he last years of her
life, but she would not give me permission to call upon her, and the
reason given was that I had seen the miniature, and she preferred to be
remembered by that. She was very shy about telling of her early
acquaintance with Whittier, and whatever I could learn was by
indirection. For instance, I obtained the Marblehead story by her
sending me a copy of Whittier's poems which he had given her, and she
had drawn a line around the stanzas quoted above. No word accompanied
the book. Of course I guessed what she meant, and asked if my guess was
correct. She replied "Yes," and no more. Whittier said he had the
Captain Ireson story from a schoolmate who came from Marblehead. I
asked her if she, as the only Marblehead schoolmate, was the person
referred to, and received an emphatic "No." To an intimate friend she
once said that during her early acquaintance with Whittier it seemed as
if the devil kept whispering to her, "He is only a shoemaker!"

The apartment now used as a reception room was the kitchen of the
original cottage, and has the large fireplace and brick oven that were
universal in houses built a century ago. A small kitchen was later
built as an ell, and this central room became the dining room,
remaining so as long as Mr. Whittier lived. In the reception room is a
large bookcase filled with a part of the poet's library, exactly as
when he was living here. His books overrun all the rooms in the house,
and many are packed in closets. The large engraving of Lincoln over the
mantel is an artist's proof, and was placed there by Whittier forty
years ago. An ancient mirror in this room, surmounted by a gilt eagle,
was broken by a lightning stroke in September, 1872. The track of the
electrical current may still be seen in the blackening of a gilt
moulding in the upper left corner. The broken glass fell over a member
of the family sitting under it, and Whittier himself, who was standing
near the door of the "garden room," was thrown to the floor. All in the
house were stunned and remained deafened for several minutes, but no
one was seriously injured. Up to that time the house had been protected
by lightning rods; but Mr. Whittier now had them removed, and refused
to have them replaced, though much solicited by agents. In revenge, one
of the persistent brotherhood issued a circular having a picture of
this house with a thunderbolt descending upon it, as an awful warning
against neglect! He had the impu