Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 89
What do you think Edmund Benson sent me for a
Christmas present? An order for one hundred dollars, to be used for Kansas!
TO PROF. CONVERS FRANCIS.
WiAYLAND, January 9, 1857.
As for the rank which the world assigns to one avocation over another, I can hardly find words significant
enough to express the low estimate I put upon it.
The lawyer who feels above the bookseller seems to
mle just as ridiculous as the orange-woman who objected to selling Hannah More's tracts.'" I sell ballads!" she exclaimed. "1 Why, I don't even sell apples " How absurdly we poor blundering mortals
lose sight of the reality of things, under the veil of
appearances! In choosing an employment, it seems
to me the only question to be asked is, What are we'est fitted for? and What do we most enjoy doing?
TO BIISS LUCY OSGOOD.
XYAYLiND, 1857.
I have lately been much interested about the young
Kentucky lady 1 who emancipated all her slaves, in
consequence of reading Charles Sumner's speeches.
She and I correspond, as mother and daughter, and
I should infer from her letters, even if I knew nothing else about her, that she was endowed with a noble, generous, sincere, and enthusiastic nature. It is
no slight sacrifice, at nineteen years old, to give up
all one's property, and go forth into the world to earn
her own living, penniless and friendless; "but I
sllhall earn my living with a light heart, because I shall
have a clean conscience." I quote her own words,
i Miss Mattie Griffith.