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 ...

48

THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

HIow could the superabundant energy and activity of this
romping baby girl be controlled and wisely directed? I was
so busy and mischievous that my mother gladly accepted
the relief of an infant school, conducted by a motherly
woman just across the street. I vaguely remember it,- a
large, airy chamber, where were a dozen children of my age,
of whom I was very fond, with a garden in the rear into
which we were turned loose most of the time, when the
weather permitted, for we were only taught to sing and to
play.
If the teacher left us alone a moment, some evil genius
prompted me to open the gate, no matter how it was fastened, and then to run down the street like a deer One or
two of my tiny companions would sometimes essay to follow me, but I generally outran them, and they went back
to the play-ground. When my annoying propensity was
discovered, my father trained the house-dog, Hector by
name, to follow me, and he would for a short distance; but
if I was off for too long a tramp he would return without
me. Then there was a scare. George Bissell, a fatherless
little fellow whom my parents had taken into the family to
rear, was detailed to search for me.
If he found me, and I resisted being taken home, he
could speedily reduce me to order by threatening me with
" Old Boolah," a mythical personage supposed to be on the
lookout for bad children, whom he carried away in his
large pockets, and that was the end of them. " Come and
get Mary, Old Boolah! She's a bad child! Come, quick,
and carry her off!" he would shout. And then looking
afar off down the street, he would exclaim, "I see him!
there he comes! Hurry up, Old Boolah!" It was a very
effective way of dealing with me, up to a certain age, for I
would immediately suppress my inclination to kick and