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 ...

CONTENTS.

xxi

was Fourteen Years Old--Playing "Christian Martyrs"--My Wax
Doll Personifies Archbishop Cranmer --Burned as a Martyr at the
Stake--,Abigail shakes me as a Whirlwind -I am Sent Supperless to Bed--The Remorse of a Matricide Overtakes me--I am
Sent to the Hancock School,... 83
CHAPTER V.
MY FATHER HAS "WESTERN FEVER"- WE JOURNEY WEST
BY STAGE AND CANAL- TWO YEARS OF FARM-LIFE
AND EXPERIENCES--TURNING OUR FACES HOMEWARD.
" Westward Ho!" - Farewell to Old Friends - The Night of our
Departure - Journeying by Stage to Albany - To Rochester by the
Erie Canal - The most Delightful Journey of my Life - We Settle
on a Desolate Farm - "A Log House, with Windows of Glass and
Oiled Paper" - A Chimney Made of Sticks and Mud - A Homesick
and Dissatisfied Family - Sale of the Farm - We Turn Our Faces
Homeward - Defending Ourselves with Umbrellas from the Sparks
and Cinders of the Locomotive--My First Ride on a Railroad Train
--I Re-enter Hancock School - A Remarkable Teacher - A Test in
English Composition - An Unjust Accusation - Ralph Waldo Emerson's Senior Deacon - " Grog" at Eleven, and "Curfew" at Nine -
"The Violins Played the Dickens with my Feet" - Dancing "with
Grace and Precision " - Home, Love, and Welcome,.. 98
CHAPTER VI.
NEW ENGLAND DRESS SIXTY YEARS AGO- " LOW-NECKED
DRESSES," "HOME-MADE STAYS," AND "PAPER-SOLED
SLIPPERS" - FOUR MONTHS AS A DRESSMAKER.
How I Earned the Free Use of a Circulating Library - Books that I Read
Sixty Years Ago - Home-made Stays - " Tell your Aunt Mary I can
Burn Stays as fast as she can Make them " - Persistent in Purpose -
Award of a Medal - Compelled to Withdraw from the Public School
--Planning for the Future--I Decide to Learn the Dressmaker's
Trade -A Scheme that my Father Frowned upon--Four Months in
a Dressmaker's Establishment - Earning Twenty-five Cents a Day -
My Admission to Charlestown Female Seminary--Why it was Called
the "Rib Factory " -The Happiest Day of my Life--Studying
Astronomy at Five O'clock on a Cold Winter's Morning--Days of
Anguish and Tears--The Burden Lifted--I am able to Defray all
my Expenses - Elected on the Board of Instruction, 118
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