and laughed just as I do week days. Grandmother told me to write down
this verse before I went to church so I would remember it: "Keep thy
foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to offer the sacrifice of fools." I will remember it now, sure. My feet
are all right any way with my new patten leather shoes on but I shall
have to look out for my head. Mr. Thomas Howell read a sermon to-day as
Mr. Daggett is out of town. Grandmother always comes upstairs to get the
candle and tuck us in before she goes to bed herself, and some nights we
are sound asleep and do not hear her, but last night we only pretended
to be asleep. She kneeled down by the bed and prayed aloud for us, that
we might be good children and that she might have strength given to her
from on high to guide us in the straight and narrow path which leads to
life eternal. Those were her very words. After she had gone downstairs
we sat up in bed and talked about it and promised each other to be good,
and crossed our hearts and "hoped to die" if we broke our promise. Then
Anna was afraid we would die, but I told her I didn't believe we would
be as good as that, so we kissed each other and went to sleep.
[Illustration: Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Miss Upham]
_Monday._--"Old Alice" was at our house to-day and Grandmother gave her
some flowers. She hid them in her apron for she said if she should meet
any little children and they should ask for them she would have to let
them go. Mrs. Gooding was at our house to-day and made a carpet. We went
over to Aunt Mary Carr's this evening to see the gas and the new
chandeliers. They are brontz.
_Tuesday._--My three chapters that I read this morning were about
Josiah's zeal and reformation; 2nd, Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar;
3rd, Jerusalem besieged and taken. The reason that we always read the
Bible the first thing in the morning is because it says in the Bible,
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you." Grandmother says she hopes we will
treasure up all these things in our hearts and practice them in our
lives. I hope so, too. This morning Anna got very mad at one of the
girls and Grandmother told her she ought to return good for evil and
heap coals of fire on her head. Anna said she wished she could and burn
her all up, but I don't think she meant it.
_Wednesday._--I got up this morning at twenty minutes after five. I
always brush my teeth every morning, but I forget to put it down here. I
read my three chapters in Job and played in the garden and had time to
read Grandmother a piece in the paper about some poor children in New
York. Anna and I went over to Aunt Ann's before school and she gave us
each two sticks of candy apiece. Part of it came from New York and part
from Williamstown, Mass., where Henry goes to college. Ann Eliza is
going down street with us this afternoon to buy us some new summer
bonnets. They are to be trimmed with blue and white and are to come to
five dollars. We are going to Mr. Stannard's store also, to buy us some
stockings. I ought to buy me a new thimble and scissors for I carried my
sewing to school to-day and they were inside of it very carelessly and
dropped out and got lost. I ought to buy them with my own money, but I
haven't got any, for I gave all I had (two shillings) to Anna to buy
Louisa Field a cornelian ring. Perhaps Father will send me some money
soon, but I hate to ask him for fear he will rob himself. I don't like
to tell Grandfather how very careless I was, though I know he would say,
"Accidents will happen."
_Thursday._--I was up early this morning because a dressmaker, Miss
Willson, is coming to make me a new calico dress. It is white with pink
spots in it and Grandfather bought it in New York. It is very nice
indeed and I think Grandfather was very kind to get it for me. I had to
stay at home from school to be fitted. I helped sew and run my dress
skirt around the bottom and whipped it on the top. I went to school in
the afternoon, but did not have my lessons very well. Miss Clark excused
me because I was not there in the morning. Some girls got up on our
fence to-day and walked clear across it, the whole length. It is iron
and very high and has a stone foundation. Grandmother asked them to get
down, but I think they thought it was more fun to walk up there than it
was on the ground. The name of the little girl that got up first was
Mary Lapham. She is Lottie Lapham's cousin. I made the pocket for my
dress after I got home from school and then Grandfather said he would
take us out to ride, so he took us way up to Thaddeus Chapin's on the
hill. Julia Phelps was there, playing with Laura Chapin, for she is her
cousin. Henry and Ann Eliza Field came over to call this evening. Henry
has come home from Williams College on his vacation and he is a very
pleasant young man, indeed. I am reading a continued story in _Harper's
Magazine_. It is called Little Dorritt, by Charles Dickens, and is very
interesting.
_Friday, May._--Miss Clark told us we could have a picnic down to Sucker
Brook this afternoon and she told us to bring our rubbers and lunches by
two o'clock; but Grandmother was not willing to let us go; not that she
wished to deprive us of any pleasure for she said instead we could wear
our new black silk basks and go with her to Preparatory lecture, so we
did, but when we got there we found that Mr. Daggett was out of town so
there was no meeting. Then she told us we could keep dressed up and go
over to Aunt Mary Carr's and take her some apples, and afterwards
Grandfather took us to ride to see old Mrs. Sanborn and old Mr. and Mrs.
Atwater. He is ninety years old and blind and deaf, so we had quite a
good time after all.
Rev. Mr. Dickey, of Rochester, agent for the Seaman's Friend Society,
preached this morning about the poor little canal boy. His text was from
the 107th Psalm, 23rd verse, "They that go down into the sea in ships."
He has the queerest voice and stops off between his words. When we got
home Anna said she would show us how he preached and she described what
he said about a sailor in time of war. She said, "A ball came--and
struck him there--another ball came--and struck him there--he raised his
faithful sword--and went on--to victory--or death." I expected
Grandfather would reprove her, but he just smiled a queer sort of smile
and Grandmother put her handkerchief up to her face, as she always does
when she is amused about anything. I never heard her laugh out loud, but
I suppose she likes funny things as well as anybody. She did just the
same, this morning, when Grandfather asked Anna where the sun rose, and
she said "over by Gen. Granger's house and sets behind the Methodist
church." She said she saw it herself and should never forget it when any
one asked her which was east or west. I think she makes up more things
than any one I know of.
_Sunday._--Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson preached to-day. He used to be the
minister of our church before Mr. Daggett came. Some people call him
Rev. "Alphabet" Thompson, because he has so many letters in his name. He
preached a very good sermon from the text, "Dearly beloved, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." I like to hear him preach,
but not as well as I do Mr. Daggett. I suppose I am more used to him.
_Thursday._--Edward Everett, of Boston, lectured in our church this
evening. They had a platform built even with the tops of the pews, so he
did not have to go up into the pulpit. Crowds and crowds came to hear
him from all over everywhere. Grandmother let me go. They say he is the
most eloquent speaker in the U. S., but I have heard Mr. Daggett when I
thought he was just as good.
_Sunday._--We went to church to-day and heard Rev. Mr. Stowe preach. His
text was, "The poor ye have with you always and whensoever ye will ye
may do them good." I never knew any one who liked to go to church as
much as Grandmother does. She says she "would rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of our God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." They
don't have women doorkeepers, and I know she would not dwell a minute in
a tent. Mr. Coburn is the doorkeeper in our church and he rings the bell
every day at nine in the morning and at twelve and at nine in the
evening, so Grandfather knows when it is time to cover up the fire in
the fireplace and go to bed. I think if the President should come to
call he would have to go home at nine o'clock. Grandfather's motto is:
"Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
_Tuesday._--Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin called to see us to-day.
Grandmother says that we can return the calls as she does not visit any
more. We would like to, for we always enjoy dressing up and making
calls. Anna and I received two black veils in a letter to-day from Aunt
Caroline Dey. Just exactly what we had wanted for a long while. Uncle
Edward sent us five dollars and Grandmother said we could buy just what
we wanted, so we went down street to look at black silk mantillas. We
went to Moore's store and to Richardson's and to Collier's, but they
asked ten, fifteen or twenty dollars for them, so Anna said she resolved
from now, henceforth and forever not to spend her money for black silk
mantillas.
_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Tousley preached to-day to the children and told us
how many steps it took to be bad. I think he said lying was first, then
disobedience to parents, breaking the Sabbath, swearing, stealing,
drunkenness. I don't remember just the order they came. It was very
interesting, for he told lots of stories and we sang a great many times.
I should think Eddy Tousley would be an awful good boy with his father
in the house with him all the while, but probably he has to be away part
of the time preaching to other children.
_Sunday._--Uncle David Dudley Field and his daughter, Mrs. Brewer, of
Stockbridge, Mass., are visiting us. Mrs. Brewer has a son, David
Josiah, who is in Yale College. After he graduates he is going to be a
lawyer and study in his Uncle David Dudley Field's office in New York.
He was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, where his father and mother were
missionaries to the Greeks, in 1837. Our Uncle David preached for Mr.
Daggett this afternoon. He is a very old man and left his sermon at home
and I had to go back after it. His brother, Timothy, was the first
minister in our church, about fifty years ago. Grandmother says she
came all the way from Connecticut with him on horseback on a pillion
behind him. Rather a long ride, I should say. I heard her and Uncle
David talking about their childhood and how they lived in Guilford,
Conn., in a house that was built upon a rock. That was some time in the
last century like the house that it tells about in the Bible that was
built on a rock.
_Sunday, August 10, 1854._--Rev. Mr. Daggett's text this morning was,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Grandmother said she thought
the sermon did not do us much good for she had to tell us several times
this afternoon to stop laughing. Grandmother said we ought to be good
Sundays if we want to go to heaven, for there it is one eternal Sabbath.
Anna said she didn't want to be an angel just yet and I don't think
there is the least danger of it, as far as I can judge. Grandmother said
there was another verse, "If we do not have any pleasure on the Sabbath,
or think any thoughts, we shall ride on the high places of the earth,"
and Anna said she liked that better, for she would rather ride than do
anything else, so we both promised to be good. Grandfather told us they
used to be more strict about Sunday than they are now. Then he told us a
story, how he had to go to Geneva one Saturday morning in the stage and
expected to come back in the evening, but there was an accident, so the
stage did not come till Sunday morning. Church had begun and he told the
stage driver to leave him right there, so he went in late and the stage
drove on. The next day he heard that he was to come before the minister,
Rev. Mr. Johns, and the deacons and explain why he had broken the fourth
commandment. When he got into the meeting Mr. Johns asked him what he
had to say, and he explained about the accident and asked them to read a
verse from the 8th chapter of John, before they made up their minds what
to do to him. The verse was, "Let him that is without sin among you cast
the first stone." Grandfather said they all smiled, and the minister
said the meeting was out. Grandfather says that shows it is better to
know plenty of Bible verses, for some time they may do you a great deal
of good. We then recited the catechism and went to bed.
[Illustration: First Congregational Church]
_August 21._--Anna says that Alice Jewett feels very proud because she
has a little baby brother. They have named him John Harvey Jewett after
his father, and Alice says when he is bigger she will let Anna help her
take him out to ride in his baby-carriage. I suppose they will throw
away their dolls now.
_Tuesday, September_ 1.--I am sewing a sheet over and over for
Grandmother and she puts a pin in to show me my stint, before I can go
out to play. I am always glad when I get to it. I am making a sampler,
too, and have all the capital letters worked and now will make the small
ones. It is done in cross stitch on canvas with different color silks. I
am going to work my name, too. I am also knitting a tippet on some
wooden needles that Henry Carr made for me. Grandmother has raveled it
out several times because I dropped stitches. It is rather tedious, but
she says, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Some military
soldiers went by the house to-day and played some beautiful music.
Grandfather has a teter and swing for us in the back yard and we enjoy
them usually, but to-night Anna slid off the teter board when she was on
the ground and I was in the air and I came down sooner than I expected.
There was a hand organ and monkey going by and she was in a hurry to get
to the street to see it. She got there a good while before I did. The
other day we were swinging and Grandmother called us in to dinner, but
Anna said we could not go until we "let the old cat die." Grandmother
said it was more important that we should come when we are called.
_October._--Grandmother's name is Abigail, but she was always called
"Nabby" at home. Some of the girls call me "Carrie," but Grandmother
prefers "Caroline." She told us to-day, how when she was a little girl,
down in Connecticut in 1794, she was on her way to school one morning
and she saw an Indian coming and was so afraid, but did not dare run for
fear he would chase her. So she thought of the word sago, which means
"good morning," and when she got up close to him she dropped a curtesy
and said "Sago," and he just went right along and never touched her at
all. She says she hopes we will always be polite to every one, even to
strangers.
_November._--Abbie Clark's father has been elected Governor and she is
going to Albany to live, for a while. We all congratulated her when she
came to school this morning, but I am sorry she is going away. We will
write to each other every week. She wrote a prophecy and told the girls
what they were going to be and said I should be mistress of the White
House. I think it will happen, about the same time that Anna goes to be
a missionary.
_December._--There was a moonlight sleigh-ride of boys and girls last
night, but Grandfather did not want us to go, but to-night he said he
was going to take us to one himself. So after supper he told Mr. Piser
to harness the horse to the cutter and bring it around to the front
gate. Mr. Piser takes care of our horse and the Methodist Church. He
lives in the basement. Grandfather sometimes calls him Shakespeare to
us, but I don't know why. He doesn't look as though he wrote poetry.
Grandfather said he was going to take us out to Mr. Waterman Powers' in
Farmington and he did. They were quite surprised to see us, but very
glad and gave us apples and doughnuts and other good things. We saw Anne
and Imogene and Morey and one little girl named Zimmie. They wanted us
to stay all night, but Grandmother was expecting us. We got home safe
about ten o'clock and had a very nice time. We never sat up so late
before.
1855
_Wednesday, January_ 9.--I came downstairs this morning at ten minutes
after seven, almost frozen. I never spent such a cold night before in
all my life. It is almost impossible to get warm even in the
dining-room. The thermometer is 10 deg. below zero. The schoolroom was so
cold that I had to keep my cloak on. I spoke a piece this afternoon. It
was "The Old Arm Chair," by Eliza Cook. It begins, "I love it, I love
it, and who shall dare to chide me for loving that old arm chair?" I
love it because it makes me think of Grandmother. After school to-night
Anna and I went downtown to buy a writing book, but we were so cold we
thought we would never get back. Anna said she knew her toes were
frozen. We got as far as Mr. Taylor's gate and she said she could not
get any farther; but I pulled her along, for I could not bear to have
her perish in sight of home. We went to bed about eight o'clock and
slept very nicely indeed, for Grandmother put a good many blankets on
and we were warm.
_January_ 23.--This evening after reading one of Dickens' stories I
knit awhile on my mittens. I have not had nice ones in a good while.
Grandmother cut out the ones that I am wearing of white flannel, bound
round the wrist with blue merino. They are not beautiful to be sure, but
warm and will answer all purposes until I get some that are better. When
I came home from school to-day Mrs. Taylor was here. She noticed how
tall I was growing and said she hoped that I was as good as I was tall.
A very good wish, I am sure.
_Sunday, January_ 29.--Mr. Daggett preached this morning from the text,
Deut. 8: 2: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God
led thee." It is ten years to-day since Mr. Daggett came to our church,
and he told how many deaths there had been, and how many baptisms, and
how many members had been added to the church. It was a very interesting
sermon, and everybody hoped Mr. Daggett would stay here ten years more,
or twenty, or thirty, or always. He is the only minister that I ever
had, and I don't ever want any other. We never could have any one with
such a voice as Mr. Daggett's, or such beautiful eyes. Then he has such
good sermons, and always selects the hymns we like best, and reads them
in such a way. This morning they sang: "Thus far the Lord has led me on,
thus far His power prolongs my days." After he has been away on a
vacation he always has for the first hymn, and we always turn to it
before he gives it out:
"Upward I lift mine eyes,
From God is all my aid;
The God that built the skies,
And earth and nature made.
"God is the tower
To which I fly
His grace is nigh
In every hour."
He always prays for the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness.
_January,_ 1855.--Johnny Lyon is dead. Georgia Wilkinson cried awfully
in school because she said she was engaged to him.
_April._--Grandmother received a letter from Connecticut to-day telling
of the death of her only sister. She was knitting before she got it and
she laid it down a few moments and looked quite sad and said, "So sister
Anna is dead." Then after a little she went on with her work. Anna
watched her and when we were alone she said to me, "Caroline, some day
when you are about ninety you may be eating an apple or reading or doing
something and you will get a letter telling of my decease and after you
have read it you will go on as usual and just say, 'So sister Anna is
dead.'" I told her that I knew if I lived to be a hundred and heard that
she was dead I should cry my eyes out, if I had any.
_May._--Father has sent us a box of fruit from New Orleans. Prunes,
figs, dates and oranges, and one or two pomegranates. We never saw any
of the latter before. They are full of cells with jelly in, very nice.
He also sent some seeds of sensitive plant, which we have sown in our
garden.
This evening I wrote a letter to John and a little "poetry" to Father,
but it did not amount to much. I am going to write some a great deal
better some day. Grandfather had some letters to write this morning, and
got up before three o'clock to write them! He slept about three-quarters
of an hour to-night in his chair.
_Sunday._--There was a stranger preached for Dr. Daggett this morning
and his text was, "Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord
looketh on the heart." When we got home Anna said the minister looked as
though he had been sick from birth and his forehead stretched from his
nose to the back of his neck, he was so bald. Grandmother told her she
ought to have been more interested in his words than in his looks, and
that she must have very good eyes if she could see all that from our
pew, which is the furthest from the pulpit of any in church, except Mr.
Gibson's, which is just the same. Anna said she couldn't help seeing it
unless she shut her eyes, and then every one would think she had gone to
sleep. We can see the Academy boys from our pew, too.
Mr. Lathrop, of the seminary, is superintendent of the Sunday School now
and he had a present to-day from Miss Betsey Chapin, and several
visitors came in to see it presented: Dr. Daggett, Mr. and Mrs. Alex.
Howell, Mr. Tousley, Mr. Stowe, Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Granger and several
others. The present was a certificate of life membership to something; I
did not hear what. It was just a large piece of parchment, but they said
it cost $25. Miss Lizzie Bull is my Sunday School teacher now. She asked
us last Sunday to look up a place in the Bible where the trees held a
consultation together, to see which one should reign over them. I did
not remember any such thing, but I looked it up in the concordance and
found it in Judges 9: 8. I found the meaning of it in Scott's Commentary
and wrote it down and she was very much pleased, and told us next Sunday
to find out all about Absalom.
_July._--Our sensitive plant is growing nicely and it is quite a
curiosity. It has fern-like leaves and when we touch them, they close,
but soon come out again. Anna and I keep them performing.
_September_ 1.--Anna and I go to the seminary now. Mr. Richards and Mr.
Tyler are the principals. Anna fell down and sprained her ankle to-day
at the seminary, and had to be carried into Mrs. Richards' library. She
was sliding down the bannisters with little Annie Richards. I wonder
what she will do next. She has good luck in the gymnasium and can beat
Emma Wheeler and Jennie Ruckle swinging on the pole and climbing the
rope ladder, although they and Sarah Antes are about as spry as
squirrels and they are all good at ten pins. Susie Daggett and Lucilla
Field have gone to Farmington, Conn., to school.
_Monday._--I received a letter from my brother John in New Orleans, and
his ambrotype. He has grown amazingly. He also sent me a N. O. paper and
it gave an account of the public exercises in the school, and said John
spoke a piece called "The Baron's Last Banquet," and had great applause
and it said he was "a chip off the old block." He is a very nice boy, I
know that. James is sixteen years old now and is in Princeton College.
He is studying German and says he thinks he will go to Germany some day
and finish his education, but I guess in that respect he will be very
much disappointed. Germany is a great ways off and none of our relations
that I ever heard of have ever been there and it is not at all likely
that any of them ever will. Grandfather says, though, it is better to
aim too high than not high enough. James is a great boy to study. They
had their pictures taken together once and John was holding some flowers
and James a book and I guess he has held on to it ever since.
_Sunday._--Polly Peck looked so funny on the front seat of the gallery.
She had on one of Mrs. Greig's bonnets and her lace collar and cape and
mitts. She used to be a milliner so she knows how to get herself up in
style. The ministers have appointed a day of fasting and prayer and Anna
asked Grandmother if it meant to eat as fast as you can. Grandmother was
very much surprised.
_November_ 25.--I helped Grandmother get ready for Thanksgiving Day by
stoning some raisins and pounding some cloves and cinnamon in the mortar
pestle pounder. It is quite a job. I have been writing with a quill pen
but I don't like it because it squeaks so. Grandfather made us some
to-day and also bought us some wafers to seal our letters with, and some
sealing wax and a stamp with "R" on it. He always uses the seal on his
watch fob with "B." He got some sand, too. Our inkstand is double and
has one bottle for ink and the other for sand to dry the writing.