In the spring of 1837, Margaret received a very favorable offer to
become a principal teacher in the Greene Street School, at Providence,
R.I.
'The proposal is, that I shall teach the elder girls my
favorite branches, for four hours a day,--choosing my own
hours, and arranging the course,--for a thousand dollars a
year, if, upon trial, I am well enough pleased to stay. This
would be independence, and would enable me to do many slight
services for my family. But, on the other hand, I am not sure
that I shall like the situation, and am sanguine that, by
perseverance, the plan of classes in Boston might be carried
into full effect. Moreover, Mr. Ripley,--who is about
publishing a series of works on Foreign Literature,--has
invited me to prepare the "Life of Goethe," on very
advantageous terms. This I should much prefer. Yet when the
thousand petty difficulties which surround us are considered,
it seems unwise to relinquish immediate independence.'
She accepted, therefore, the offer which promised certain means of
aiding her family, and reluctantly gave up the precarious, though
congenial, literary project.