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 ...

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THE STORY OP MY LIFE.

foreboding of the inevitable collision, which was fast approachingWhile Mr. Livermore had no wish to withdraw from the
ministry, he found the position of the settled pastor so undesirable during those years, that he began to think of seeking
temporarily some other occupation. Freedom of speech was
a necessity to both of us in those troublous times, when such
mighty interests were at stake, and the whole country was
fiercely and forcibly debating the colossal question of Amercan slavery To my husband, therefore, it seemed most
opportune, when a large number of his friends in Auburn, New York, organized a colony to start for Kansas,
and urgently invited him to join them. The "Western
fever-" was at its height, and migrations to the West were
so incessant and in such large bodies, as almost to depopulate sections of the East. This colony numbered forty-six
families, all of the right sort, and most of them acquainted
with farming. My husband gave his name and influence to
the enterprise, and put money and labor at its service, but
did not promise to settle with the colony.
I had grave doubts as to the wisdom of our joining the
colony. I knew that Mr. Livermore was a great worker,
and would make a good farmer, if he gave himself to that
business. But I also knew that I should utterly fail as a
farmer's wife, and as a pioneer. Neither life had any
attraction for me. All my tastes were in a different direction, and my early training had fitted me for other work.
But as my husband was in an advanced stage of the
"' Western fever," we finally decided to accompany the van
of the colony as far as Chicago, where I was to tarry with
our little children, while he proceeded to Kansas to do his
own prospecting. He returned in a few weeks, not very
enthusiastic, but with a settled conviction that the large ex