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 ...

290 THE STORY OF MY LIFE. the ball. Flitting aimlessly, like butterflies, from room to room, they donned each other's costumes as they were brought from the wardrobes by the servants, to see if they would fit, and were becoming One tried a flower in her hair; another threw a fichu over her shoulders, and ran to the mirror to examine the effect. Mary darted from the hands of her skillful hair-dresser to execute a pas seuI, for which she sang the music, that her companions might see the difficult step. And ever and anon they were seized with paroxysms of happy merriment, when they hugged each other in their excitement, and whirled up and down the rooms, until they collapsed in shrieks of laughter. Laura alone looked on, and smiled sedately. At last the musicians arrived, and we heard them tuning their instruments and rehearsing for the evening, long before the excited maidens were costumed in their dainty garments. When once they began, however, they were in as great haste as they had before been dilatory; and in a short time, the pretty simple girls of the plantation were transformed into elegant young ladies. Mrs. Henderson had chosen for Laura a pink silk subdued by an over-dress of white lace, with gloves, fan, and flowers in tasteful accord. Mary's dress was flame color, effectively dashed here and there with a shade of pale blue; and our little blonde Jenny was gowned in white, with "baby blue" trimmings. Dick was clamoring at the door of his sisters' room for admission, and when he was allowed to enter, went into panegyrics over their loveliness. "Well, I declar' to gracious!" he exclaimed, in his incurably bad grammar, "1if there's any prettier girls in that ball-room to-night than these, they must be fetched from some other world than this." "Do we look so fine" " asked Mary and Jenny, running

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Title
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 ...
Author
Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905.
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Page 290
Publication
Hartford, Conn. :: A.D. Worthington & Co.,
1897.
Subject terms
Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, -- 1820-1905.

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"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 ..." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/4728109.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 12, 2025.
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