I am fourteen, and a fond reader of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. I have
been papa and mamma's little housekeeper for four or five years, as
mamma is often not able to leave her bed.
I never went from home to school in my life. Mamma has always
taught us at home. Besides my other studies, I have map-drawing,
French, Latin, and music, with an abundance of excellent reading,
so I'm very busy.
Do you like to darn stockings, Postmistress? I don't enjoy it,
though I have done it for four years, and mamma says I do it
beautifully.
I have just read Ellen McC.'s letter, of Palmyra, Missouri, and am
so sorry for her. I "always sew the paper." I hope she will be able
to get out in the open air when the "leaves and flowers come." I
should like to take her with me in some of my nice long walks to
the tops of these high hills; to one especially, from which we can
see a great deal of the country, and the mountains in the distance
which bound the Shenandoah Valley--the beautiful Blue Ridge east,
and the Alleghany Mountains west. Our farm is in a pretty miniature
valley, with woods in front and in the rear, great oak-trees that
wave and toss their huge arms in this raging March wind.
Massannuten Mountain bounds our view on the north, and South
Mountain on the south. About ten miles distant is the "Old Stone
Church," the first Presbyterian church in the Valley of Virginia,
built in colonial times, and used as a fort of defense against the
Indians, and also as a "meeting-house." It is known now as Augusta
Church, and is situated in a beautiful oak grove. In the suburbs of
Staunton there is a large old-fashioned house that was occupied for
a while by the Hessians during the Revolution. We live about three
miles from Staunton.