tion: THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER]

"Jan. 3, 1868. Meeting Dr. Hill at a private party, I asked him if
Harvard College would admit girls in fifty years. He said one of the
most conservative members of the faculty had said, within sixteen days,
that it would come about in twenty years. I asked him if I could go into
one of Professor Peirce's recitations. He said there was nothing to keep
me out, and that he would let me know when they came.

"At eleven A.M., the next Friday, I stood at Professor Peirce's door. As
the professor came in I went towards him, and asked him if I might
attend his lecture. He said 'Yes.' I said 'Can you not say "I shall be
happy to have you"?' and he said 'I shall be happy to have you,' but he
didn't look happy!

"It was with some little embarrassment that Mrs. K. and I seated
ourselves. Sixteen young men came into the room; after the first glance
at us there was not another look, and the lecture went on. Professor
Peirce had filled the blackboard with formulae, and went on developing
them. He walked backwards and forwards all the time, thinking it out as
he went. The students at first all took notes, but gradually they
dropped off until perhaps only half continued. When he made simple
mistakes they received it in silence; only one, that one his son (a
tutor in college), remarked that he was wrong. The steps of his lesson
were all easy, but of course it was impossible to tell whence he came or
whither he was going....

"The recitation-room was very common-looking--we could not tolerate such
at Vassar. The forms and benches of the recitation-room were better for
taking notes than ours are.

"The professor was polite enough to ask us into the senior class, but I
had an engagement. I asked him if a young lady presented herself at the
door he _could_ keep her out, and he said 'No, and I shouldn't.' I told
him I would send some of my girls.

"Oct. 15, 1868. Resolved, in case of my outliving father and being in
good health, to give my efforts to the intellectual culture of women,
without regard to salary; if possible, connect myself with liberal
Christian institutions, believing, as I do, that happiness and growth in
this life are best promoted by them, and that what is good in this life
is good in any life."

In August, 1869, Miss Mitchell, with several of her Vassar students,
went to Burlington, Ia., to observe the total eclipse of the sun. She
wrote a popular account of her observations, which