The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

110

THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

on ' Self-Government,' and at the end of an hour we will
hear it. We shall then be able to judge somewhat of her
ability in English Composition."
It was not a difficut task to which he had subjected me.
Self-control was the theme of many of my father's exhortations, both in his home and at prayer-meetings. " Habitual
self-control is a most important qualification for active usefulness," was a copperplate copy which I had repeated down
the whole page in my writing-book. And had I not a daily
object-lesson before my eyes in the person of this very master, who was so entirely at the mercy of impulse and passion
that he was at once the terror and the laughing-stock of his
pupils? In half an hour I sent for another slate and a dictionary, and when I was released from the lobby, both slates
were filled.
I was directed to read aloud what I had written, and
complied willingly Whether my teacher enjoyed hearing
my hastily written essay as I did reading it, I cannot say.
But when I had finished a paragraph on the importance of
teachers cultivating habits of self-control, since their pupils
would be more influenced by their example than by their
precept, he summarily ended my reading.
"That will do!" he said; "you have more skill in English composition than I gave you credit for. I think Miss
Rice has proved her ability to write the composition she presented, and I am sure my associates," bowing to the lady
teachers, "and her classmates will agree with me." "" Her
class-mates" did, most certainly, not only with waving of
handkerchiefs, and clapping of hands, but with hearty handshakes, as I walked slowly up the aisle to my seat, with
mingled feelings of pride and indignation. We never came
in collision again, although there was no friendliness between
us. But the man was a hindrance to me as long as I