e was up early, long before any of the dull sleepers of the
household had stirred, and had more trouble to get us down to breakfast
than to get up the meal itself. I scarcely thought of these things
during the young years of my life, when they were occurring; but as I am
writing this, they all come thronging before my memory with the
freshness of yesterday. They will no doubt seem dull to others; but the
recollection is very precious to me.

With this conviction of its being almost the sole mission of a woman to
sew, she made the needle a vital point in my education, as well as in
that of my sister. There were two girls of us, and a brother. I was the
eldest, and my sister the youngest of the three. Thus, when I was quite
a child, I learned to use the needle; and as I grew older, the utmost
pains were taken to teach me every branch of sewing, from the commonest
to the most difficult. My sister went through the same course of
instruction.

At a very early age we were able to make and dress our own dolls, hem
our handkerchiefs and aprons, and in due time were promoted to the
darning of father's stockings and the patching of his working-clothes.
We thought the being able to do these things for him a very great
affair, and mother praised us for our work. But when sister Jane once
put a patch over a hole in the knee of father's pantaloons, without
covering all the rent,--she had let the patch slip down a
little,--mother required her to rip it off and put it in the right
place: but there was not a word of scolding for Jane; it was all
softness, all kindness; she knew that Jane was a child. I think father,
however, would never have noticed that the patch was a little out of
place; and, indeed, I think it very likely he didn't care about having a
patch of any kind put on, for his mind was on work, and not on
appearances. But then it was my dear mother's way. We were taught that
the needle was to be the staff of our future lives. Whatever we
undertook must be done right; and then she had a just pride in making
father always look respectable.

Thus in time we came to feel as much pride in being good seamstresses as
did our mother. It was natural we should, for we believed all she taught
us, and there was no one to controvert her positions,--except sometimes,
when father heard her impressing her favorite dogma on our minds, he put
in a word of doubt, saying, that, before the needle could be made so
sure a dependence for poor wo