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 ...

350

350 THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

North, Mrs. Ashmore looked as if she would like to put me
under oath to tell the truth. And when I still further informed her, that the backwardness of the little Hendersons
was due only to a neglect of early training, she begged
leave to differ with me most positively.
"11The ability which these children have manifested in
learning to read, sing, play, and draw is a gift," said the
lady, "1and you cannot confer gifts on children who lack
them at birth, by any amount of teaching. The majority of
children at the South cannot be taught to read and write,
and I do not suppose they are in any way inferior to the
children of the North." And she gave me many instances
in proof of her assertion.
Thenceforth the conversation took a new turn among the
parents, and education became the topic. Mr. Henderson
not only showed his guests what it had done for his children, but what it would do in the future. He was more
than a match for the ignorance and skepticism of his halfdozen neighbors, answered all their objections, aroused their
interest, and made an earnest plea in behalf of as thorough
an education of their own bright and beautiful children, as
their parents' means would allow.
The next morning Mr. Henderson invited me into the
sitting-room, where I found the "1united heads"1 of the four
families sitting in solemn conclave. The educational discussion had culminated in a proposition from our neighbors,
which my host wished to lay before me. They wished to
enlarge my school by the addition of four of their children,
- a son and daughter from the Ashmore household, and a
daughter from each. of the other families. It was thought