ow much, humanly speaking, seemed to
depend upon the right training of that life and the development within
her of self-control, self-reliance and self-respect. There was no
mother's heart for her to nestle upon in her hours of discouragement and
perplexity; no father's strong, loving arms to shelter and defend her;
no sister to brighten her life with joyous companionship, and no brother
to champion her through the early and impossible period of ripening
womanhood. Her grandmother was kind to her, but not very tender and
loving. Her struggle to keep the wolf from the door had absorbed her
life, and although she was neither hard nor old, yet she was not
demonstrative in her affections, and to her a restless child was an
enigma she did not know how to solve. If the child were hungry or cold
she could understand physical wants, but for the hunger of the heart she
had neither sympathy nor comprehension. Fortunately Annette had found a
friend who understood her better than her grandmother, and who, looking
beneath the perverseness of the child, saw in her rich possibilities,
and would often speak encouragingly to her. Annette early developed a
love for literature and poetry and would sometimes try to make rhymes
and string verses together and really Mrs. Lasette thought that she had
talent or even poetic genius and ardently wished that it might be
cultivated and rightly directed; but it never entered the minds of her
grandmother and aunts that in their humble home was a rarely gifted soul
destined to make music which would set young hearts to thrilling with
higher hopes and loftier aspirations.

Mrs. Lasette had been her teacher before she married. After she became a
wife and mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of
household cares and duties, the moment the crown of motherhood fell upon
her, as she often said, she had poured a new interest into the welfare
of her race.[1] With these feelings she soon became known as a friend
and helper in the community in which she lived. Young girls learned to
look to her for council and encouragement amid the different passages of
their [lives?] sometimes with blushing cheeks they whispered in to her
ears tender secrets they did not always bring to their near relatives,
and young men about to choose their life work, often came to consult her
and to all her heart was responsive. With this feeling of confidence in
her judgment, Mr. Thomas had entered her home after leaving