ced by the friendly care of a deformed
clergyman--a Mr. Clare--who lived next door, and stayed so much at home
that his one pair of shoes had lasted him for fourteen years.

But Mary Wollstonecraft's chief friend at this time was an accomplished
girl only two years older than herself, who maintained her father,
mother, and family by skill in drawing. Her name was Frances Blood, and
she especially, by her example and direct instruction, drew out her young
friend's powers. In 1776, Mary Wollstonecraft's father, a rolling stone,
rolled into Wales. Again he was a farmer. Next year again he was a
Londoner; and Mary had influence enough to persuade him to choose a house
at Walworth, where she would be near to her friend Fanny. Then, however,
the conditions of her home life caused her to be often on the point of
going away to earn a living for herself. In 1778, when she was nineteen,
Mary Wollstonecraft did leave home, to take a situation as companion with
a rich tradesman's widow at Bath, of whom it was said that none of her
companions could stay with her. Mary Wollstonecraft, nevertheless,
stayed two years with the difficult widow, and made herself respected.
Her mother's failing health then caused Mary to return to her. The
father was then living at Enfield, and trying to save the small remainder
of his means by not venturing upon any business at all. The mother died
after long suffering, wholly dependent on her daughter Mary's constant
care. The mother's last words were often quoted by Mary Wollstonecraft
in her own last years of distress--"A little patience, and all will be
over."

After the mother's death, Mary Wollstonecraft left home again, to live
with her friend, Fanny Blood, who was at Walham Green. In 1782 she went
to nurse a married sister through a dangerous illness. The father's need
of support next pressed upon her. He had spent not only his own money,
but also the little that had been specially reserved for his children. It
is said to be the privilege of a passionate man that he always gets what
he wants; he gets to be avoided, and they never find a convenient corner
of their own who shut themselves out from the kindly fellowship of life.

In 1783 Mary Wollstonecraft--aged twenty-four--with two of her sisters,
joined Fanny Blood in setting up a day school at Islington, which was
removed in a few months to Newington Green. Early in 1785 Fanny Blood,
far gone in consumption, sailed for Lisbon to