers — His previous career — He marries Miss Mellon at eighty-four — He leaves her his fortune — Her marriage td th<», Duke of St. Albans — Leaves her fortune to a grandchild of Thomas Coutts — Its amount — Character of her father — tier firmness and decision — List of her benefactions — Her hospitality — Banquet to two thousand Belgians — Her marriage 151

XIL

GIRLHOOD OF QUEEN ELIZ;.BETH.

Her ill-provided childhood — Her governess — Mourns the death of her father — Iler brother, Edward VI — Roger Ascham her tutor — The apostle of gentle methods — His work upon teaching— Lady Jane Grey as a child — Queen Elizabeth's learning — Her household — Customs of the age — Furniture and utensils— Accession to the throne. . , . . . , IGl

XIIL

THE WIFE OF TflOMAS CARLYLE.

Jeannie Welsh as a school girl — Her vivacity and generosit}^ — Anecdotes of her childhood — She studies Virgil — Death of her father — Loved by Edward Irving — Introduced to Carlyle — His tribute of verse to her — Her marriage — Happiness of her early married life — Residence at Craigenputtock — Her loaf of bread — Her health declines — One of her poems — Removal to London — Trials of housekeeping — Carlyle's intractable temper— Darwin, Dickens, and Tennyson — The accident — Her sympatliy Y/ith her husband's triumpli — Sudden death — Her epitapli. ........ .173

XIV.

THE WIFE OF BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Major Andre's early life — In love Avithllonora — Major Andre in Philadelphia — His fricndsliip with Peggy Sliippen — Tlie Mischianza — Her marriage to General Arnold — His trial by

CONTEXTS. y

court-martial — Correspondence with the enemy — She receives a letter from xVndre — Arnold at West Point — Andre starts upon his mission — His dinner sono- — Failure of the plot — Mrs. Arnold feigns ignorance — Probability of her guilt — Aaron Burr's testimony — Joins her husband in England — She returns to her country — Andre's monument in "Westminster Abbey 194

XV.

ADELAIDE PROCTER.

Her precocious childhood — Sends contributions to Charles Dickens — Dickens discovers the author — His delightful letter to her — Her subsequent works — Her charitable labors — Dies of overwork — The Lost Chord 213

XYI.

LADY BLOOMFIELD.

The duties and compensation of a maid of honor — ^Routine of the palace — The prudent advice of Lady Ravensworth — Evenings at court — Comic anecdotes — Marriage of Lady Bloomfield — The Sovereigns of Europe. . , . 219

XYII.

THE MOTHER OF VICTOR HUGO.

General Hugo — His courtship in La Vendee — ]\Iadame Hugo's person and character— The wedding — The compact with Pierre Toucher — Birth of the children — Their life in Italy — Madame Hugo and her sons in Paris — Their garden and tutor — The journey to Spain — Residence at Madrid — x^ Spanish school — Restoration of the Bourbons — Victor wins honors at the academy — An evening at the Fouchers' — ^Death of Madame Hugo — Marriage of the poet. . , ' . 225

XYIII.

_ LAURA BREDG^IAN.

Laura's native place — Loses her faculties through scarlet fever — Instructed by her mother — Her removal to the Boston Blind Asvlum — Educated bv Doctor S. G. Howe — His metbods of teaching her. described — Visited b}'^ Charles Dickens — Her character — Incident of the handkerchief — Joins the Baptist church — She rcL^tcs her baptism — Her present condition— One of her poems 243

XIX.

THE WIFE OF GEOEGE WASHINGTON" EST HER WORK- EOOM AT MOUNT VERNON.

The workroom described — Making garments for the sLaves-»- Mrs. AVashington always knitting — Her training of servants — Her husband's early condition — Her wealth — The courtship and marriage. . ....... 256

XX.

MADAME DE STAEL AND NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

The master of Europe afraid of a woman — His reasons — Character of the man as shown in his bulletins — Reasons for her detestation of him-^His treatment of Prussia — His insolence to the conquered — He banishes Madame de Stael — ^Forbids • the publication of her Germany — Some offensive passages — Her second marriage 263

XXI.

THE WIFE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.

A forced marriage — An incongruous couple — Her appearance and character — Abandoned by the king — His correspondence with her — The king's liberality to her — Her religious tracts. 280

XXII.

THE FLIGHT OF EUGENIE.

Her parentage — Her childhood in Madrid — Known there by Washington Irving — Her extraordinary beauty as a young lady— Marriage to Louis Napoleon — Gift from the city of Paris — Her expensive dresses — The clothes mania spreads through the world — Twenty thousand dollars a month for pin-money — Visit to Queen Victoria — Opens the Suez Canal — The Defeat at Sedan — Terror in the palace — Prepares for flight —

The people advance upon the Tuileries — She leaves Paris — Stormy passage across the channel — Arrival in England — The Queen assigns her a residence — Death of her son in Africa 288

XXIII.

CAROLINE HERSCHEL.

Her childhood in Germany — Her brother William settles in England — She joins him at Bath — He makes her a telescope — Her discovery of comets — Madame D'Arblay's recollections of her — She assists her brother — Old age in Hanover — Her last birthday 303

XXIY.

CHARLOTTE CUSHMAK

Born a tomboy — Her early life in Boston — A great mimic — Her first play — Coriolanus and ]\[acready — Birth of her talent — Her father's bankruptcy — She sings in opera — Failure of her voice — Plays Lad}' j\Iacbeth — Her arduous toils — Member of the Park Company — Her acting of Goneril — She appears in London — A mutton chop a day — Dazzling success — Return home — During the war — Her patriotism and generosity — Her death 311

xxy.

MARL! MITCHELL.

The Mitchells in Nantucket — Maria's education — In the Xantucket library — Her first telescope — She discovers a comet — Tour of Europe — Professor at Yassar — Her dome parties — Her liberal opinions. . . . . . . . . .322

XXYI.

MRS. TROLLOPE.

Cincinnati in 1827 — The TroUope family there — Her impressions of slavery — An evening party in Cincinnati— Her dislike of America—The fourth of July^ — Her impressions of New York — Her remarks upon Church going — Anthony Trollope — His method of working — Mrs. Trollope's last years. 332

XXYII.

ADELAIDE PHILLIPS.

Born at Stratford-on-Avon — Removal to Boston — Her first appearance on the stage — A child actress — xinecdote of Warren — She sings before Jenny Lind — Studies in Italy — Her debut — Her career in opera — Her death and burial. . 347

XXYIII.

TWO QUEENS. THE DAUGHTERS OF JAMES II OF , ENGLAND.

The Countess of Bentinct's letter-chest — Why James the Second turned Catholic — The Princess Mary argues with him — William of Orange sails for England — His parting with Mary — Her life during his absence — Crowned Queen of England — Queen Anne's sorrowful life — ^Death of Queen Mary. . . 354

XXIX.

AN EVENING WITH RACHEL.

Her training for the stage — Alfred de Musset — He reports the supper — The brass platters — She describes her housekeeping — Tastes of absinthe — She makes punch — Cooks the beefsteak— Her love of Racine — ^Resolves to play Phedre — Her brutal father. 302

XXX.

JOSEPHINE AND BONAPARTE.

Their coronation impending — Opposition of the Bonaparte family— Scene at court — Josephine jealous — Noble conduct of her son, Eugene — The coronation rehearsed. . . . 372

XXXI.

LADY MORGAN.

Her parents and childhood — Her father's romantic marriage — Early writings — Her father's bankruptc}^ — Goes as governess — Anecdote — Interview with a publisher — Her first novel — The Wild Irish Girl — Her marriage — Residence in Paris — Visit to Lafayette — Her last years 377

XXXIL

MARIA THERESA.

Her father the Emperor — Frederick of Prussia seizes he\ Prol'. ince — Yields Silesia to the conqueror — Interval of peace — The seven years' war — Her complaisance to Pompadour — Frederick's invasion of Saxony — She abolishes torture — Frederick's tribute to her » . 399

XXXIIL

LADY FRANKLIN.

Sir John Franklin's first wife — He marries Jane GrifRn — Her life in Yan Ejiemen's land — His last Arctic expedition — Not heard from — She assists in the search — Her address to the President of the United States — The liberality of Henry Grinnell — Lieutenant de Haven — The "Prince Albert" — Sir Edward Belcher's attemj^t — Discovery of relics by Dr. Rae — Lady Franklin's appeal to Lorr". Palmerston — Captain M'Clintock's expedition — Her letter to him — The final success. . 406

XXXIV.

MADAME DE MIRAMION.

Her early life — Her extreme piet}^ — Death of her father — Her wonderful beauty — Her marriage— Death of her husband — — The young widow carried off — Devotes her life to charity. 417

XXXY.

PEG O'NEAL.

The O'Neal Tavern in Washington — General Jackson and his wife inmates — Peg's childhood — She marries Purser Timberlake — Death of her husband— Marries Senator Eaton — Tlie ^eat scandal — General Jackson defends her — Martin Yan Buren calls upon her — Efforts of the British and Russian ministers — The Russian ball — The English dinner — General Jackson's gratitude to Yan Buren — Mrs. Eaton's later years. . 423

XXXVI.

MRS. L. M. MONMOUTH, AND HOW SHE LIYED ON FORTY DOLLARS A YEAR.

From afl3.uence to poverty — Advice of her neighbors — The struggle for independence — Her clothing— A cheap dressing-gown

— Her shoes — Her food — Her house a show — Balzac's extravagance— Sir AValter Scott ruined by his house. . . . 430

XXXVII.

TRIAL OF JEAXXE DARC, COMMONLY CALLED JOAN

OF ARC.

Rome refuses to canonize the Maid — Manuscript reports of her trial — Her native village — France in 1428 — A divided allegi-

' ance — The Maid's real name — Her character in childhood — Her youth — Effect of Catholic • habits — Her commanding presence — Her voices — A revival of religion in the French army — Politicians — Her brilliant career — Her capture — Attempt to escape — In chains at Rouen Castle — The court convened — The prisoner examined — She relates her early life Her firmness — The public sermon— She recants — Sentenced to perpetual imprisonment — Again in chains — Resumes her

• man's dress — She revokes her recantation — Burned at the stake 440

XXXVIII.

HARREET MARTESTEAU.

Her philanthropic severity — Anecdote of Sydney Smith — Her sorrowful childhood — Her education — Begins to write — Discovery of her secret — In the United States — Attends a meeting of abolitionists — Her speech — Odium resulting — Her religious opinions — Florence Nightingale upon her death. . 481

XXXIX.

THE WIFE OF LAFAYETTE.

Mysterious power of rank — Prince of Wales in Xew York — Lafayette among the Six Nations— Revisits them in 1784 — The treaty of Fort Schuyler— Anecdote of Red Jacket— Origin of Lafayette's republicanism — Stationed at Metz — Dines with the Duke of Gloucester— The news from America- Determines to join the insurgents- Ancestry of Madame do Lafayette— Their marriage— He sets sail— Their correspondence— He describes his wound — He returns 'to France — Brilliancy of their position at court— The French Revolution— Madame escapes the guillotine— Intercedes for her husband with the Emperor of Austria— Shares his imprisonment— Her premature death — Her descendants "^^^

CONTEXTS. 15

XL.

BETSY PATTERSON, OTHERWISE MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE OP BALTBIORE.

Career of her fatlier— The richest man in the United States — Jerome Bonaparte in Baltimore— Her father opposes her marriage— ^^Consents at last — Xapoleon reftises to recog^nize her — Her return to Baltimore — She despises her country — Letter to Lady 3Iorgan — Betsy reproved by her father — His -will — Close of her life ! ... 509

XLI.

SO^klE LADIES OF THE OLD SCHOOL.

Their rage for gambling — Anecdote of the two black aces — The woman's club of London — Their sense of decency — Our summer hotels — ^]\Iodern chivalry — Anecdote of Lekain — Society in the colonies — A Connecticut village — The tyranny of fashion — Fashion in ancient times — Lord Palmerston's big boots. , 518

XLII.

TORE DETT.

Her genius discovered by Mr. Gosse — Her translations from the French — Torn and Aru in Calcutta — Toru's description of her garden — Her residence in Europe — -Their return to India — Her first writings — Death of Aru — Publication of the Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields — Correspondence with Mile. Bader — Specimens of her poetry — Her novel — Our Casuarina Tree 530

XLIII.

GEORGE SAXD.

Her ancestors — Her grandmather — Childhood of George Sand —Her peculiar education — Convent life — Her religious belief — An accomplished young lady — Marries Dudevant — An ill-starred union — She removes to Paris — Her first writings — Success of Indiana — Other works — Alfred de Musset — Her policical principles — Her closing years — Her works. . . 546

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Josephine (Steel), .

Saturday Night (Steel), .

Queen Victoria, .

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Miss Louisa M. Alcott, Princess Louise, .

Queen Elizabeth (Steel), Adelaide Procter, The Mother of Victor Hugo (St Madame de Stael, Wife of Frederick the Great, Charlotte Cushman, Maria Mitchell, .

Adelaide Phillips, Maria Theresa (Steel), Lady Franklin, Joan of Arc (Steel), Harriet Martineau, Betsey Patterson, ToRU Dutt and Sister, George Sand, (10)

eel),

Frontisprece.

PAGH 18

.323

V

SALLY BUSH.

SALLY BUSH — ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S GOOD STEP- MOTHER.

SIXTY-FIYE years ago, on a grassy hillock in the magnificGnt primeval forest of Southern Indiana, a few miles from the Ohio River, stood the small, unhewn, half-finished and most forlorn log-cabin of Thomas Lincoln. The father of the president was an idle, shiftless, worthless carpenter, who had taken up land in the wilderness, and lived by half cultivating a few acres and shooting the wild turkeys, the deer, and other game with which the region teemed. The occupants of the cabin were himself, his wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Hanks, and two cliildren, Nancy, eleven years of age, and Abraham, the future president, nine.

I suppose there never was a more beautiful country than this part of Indiana, as it was before the settlers disfigured it. Imagine an undulating country covered with trees of the largest size, oaks, beeches, maples, walnuts, without that intertangled mass of undergrowth wliich we find in the primeval forests of the Eastern States..

This land had probably been, within a few centuries, a prairie. The forest had gained upon the grass ; but, here and there, there was a small portion of the original prairie left, which, besides furnishing good pasture, gave to the region the aspect of an ancient, heavily-wooded park, the result of labor, wealth, and taste expended for ages. Upon some cf these oases of emerald, the deer found salt springs to which they resorted in great numbers ; on the wider expanses, the buffaloes had recently fed ; on others, the arriving pioneer had fixed his camp and built his cabin.

The knoll on which Thomas Lincoln had placed his house was free from trees, and sloped gently away on every side. The spot had every charm and every advantage except one : there was no good water within a mile, and it fell to the lot of these children to bring from that distance the water required for drinking.

Carpenter as he was, Thomas Lincoln had not taken the trouble either to finish or to furnish his house. It had no floor, no door, no windows. There were three or four three-legged stools in the house, and no other seats. The table was a broad slab supported by four legs, with the flat side upward. There was a bedstead made of poles stuck in the cracks of the logs in one corner of the cabin, the other ends being supported by forked sticks sunk in the earthen floor. On these poles some boards were laid, upon which was thrown a covering of leaves, and these in turn were covered with skins and old clothes. For cooking utensils the family possessed a Dutch oven and a skillet. There was a loft in the upper part of the cabin ; but as this shiftless pioneer had not made either stairs or ladder, little Abe was obliged to climb to his perch at night by pegs driven into the logs.

The children were no better cared for than the house. They were ill-clad, ill-fed, untaught, and harshly treated. The father, naturally disposed to indolence, found it so easy to subsist in that rich country by his rifle, with which he was extremely expert, and from his patch of corn and potatoes, which his wife and children cultivated, tliat he gave way to his natural disposition, and passed his time, whe]\ he was not hunting, in telling stories to

SALLY BUSH. Ul

his neighbors. He was the great story-teller of the count}% a character in much request on the frontier in the early days.

Some readers have doubtless visited the richly wooded parks of Germany, France, or England, where the game is carefully preserved, where droves of clean, glistening black pigs and great herds of deer are seen, and where, as you walk along, there is heard at every step the rustle of a startled hare, and where broods of partridges are following their mother in search of food, as tame as chickens. Now, it was as easy for the settler to subsist his family in this Indiana forest, as it would be for one of the huntsmen to live in a great park, if he could shoot as much game as he liked. Thomas Lincoln, therefore, being such a man as he was, destitute of ambition either for himself or his children, took life very easily, and any one acquainted with the family would have foretold for Abraham no higher destiny than that of a squatter on the frontier, or a flat-boat hand on the rivers.

A terrible and mysterious epidemic swept over that country, called the milk disease, one of the numerous maladies caused by the settlers' total disregard of sanitary conditions. One of the victims was Nancy Lincoln, the wife of Thomas and the mother of Abraham. The husband, who had been her only nurse and only physician, was now her undertaker also. He sawed and hammered some green boards into a long box. The few neighbors., about twenty in all, carried and followed her remains to a little eminence half a mile away, and there buried her in the virgin soil of the wilderness. There was no ceremony performed at her funeral, because there was no one competent to perform it. Some months after, when a roving preacher came along, Thomas Lincoln induced him to preach a funeral sermon for his wife, and thus this Omission was made good.

' Thirteen months passed. Tlie widower, who was not disposed to be both father and mother to his children, started for his native Kentucky in quest of a wife, and there he found Sally Bush, who had once rejected his suit, had married his rival Johnstone, and was now a widow with three children. He called upon her, and proposed, v/ithout beating about the bush.

" Well, Miss Johnstone," said Thomas, " I have no wife, and you have no husband. I came a purpose to marry you. I knowed you from a gal, and you knowed me from a boy. I have no time to lose, and if you are willing, let it be done straight off."

" Tommy," was her reply, "I know you well, and have no objections to marrying you ; but I cannot do it straight off, as I owe some debts that must first be paid."

The ceremony, however, took place on the following morning, the debts having been paid in the meantime, and very speedily the married pair and all the goods which the widow had possessed, were placed upon a wagon, and drawn by four horses, a journey of some dcys, to Thomas Lincoln's cabin in Indiana. These goods were of considerable value. There was a bureau which had cost forty dollars, and which Thomas considered sinfully magnificent, and urged her to sell it. But she was no Lincoln and refused to do this. There was a table, a set of chairs, a large clothes chest, some cooking utensils, knives and forks, bedding, and other articles essential to civilized living.

Abraham Lincoln never forgot the wonder and delight with which he beheld the arrival tyid unpacking of this wagon-load of unimagined treasure. Neither he nor his sister had ever heard of such things. The new mother, on her part, was wofully disappointed on seeing the wretched cabin in which she was to pass her days ; for it seems that Thomas Lincoln had drawn upon his imaginac fcion in describing his abode ; and, indeed, the rude hovel was a great advance upon the half-inclosed wigwam in which he had lived during the first year's residence in the wilderness.