g from college, bringing troops of young friends to visit us;
the usual matrimonial entanglements, with all their promises of
celestial bliss intertwined with earthly doubts and fears; weddings,
voyages to Europe, business ventures--in this whirl of plans and
projects our heads, hearts, and hands were fully occupied. Seven boys
and girls dancing round the fireside, buoyant with all life's joys
opening before them, are enough to keep the most apathetic parents on
the watch-towers by day and anxious even in dreamland by night. My spare
time, if it can be said that I ever had any, was given during these days
to social festivities. The inevitable dinners, teas, picnics, and dances
with country neighbors, all came round in quick succession. We lived, at
this time, at Tenafly, New Jersey, not far from the publisher of the
_Sun_, Isaac W. England, who also had seven boys and girls as full of
frolic as our own. Mrs. England and I entered into all their games with
equal zest. The youngest thought half the fun was to see our enthusiasm
in "blindman's buff," "fox and geese," and "bean bags." It thrills me
with delight, even now, to see these games!

Mr. England was the soul of hospitality. He was never more happy than
when his house was crowded with guests, and his larder with all the
delicacies of the season. Though he and Mr. Stanton were both connected
with that dignified journal, the New York _Sun_, yet they often joined
in the general hilarity. I laugh, as I write, at the memory of all the
frolics we had on the blue hills of Jersey.

In addition to the domestic cares which a large family involved, Mrs.
Gage, Miss Anthony, and I were already busy collecting material for "The
History of Woman Suffrage." This required no end of correspondence. Then
my lecturing trips were still a part of the annual programme. Washington
conventions, too, with calls, appeals, resolutions, speeches and
hearings before the Committees of Congress and State legislatures, all
these came round in the year's proceedings as regularly as pumpkin pies
for Thanksgiving, plum pudding for Christmas, and patriotism for
Washington's birthday. Those who speak for glory or philanthropy are
always in demand for college commencements and Fourth of July orations,
hence much of Miss Anthony's eloquence, as well as my own, was utilized
in this way.

On October 18, 1880, I had an impromptu dinner party. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert, May Wright Thompson (now Sewall), Pho