ld
clouds, which took on the shapes of strange and beautiful things. To
me it seemed that we were entering heaven. I remember also the doctors
coming on board to examine us, and I can still see a line of big
Irishmen standing very straight and holding out their tongues for
inspection. To a little girl only four years old their huge, open mouths
looked appalling.

On landing a grievous disappointment awaited us; my father did not
meet us. He was in New Bedford, Massachusetts, nursing his grief and
preparing to return to England, for he had been told that the John Jacob
Westervelt had been lost at sea with every soul on board. One of the
missionaries who met the ship took us under his wing and conducted us
to a little hotel, where we remained until father had received his
incredible news and rushed to New York. He could hardly believe that
we were really restored to him; and even now, through the mists of more
than half a century, I can still see the expression in his wet eyes as
he picked me up and tossed me into the air.

I can see, too, the toys he brought me--a little saw and a hatchet,
which became the dearest treasures of my childish days. They were
fatidical gifts, that saw and hatchet; in the years ahead of me I was to
use tools as well as my brothers did, as I proved when I helped to build
our frontier home.

We went to New Bedford with father, who had found work there at his old
trade; and here I laid the foundations of my first childhood friendship,
not with another child, but with my next-door neighbor, a ship-builder.
Morning after morning this man swung me on his big shoulder and took
me to his shipyard, where my hatchet and saw had violent exercise as I
imitated the workers around me. Discovering that my tiny petticoats were
in my way, my new friend had a little boy's suit made for me; and thus
emancipated, at this tender age, I worked unwearyingly at his side all
day long and day after day. No doubt it was due to him that I did not
casually saw off a few of my toes and fingers. Certainly I smashed them
often enough with blows of my dull but active hatchet. I was very, very
busy; and I have always maintained that I began to earn my share of the
family's living at the age of five--for in return for the delights of my
society, which seemed never to pall upon him, my new friend allowed my
brothers to carry home from the shipyard all the wood my mother could
use.

We remained in New Bedford less than a yea