Webb, a truly funny "Funny
Man"--Mrs. Esther Herman, a Modest Giver

CHAPTER IV

Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A
Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska

CHAPTER V

Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs. Hannah
Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorn
Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood.)

CHAPTER VI

In and near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth
Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the Concord
School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora Distria," our Illustrious Visitor

CHAPTER VII

Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire's Daughters in
Massachusetts. Now Honorary President--Kind Words which I Highly
Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family Affair--Two
Favorite Poems--Breezy Meadows

ILLUSTRATIONS

GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER
(KATE SANBORN) _Frontispiece_

THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N.H.

MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA

PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE

PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS

SOPHIA SMITH

PETER MacQUEEN

SAM WALTER FOSS

PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES

PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK

THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE

TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND

THE LOOKOUT

THE SWITCH

HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS

GRAND ELM (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD)

MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES

CHAPTER I

My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors
to Dartmouth--Two Story Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a
Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A Wedding
Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One Hoss Shay"--A Great
Career which Began in a Country Store.

I make no excuse for publishing these memories. Realizing that I have
been so fortunate as to know an unusual number of distinguished men
and women, it gives me pleasure to share this privilege with others.

One summer morning, "long, long ago," a newspaper was sent by my
grandmother, Mrs. Ezekiel Webster, to a sister at Concord, New
Hampshire, with this item of news pencilled on the margin:

"Born Thursday morning, July 11, 1839, 4.30 A.M., a fine little girl,
seven pounds."

I was born in my father's library, and first opened my eyes upon a
scenic wall-paper depicting the Bay of Naples; in fact I was born just
under Vesuvius--which may account for my occasional eruptions of
temper and life-long interest i