are prominent to me: the woman who first made the
study-book charming; the man who sent me the first hundred dollars I
ever saw, to buy books with; and another noble woman, through whose
efforts I became the owner of a telescope; and of these, the first was
the greatest."

As a little girl, Maria was not a brilliant scholar; she was shy and
slow; but later, under her father's tuition, she developed very rapidly.

After the close of the war of 1812, when business was resumed and the
town restored to its normal prosperity, Mr. Mitchell taught school,--at
first as master of a public school, and afterwards in a private school
of his own. Maria attended both of these schools.

Mr. Mitchell's pupils speak of him as a most inspiring teacher, and he
always spoke of his experiences in that capacity as very happy.

When her father gave up teaching, Maria was put under the instruction of
Mr. Cyrus Peirce, afterwards principal of the first normal school
started in the United States.

Mr. Peirce took a great interest in Maria, especially in developing her
taste for mathematical study, for which she early showed a remarkable
talent.

The books which she studied at the age of seventeen, as we know by the
date of the notes, were Bridge's "Conic Sections," Hutton's
"Mathematics," and Bowditch's "Navigator." At that time Prof. Benjamin
Peirce had not published his "Explanations of the Navigator and
Almanac," so that Maria was obliged to consult many scientific books and
reports before she could herself construct the astronomical tables.

Mr. Mitchell, on relinquishing school-teaching, was appointed cashier of
the Pacific Bank; but although he gave up teaching, he by no means gave
up studying his favorite science, astronomy, and Maria was his willing
helper at all times.

Mr. Mitchell from his early youth was an enthusiastic student of
astronomy, at a time, too, when very little attention was given to that
study in this country. His evenings, when pleasant, were spent in
observing the heavens, and to the children, accustomed to seeing such
observations going on, the important study in the world seemed to be
astronomy. One by one, as they became old enough, they were drafted into
the service of counting seconds by the chronometer, during the
observations.

Some of them took an interest in the thing itself, and others considered
it rather stupid work, but they all drank in so much of this atmosphere,
that if any one had asked a