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 1 1
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 HOUSEKEEPER. 
 
 BY MRS. CLARISSA PACKARD. 
 
 QuicWy. Look you, I keep his house, and I wash, wring, brew, bake, Kour, i 
 meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself. 
 Simple. 'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hand. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 PAL FiOOKSI 
 ITKD STAT 
 
 1834.
 
 
 [Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern Dis- 
 trict of New-York.]
 
 TO MRS. FAY, 
 
 Of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
 
 V- >'"** 'v V 
 
 THE FOLLOWING AUTHENTIC SKETCHES, 
 THE MINGLED RESULT 
 
 OF 
 
 OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE, 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Charlatan, S. C. 
 
 1 732016

 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 HOUSEKEEPER. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ici tout est vivant, tout parle a ma memoire 
 
 TRENEUIL. 
 Far up the tide of time I turn my sail. 
 
 ROGERS. 
 
 MY maiden name was Clarissa Gray. I was 
 born in the neighbourhood of Boston (Mass.), 
 in 17 , and educated with the few facilities at 
 that time afforded for the young ; that is, I read 
 " No man may" in Webster's Spelling-book, 
 then advanced to the more elaborate " Art of 
 Speaking," and committed to memory, page by 
 page, Morse's Geography, without maps, of 
 course in glorious uncertainty with regard to 
 the position even of my own country. My 
 
 A2
 
 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 ciphering-book, however, was my pride, and 
 my mother's too. With what delight did she 
 display those sums, that rose like Banquo's 
 ghosts, 
 
 "And drew at each remove a lengthening chain." 
 
 At the age of eight years I recollect seeing 
 my mother reading a thin black book, which 
 attracted my attention. It was " Blair's Grave," 
 and she read me the passage, 
 
 "But see, the well-plumed hearse comes nodding on." 
 
 How distinctly my imagination pictured that 
 hearse and those nodding plumes ! I recollect 
 no other books, until I saw and devoured Shaks- 
 peare, at the age of nine, except an odd volume 
 of Pope, containing " The Messiah," and " The 
 Rape of the Lock." I sometimes look around 
 on the mass of books collected by my chil- 
 dren, and am half skeptical with regard to the 
 value of juvenile literature, when I remember 
 how my mind opened under the mysteries of 
 those writings. 
 
 Injustice, however, to the good tendency of
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 7 
 
 engravings, I must mention, that the effect pro- 
 duced on me by the only two picture-books I 
 possessed was an important one. One of them 
 was " Watts's Hymns for Infant Minds," where 
 fighting animals are portrayed. When friends 
 have wounded or foes oppressed me, the strong 
 but simple lines which elucidate the picture, 
 
 " Let dogs delight to bark and bite," 
 
 have arisen to my memory, and calmed my 
 chafed spirit, when mere flimsy sentiment would 
 have afforded me no shelter against wrong. 
 
 The other book, and it is as distinct to my 
 imagination now as the rich landscape by Fisher 
 which hangs before me, contained a representa- 
 tion of Miss Kitty Greedy leaning both elbows 
 on a table, with her mouth crammed to reple- 
 tion, trying in vain to address her mamma. The 
 morale has clung to me to this day, and I never 
 see a young or old gourmand, or detect myself 
 in a superfluous mouthful, without thinking of 
 Kitty Greedy. 
 
 The utmost term of my solid education was
 
 8 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 one year of attendance at the town school, a 
 square building, with one room for both sexes, 
 near an open common, without a shrub or tree 
 to grace or shade it. Thither, bearing my own 
 satchel, I walked a mile, being a journey of four 
 miles daily, to make my " young idea shoot." 
 I will not say much for my ideas, but my limbs 
 were not backward in the process. I shot up 
 into a tall girl, and was allowed to go occasion- 
 ally with my mother to take tea sociably with 
 her friends at four o'clock, carrying my knitting- 
 work for occupation. 
 
 My accomplishments are soon told. I opened 
 an exhibition ball with one of the slow min- 
 uets of the last century, and I cannot but stop 
 to render a tribute of admiration to that charm- 
 ing movement, in spite of the admirers of the 
 lazy quadrille, or the seductive waltz. 
 
 A single courtesy or bow, when well ordered, 
 is graceful ; think then how delightful must be 
 the spectacle of a series of these beautiful 
 curves, performed to slow and appropriate mu- 
 sic, by so attractive a couple as I certainly be-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 9 
 
 lieved Clarissa Gray and my partner Benjamin 
 Homes to be. He was a red-cheeked boy of 
 thirteen, and had a pair of new white gloves 
 for the. occasion, unharmed by contact with 
 mine, for the minuet allows but the meet- 
 ing of the extremities of the fingers, and that 
 lightly. I know not thy destiny, Benjamin, but 
 I have sometimes wished thou mightst tread 
 through life on such polished footing, with sweet 
 music to lead thee, and a partner as kind. 
 
 My teacher honoured, or rewarded, me with 
 a choice of fancy dances, and I decided on the 
 slow minuet. How brilliant was the scene ! 
 Our old clergyman and his lady were stationed 
 in conspicuous seats, and looked on with benev- 
 olent smiles. We scarcely felt the floor while 
 moving with a step closely resembling the waltz, 
 our hands raised, the top of each fore-finger 
 making a circle with the thumb, then slowly 
 descending, while with sidelong glances, and 
 sidelong steps, with measured obeisances, we 
 evolved the " poetry of motion." 
 
 I commenced learning music upon an old
 
 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 spinet of my mother's ; but her indulgence soon 
 imported for me a harpsichord of the latest 
 fashion, and though my more fastidious ear may 
 be critically pleased with the improvements in 
 the modern piano-forte, I have never felt so 
 rapt and raised as when I sang to a silent 
 circle, " Henry's Cottage Maid," or " Her mouth 
 which a smile," to my own harpsichord. 
 
 My sampler was one of unrivalled beauty. 
 It possessed every shade and glory of tent- 
 stitch. At the upper corners were cherubs' 
 heads and wings. Under the alphabets stood 
 Adam and Eve, draperied with fig-leaves, and 
 between them these appropriate lines 
 
 Clarissa Gray is my name, 
 
 My age is ten. 
 
 This work in hand my friends may have, 
 
 When I am dead and laid in grave. 
 
 This sampler. was a matter of curiosity, and 
 sometimes of ridicule, to my children ; but now 
 that they perceive my gray hairs and increasing 
 infirmities, I find the sampler neatly folded and 
 laid aside, and sometimes a conscious look re-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 11 
 
 veals to me that they think I may soon be folded 
 to rest in the grave. 
 
 Our pecuniary circumstances enabled us to 
 indulge in the luxuries of life ; but none of these 
 interfered with my education for usefulness. 
 My mother was proud to say that I could man- 
 ufacture a frilled shut in two days, with stitches 
 that required a microscope to detect them. I 
 made my own bed, swept and dusted the apart- 
 ments, mended my own clothes, and when pud- 
 ding or cake was to be made, rolled up my 
 slee,ves, and went to beating eggs, with strokes 
 that J should half like to see given to lazy mod- 
 ern girls, lolling over new-fangled cookery- 
 books. But this was not all. 
 
 " Clarissa," said my judicious mother, " by 
 not knowing how to make puddings and pies, 
 you may be occasionally mortified ; but if you 
 are ignorant of roasting and boiling, you may 
 be annoyed every day." 
 
 On washing and ironing days, therefore, I 
 spent a large portion of my time in the kitchen ; 
 well known, on such occasions, as the New-
 
 12 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 England Pandemonium. Quite contented did 
 I feel, if able to retire to my bed-room, " my 
 loop-hole of retreat," by four o'clock in the 
 afternoon. The only domestic I distinctly re- 
 member in my mother's establishment was a 
 washerwoman, called Ma'am Bridge, whose 
 mouth and chin resembled the modern pictures 
 of old Mother Hubbard, and who was an extra 
 assistant on washing days. She wore a mob 
 cap, with a broad unstarched frill, which, in 
 hanging out clothes against the wind, fell back, 
 displaying her sharp physiognomy. One day 
 I was laying some ham on the gridiron, my 
 mother preferring it broiled to fried, while 
 Ma'am Bridge was sudsing the clothes in a tub 
 before her, and dexterously throwing them into 
 a rinsing tub behind. A sudden thunder-gust 
 had arisen, and a brilliant flash of lightning 
 blazed through the kitchen. I heard a great 
 splash, and turning round saw Ma'am Bridge 
 seated in the wash-tub, with the water gushing 
 out on all sides ; her head was thrown back, 
 and her broad frill with it, developing a mingled
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 13 
 
 expression of consternation at the danger, and 
 joy at her escape. It was one of those odd 
 combinations in which the ludicrous triumphs 
 over the fearful. As she rose from the tub, like 
 Venus from her shell, or Cowper's Rose, " all 
 dripping and drown'd," I laughed until I brought 
 upon myself her just indignation. 
 
 I do not feel myself called upon to say how 
 many loaves of bread, under my apprenticeship, 
 came out of the oven as heavy as a bad joke, or 
 as sour as an unkind one ; how my pickles 
 turned soft and yellow ; how I filled a bed with- 
 out curing the feathers ; how I put pepper in- 
 stead of alspice into a batch of mince-pies ; how 
 many chemical separations instead of affinities 
 took place in my baked beans and Indian pud- 
 dings ; and how my pan-dowdy disconcerted all 
 the family, except my cousin Sam, a black-eyed 
 boy, with a raging appetite, who dined with us 
 every Sunday, and who affirmed that the paste 
 was not tough, and that he did not mind if the 
 apple cores did choke him a little. These mis- 
 chances will happen in every department, and
 
 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 [ may claim the sympathy of the lawyer who 
 blunders in his maiden speech, of the doctor 
 who kills his first patient, and of the preacher 
 who soothes his first hearers to sleep. This 
 acknowledgment, however, I will make en pas- 
 sant, that my mother's persevering tuition in 
 cookery has saved me a thousand mortifications, 
 to which I have seen ignorant housewives ex-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST TRIAL. 
 
 It were a goot motion if we give over pribbles and prabbles, 
 and desire a marriage between Master Abraham and Mistress 
 Page. PARSON EVANS. 
 
 IT was beginning to be a subject of deep cal- 
 culation with me, whether a brunette should 
 wear pink or yellow riband on her bonnet ; and 
 I had decided on the former, when one Sabbath, 
 on entering the meeting-house, I observed a 
 stranger outside the porch, and on glancing at 
 the gallery, after I was seated, I again perceived 
 him there. I thought he looked at our pew 
 more than was correct, but, some how or other, 
 I kept looking at him to see whether he would 
 become more attentive to the exercises, and thus 
 our eyes repeatedly met. 
 
 After service he came to the porch, for in 
 New-England people retire from their pews
 
 16 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 with a silent bow to their acquaintance, and in- 
 troduced himself to my mother as Mr. Packard 
 from Boston, the son of a friend. He remained 
 a few days at the village on law business, 
 for he was an attorney, and though my mother 
 was one of the most unostentatious women in 
 the world, yet before he left us she made him 
 understand that I could skewer a goose, roll puff 
 paste, complete a shirt, and make a list carpet, 
 as well as I played on the spinet and worked 
 tent-stitch. She was on the point of telling 
 him that I could spin a little, but I protested 
 against any thing so old-fashioned. 
 
 According to my motto, I " gave over prib- 
 bles and prabbles," and married, at the age of 
 seventeen, Edward Packard. I remember the 
 moment, when, after a short ride, I first entered 
 my adopted home in the North Square, one of 
 the most genteel quarters in the then town of 
 Boston. The new carpet, new chairs, and new 
 mahogany, with its virgin hue, undarkened by 
 wax and turpentine, are all before me. My 
 mother was with me, arid though she held one
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 17 
 
 of my hands, and my husband the other, I could 
 not restrain my tears from falling, happy though 
 they were. 
 
 I felt half ashamed to praise the parlour fur- 
 niture, though I secretly said, " It is mine." On 
 recovering from my shyness, I visited the vari- 
 ous apartments, and I think I was most attract- 
 ed by the nicely sanded kitchen, not even ex- 
 cepting a closet, which I might now call a bou- 
 doir, fitted up expressly for me by my husband. 
 
 How bright were those new tins and brasses, 
 arranged with ostentatious glitter on the walls 
 and dresser ! How comfortable that suspended 
 warming-pan ! How red and clean those bricks, 
 that extended to the right and left, leaving space 
 for a family in the corners. A settle, too, that 
 glory of New-England kitchens, was there, now 
 banished for the inhospitable chair, which ac- 
 commodates one instead of three ! I had often 
 presided in a parlour, but never before was mis- 
 tress of a kitchen ! 
 
 A council had been called previous to my 
 
 marriage, of the number of "help" which we 
 B 2
 
 18 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 should require, and it was decided that a female 
 cook, and a little girl to " wait and tend," would 
 answer our purpose, and be sufficiently genteel. 
 
 I was introduced, on that memorable even- 
 ing, to Nancy, the cook. She was the picture 
 of cleanliness. She had on, what is called in 
 New-England, a " calico short loose gown," 
 and at the south, " a chintz wrapper," with a 
 check apron, a little starched, tied round her 
 waist. Both cook and kitchen were in perfect 
 keeping. 
 
 "Well, Nancy," said I, with a half modest, 
 half patronising tone, " I am a young house- 
 keeper, but I dare say we shall get along very 
 well." 
 
 " Oh, ma'am," replied Nancy, " / am not at 
 all petikelar. I never has no differences with 
 nobody." 
 
 How amiable ! thought I ; and I gave her a 
 calico bag, containing iron holders, kettle hold 
 ers, wipers, and dishcloths, presented me by 
 an old aunt, who had quilted them for the occa- 
 sion, and who said, with a commiserating voice,
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 19 
 
 V 
 
 as she presented them, " Young housekeepers 
 have no rags, poor things !" 
 
 The same kind friend gave me a rag-bag, and 
 repeated to me an anecdote she was fond of 
 relating, of a lady in Cambridge, who sold rags 
 enough at four cents a pound to buy herself a 
 silver porringer. " And mind, Clarissa," con- 
 tinued she, " that you do not throw away the 
 ends of your thread they all help to fill up." 
 I heeded her directions ; and who knows but 
 some act of diplomacy, or some effusion of ge- 
 nius, may have been perpetuated on the paper 
 made from my " shreds and patches ?" 
 
 My husband was at home nearly all the first 
 week, and my mother, nominally my guest, re- 
 lieved me from every care ; but on the Monday 
 following, she returned to her -own residence, 
 Edward went to his oifice, and I was left alone. 
 I soon felt weary of idleness. How willingly 
 would I have darned a stocking, or clear-starched 
 a muslin ; but, alas, every thing was whole, 
 and in order. I tried to find a withered leaf on 
 my geraniums, but they all looked as fresh as
 
 20 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 if they too were just married. Centre tables 
 were not then in fashion, or I could have be- 
 guiled a little time in disarranging them for 
 effect ; but no ! every article of furniture was 
 in its proper parallel, and every chair at right 
 angles with its neighbour, while books and 
 knick-knacks, as drawing-room luxuries, were 
 unknown. 
 
 To amuse the tedious hours of my husband's 
 absence, I went into the kitchen, and offered 
 to assist Nancy in making a pudding. My 
 overtures were coldly received, but I thought 
 that that might be " her way," and I proceeded 
 to break the eggs, giving little Polly the raisins 
 to pick. 
 
 " We don't put so much milk as that ere in 
 puddins," said Nancy, eying me keenly. 
 
 My mother had taught me culinary arts with 
 great care, and I felt on strong ground while 
 I defended my quantity of milk. Nancy an- 
 swered me again with some heat, and when 
 she found me following my own recipe in si-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 21 
 
 lence, dashed the sieve full of flour on the table, 
 and putting her arms akimbo, said, 
 
 "Well, Miss Packard, if you will spile the 
 puddin, you must bake it yourself." 
 
 I was thunderstruck ! A bride, to whom for 
 a week all had submitted as to a queen ; from 
 whom commands were favours, and requests 
 privileges ! I felt the blood rush to my face, 
 my hands trembled, and fearing to expose my 
 agitation, I quietly laid down the materials I 
 was preparing, and said, with a great effort at 
 calmness, 
 
 " Finish this pudding, and bake it for din- 
 ner." 
 
 I just made out to reach the parlour, when I 
 burst into tears, and sobbed like a child, com- 
 forting myself, however, with the idea that I 
 should compose myself and bathe my eyes be- 
 fore Edward came home. But that was not to 
 be. With a young husband's impatience, he 
 had hurried through his business, and thinking 
 to give me a pleasant surprise, stood by my side. 
 
 I cannot describe his concern at my situation,
 
 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 while I, mortified to the heart at having exposed 
 myself in tears for such a trifle, could scarcely 
 explain the cause of my distress. When I did 
 make him understand the nature of the provo- 
 cation I had received, he grew angry (I had 
 never seen him angry before), and walking with 
 long strides into the kitchen, he dismissed Nancy 
 on the spot. 
 
 With a woman's glance I saw the conse- 
 quences. Nancy laid aside a raw steak, that she 
 was making tender by her passionate treatment, 
 and walked up stairs in high dudgeon, not for- 
 getting to take up the wages which Edward 
 had thrown on the table. Five minutes after, 
 we heard her departing tramp on the stairs. 
 
 It was no time for erying now. Little Polly 
 and I had to go to cooking in good earnest. 
 My husband turned off the affair, when his tem- 
 per was cooled, with a very pleasant grace, and 
 as I placed the before-mentioned steak on the 
 gridiron, exclaimed, 
 
 " Haste hither, Eve, with speed ; 
 And what thy stores contain bring forth, and pour abundance.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 23 
 
 When our dinner was cooked, we formed a 
 procession from the kitchen to the parlour. Ed- 
 ward bore the steak, whistling a march. I fol- 
 lowed, laughing, with the pudding, for we had 
 to economize time, and little Polly, enjoying the 
 joke, trudged after with the potatoes. 
 
 Still we felt that there was an effort in all this, 
 and when my husband looked at me for the first 
 time alone, at his table, he perceived that the 
 kitchen fire, added to the effects of weeping, had 
 deepened the hue of my complexion beyond the 
 delicacy of beauty, and as I was assisting him to 
 a potato, detected a spot of " smut" (pot-black) 
 on the finger on which he had placed a pearl 
 ring. I blushed deeper crimson ; and tears, those 
 trials to young wives, started to my eyes. Ed- 
 ward seemed not to notice it, and I transferred 
 the sable stain to one of my bridal handker- 
 chiefs- 

 
 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SALLY CURRY. 
 
 She is not the fairest, although she is fair, 
 
 O' nice education but sma' is her share, 
 
 Her parentage humble as humble can be. BURNS. 
 
 NOTHING could be more calm than our even- 
 ing meal after the excitement of our cook's 
 departure. We felt the happiness of that in- 
 tercourse where "love is." It was autumn. 
 The beauty and freshness of summer were in 
 the heavens, and the warmth of winter on our 
 hearth. 
 
 I felt no embarrassment in carrying my 
 shining brass tea-kettle into the parlour, and 
 making tea there, which, with blushing import- 
 ance, I poured out for my husband. He was full 
 of the gentle pleasantry of satisfied affection. 
 
 Little Polly superintended the toasting iron, 
 that luxury so little known in some places, 
 where forks are destroyed daily in burning one
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 26 
 
 piece of bread, while the iron toasts three in 
 less time. 
 
 My mother was soon apprized of the loss of 
 my cook, and the very next evening "help" 
 came in the form of a gentle, but ignorant-look- 
 ing girl of eighteen. She was one to whom I 
 would willingly have extended my hand, and 
 given my heart. I dreaded to think that so soft 
 a creature should be visited by the elements 
 "too roughly." She was however active, and 
 her duties were soon well performed. Sally 
 had been an inmate of my family but six 
 weeks, when one day she came into the parlour, 
 and, colouring very deeply, handed me a letter, 
 which was written as follows. 
 
 "SALEM, . 
 
 " Dear Sally, I've got home safe from Cal- 
 cutta, and reckon that you will be glad to see 
 me, tho' sometimes I aint so sure. I calculate 
 to be in Boston by to-morrow, and shall find 
 you out. If you haven't got another sweetheart 
 I shall want to marry you Sunday night ; if you
 
 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 have, I shall take ship Monday morning and be 
 off again. 
 
 " Yours till death, 
 
 "SAM'L. CURRY. 
 
 "P.S. I have had two lucky 'ventures, and 
 we shan't want for nothing. I hope you aint 
 lost the ring." 
 
 "Well, Sally," said I, smiling, " am I to lose 
 you on Sunday night ?" 
 
 " I am afeard so, ma'am," replied she, sliding 
 behind the door. 
 
 " Don't be ashamed, Sally," said I. " I have 
 shown you such an example of marrying one 
 whom I preferred, that I am sure I cannot 
 blame you." 
 
 Upon this Sally looked up, and I asked her 
 how long she had known Mr. Curry. 
 
 Sally began twisting a gold ring that was on 
 the fore-finger of her left hand, and said, 
 
 " My mother, ma'am, was a poor woman in 
 Salem, the widow of a sea-captain. He was 
 lost on a voyage, and she fell sick, declining,
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER 27 
 
 like. I was her only child. It was a very stormy 
 night, a year ago, and my mother was very 
 ill. I sent to a neighbour to say that I was 
 afeard she wouldn't stand it. Our neighbour sent 
 back she daresn't leave her baby, who was sick, 
 but a young man what was boarding there, a 
 sailor named Curry, a very decent person, would 
 come and watch with me. I was thankful to 
 see a living countenance, and said he might 
 come and welcome. 
 
 " That was a forlorn night ; but Mr. Curry 
 helped me a sight. My mother was in a kind 
 of a faint like all night, and he was as tender as 
 a child to her. Once he began to tell a sea story, 
 to try and cheer me up, but he found he made me 
 cry more, because it didn't seem somehow re- 
 spectful to talk of the things of life by a death- 
 bed, and he stopped talking, and only now 
 and then, when he found he couldn't com- 
 fort me, nor raise her neither, he would fetch 
 up such a pitying look, as if he wished he 
 could. 
 
 " The day was just dawning when my mother
 
 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 seemed to come to a little, and spoke right 
 out, ' Sally, dear.' 
 
 " ' What, mother ?' says I, and my heart beat 
 as if it would come through. 
 " ' Is there anybody with you ?' says she. 
 " ' Yes, dear mother, a friend,' says I, whis- 
 pering. 
 
 " ' Will he take care of you ?' says she, and 
 she looked with her sunk eye full on Curry. 
 
 " Curry got right up, and came by the bed- 
 side, and knelt down, and took her thin hand, 
 and said, in a voice quite loud and solemn, 'I 
 will take care of her, so help me God.' 
 
 " She didn't say another word, but just gave 
 a kind of sigh, as it were, not sorrowful, but as 
 if she was satisfied, and squeezed his hand, and 
 so she died. 
 
 "The sun rose then quite glorious. The 
 light didn't look right to me ; it shot to my heart 
 like ice, and I would rather have had it dark 
 again. 
 
 " Curry was very kind and serviceable to me, 
 but just as he was going to call in the neigh-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 29 
 
 bours, one of the crew came, and said, the ves- 
 sel was gettin under way, and he must go. 
 
 " There wasn't much to be said, because he 
 had to go so quick, but he kissed me once (you 
 know I was in trouble, and that somehow brings 
 us all equal), and took a. gold ring out of his 
 waistcoat pocket, and putting it on my ringer, 
 said, ' I bought that ring for my sister ; but, Miss 
 Sally, I love you more than I do her now, and 
 if I live to come back, you shall see that I do, 
 that you shall.' 
 
 " I felt as if my mother had died over again 
 when he went out, but the neighbours soon came 
 in, and she was decently laid out. Curry left 
 twenty dollars to pay expenses. I was the only 
 mourner at her funeral, and I cried, enough for 
 a hundred ; and it seemed to me r the night after 
 the funeral, that I should just like* to go and 
 throw myself into the ocean that poor Curry 
 sailed on. 
 
 " Time passed on, and the ring was a kind of 
 comfort to me. Sometimes I was so foolish as 
 c 2
 
 30 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 to talk to it, as if it could understand, and I 
 would ask it questions I wouldn't like to ask 
 anybody else. 
 
 "The folks told me I should get higher 
 wages in Boston than in Salem, and I have 
 made out tolerable. I don't know how it was, 
 it seemed to me that I would give myself a year 
 to hear good news in, and I thought I might as 
 well be laying up things with my earnings, when 
 they turned up cheap, so that I have got pretty 
 considerable beforehand. 
 
 " I hope, ma'am," said Sally after a pause, 
 for I was silent from the emotion her simple 
 story caused me " I hope you don't think I've 
 been over-quick in my liking. I heard a very 
 good character of Curry from the folks he 
 lodged with, and the image of him that night 
 seemed to take the place of my mother's, and 
 filled up a very heavy want in my heart." 
 
 "Oh no, Sally," said I, quite charmed with 
 her simplicity, " I do not blame you, but I hear 
 the sound of a chaise on the pavement at the 
 side door."
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 31 
 
 Sally's colour went and came, but she an- 
 swered a sailor-like knock from the outside, and 
 I believe Curry was very well satisfied with his 
 reception. 
 
 This was Friday. On the following day the 
 kitchen had an extra cleaning. I beat up a wed- 
 ding cake, and we made busy preparations for 
 Sunday evening. 
 
 The bride looked very sweetly in a plain 
 white cambric frock, and as she stood beside 
 Curry, reminded me of those beautiful figures 
 we sometimes see painted on the sterns of ves- 
 sels; while he appeared like the good stout 
 ship, which, though destined to bear her through 
 winds and waves, was powerful enough to do 
 it safely. 
 
 When our good pastor, the Rev. Mr. La- 
 throp, asked him the customary question, " Will 
 you love, protect, and cherish this woman ?" &c., 
 Curry was not content with the simple bowing 
 affirmative. Something seemed struggling in 
 his mind. He grasped Sally's hand, and with 
 such an utterance as she told me he had used
 
 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 on the night her mother died, said, " I will, so 
 help me God." 
 
 On Monday morning my husband presented 
 Sally with a large brass kettle, a common New- 
 England present on such occasions, and the 
 happy couple bade us farewell. As they rode 
 away, Curry waved his red handkerchief, and 
 Sally put her new cambric one to her eyes, be- 
 tween tears and smiles. I never saw my pretty 
 cook again. 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CINDA TYLER. 
 
 How now, my headstrong 1 
 Where have you been gadding 1 
 
 Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 Frae morn to e'en its naught but toiling, 
 At baking, roasting, frying, boiling. 
 
 The Twa Dogs. . 
 
 I HAD become so much attached to my gen- 
 tle Sally, that I was really quite dispirited at 
 her departure ; but, not being provided with im- 
 mediate assistance, was soon engrossed with 
 household cares. And let no one underrate 
 the value of those cares to an unoccupied or 
 even a harassed mind, whose mental re- 
 sources are limited. Who has not seen the 
 tear of sorrow dry away amid their gentle but 
 imperious demands ? Who has not seen op- 
 pressed and tender women forget, in the routine 
 which constitutes the comfort 'of a husband, 
 that husband's unkindness ? And then, what
 
 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 an admirable outlet are household cares for a 
 scold ! View that face screwed up to modera- 
 tion and even courtesy at the breakfast table. 
 How gracefully is that cup forwarded ! What 
 gentle accents accompany it ! But the lord 
 and master of the household departs ! Hear 
 his last footstep, and then notice how the clouds 
 gather round that delicate creature, until the 
 brow is contracted, the voice is sharpened, the 
 eye darts withering beams, and those lips open 
 (shall I say it ?) for the unequivocal terms slut 
 and hussy ! While sometimes, rarely I hope, 
 the tender palm comes vibrating in unthought- 
 of vigour on some uncovered ear, or (alas for 
 delicacy !) that little implement which once won 
 the heart of an Eastern Prince* is flourished 
 over an extended and trembling hand. 
 
 My mother, with a mother's care, supplied 
 me with new " help." She was from Vermont, 
 and as green as her native hills. Cinda Tyler 
 was her name, though she took some pains to 
 tell me she was christened Lucinda. 
 
 * See Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 35 
 
 What a contrast to my Sally ! No one could 
 look at her without thinking si strapper, bouncer, 
 or some such inelegant association. She had 
 carrot-coloured hair of unmanageable thickness, 
 even when the experiment of a comb was tried, 
 which was rarely done except on the Sabbath, 
 when even the poorest in New-England feel 
 as if the purity of the body should honour 
 the day, whatever may be the undress of the 
 soul. 
 
 Cinda's arms were bare and red, large and 
 short. She had a perpetual look of eager 
 curiosity. There were a few things I never 
 could break her of. She invariably nodded her 
 head to my visitors, even if she had a dish full 
 of meat in her hand, and said, " How fares ye ?" 
 And say it she would, until an answer was ex- 
 torted, whatever might be the repulsive dignity 
 of the person addressed. I endeavoured, at first 
 by nods and signs, to make her understand that 
 this ceremony could be dispensed with, but all 
 in vain ; with her eyes wide open, she stood at 
 my parlour-door, "making her manners" (little
 
 36 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 bobbing courtesies), until she obtained the 
 sought-for notice. Finding her incorrigible 
 to hints, I told her, as she was using one even- 
 ing the whole artillery of her politeness on 
 
 Judge , a friend of my husband's, that she 
 
 might go out. She opened her great gray eyes 
 wider than ever, and said, somewhat gruffly, 
 " I ain't a goin to let his honour s'pose I was 
 brought up m'ungst wild criters." His honour, 
 who had been stating a case of great interest, 
 roused by her voice, perceived her for the first 
 time, and said, with perfect good-nature, " Ah, 
 how d'ye do ?" and Cinda set him down from 
 that moment as a gentleman ; and so he was. 
 It is that immediate conformity to the feelings 
 of individuals that marks a gentleman or lady, 
 whether they address their equals or inferiors. 
 
 One morning, in my absence from home, a 
 lady called to see me, and Cinda, from sheer 
 curiosity, anticipated little Polly in going to the 
 door. 
 
 "Is Mrs. Packard within?" said the lady. 
 
 " No, ma'am," said Cinda, with great prompt-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 37 
 
 ness, " but you'd better come in and set with 
 me a spell." 
 
 I met my intended guest at the gate, and 
 could not account for her look of ill-suppressed 
 mirth, until Cinda gave me a hint of what she 
 called manners in her reception. 
 
 Another peculiarity of Cinda's was to ex- 
 amine every new purchase of mine, and ask the 
 price, and sometimes the ornaments of my 
 visiters did not escape this ordeal. I was get- 
 ting somewhat wearied with these oddities, 
 notwithstanding her skill in washing, hanging 
 on pots and kettles, and all the drudgery of her 
 calling, when one evening a few ladies visited 
 me, and Cinda, after sufficient drilling, under- 
 took to hand tea, solemnly promising me not to 
 address them. As she passed from one to 
 another, I felt a little anxiety at the look of 
 scrutiny she cast, from the head downward, on 
 every individual. Her appearance began to at- 
 tract the attention of my friends, but she pre- 
 served silence, until, at the close of the service, 
 9 very sweet-looking girl bent her blue eye upon 
 a
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Cinda with a smile. The temptation was irre- 
 sistible. She had an empty tray in her hand, 
 and lowering it suddenly, said, " I guess, miss, 
 them 'ere beads of your'n cost considerable." 
 The younger ladies thrust their pocket-hand- 
 kerchiefs into their mouths, and the elder ones 
 stared, while Cinda, catching my eye, and per- 
 ceiving a frown, cried out, "Lud, Miss Packard, 
 if I ain't spoke in the party ;" and then, with a 
 look of greater horror, " Lud, lud, I've spoke 
 agin !" then catching up the tray, she retreated 
 in confusion. 
 
 It was impossible for the most rigid muscles 
 to refrain from laughter. The shouts reached 
 poor Cinda's ears in her culinary domain, and 
 it required all the inducements I could urge to 
 prevail on her to carry the tray again. 
 
 Curiosity, which seemed to be her master- 
 passion, prompted her to try on the garments of 
 others. A French lady from St. Domingo, for 
 whom Edward was employed in a law-suit, 
 came to pass a few days with me. Her dress 
 was fashionable in the extreme. It was Gin-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 39 
 
 da's province to arrange the bed-rooms while 
 we breakfasted. Mam'selle Ligne had occa- 
 sion to leave the table one morning in quest of 
 her handkerchief, and her light step was unper- 
 ceived by Cinda, who stood before the glass. 
 She had placed on her carroty locks Mam'selle 
 Ligne's beautiful evening cap, and thrown a 
 slight scarf over her shoulders ; and there she 
 stood, with an air of the most complacent satis- 
 faction, gazing at her own charms. The joke 
 was too good to be lost. Mam'selle tripped 
 down, and asking Edward and myself to follow, 
 we all went up softly, ignorant of what we were 
 to behold. 
 
 Human gravity could not hold out at such a 
 spectacle. Edward gave one of those laughs 
 through his nose that always sound louder than 
 a natural one, and poor Cinda started in dismay 
 at beholding us. She took off the scarf in her 
 hurry, but forgot the cap, which was of- a very 
 light material, and began making up the bed 
 with great zeal. 
 
 Just at this crisis the butcher knocked at the
 
 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 outer door, and Cinda, glad to escape, raced 
 own, cap and all, to receive him. " Holla, Cin- 
 da," said he, " are you setting that 'ere cap at 
 me ?" This was too much for Cinda's nerves. 
 She caught up the leg of lamb he had extended 
 to her, and running into the kitchen, hid her 
 blushes in her check apron.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LUCY COOLEDGE. 
 
 Servitude is honour, not 
 Disgrace, when falling fortunes make it needful. 
 
 GOETHE. Herman and Dorothea. 
 
 CINDA blundered through ten months in my 
 service, sometimes fretting and sometimes amus- 
 ing me with her oddities, before her curiosity 
 and love of change induped her to leave me. 
 At length, with some little emotion, she an- 
 nounced her intention of removing. 
 
 "I know, jtym Packard," said she, "that 
 you'll miss me more than enough ; such a bird is 
 not to be caught on every bough. 'Tisn't every- 
 body that has my knack at thrashing about 
 among the pots and kettles. I'm not the person 
 that holds a frying-pan with white gloves on. 
 But I've a notion to see a little more of the 
 world. Mm Bachelor is going out to Rox- 
 bury to live, and I'm to try how she suits me a 
 
 D2
 
 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 spell. Howsomever, as I don't want, to leave 
 you without nobody, Mr. Tucker, the butcher, 
 says one Lucy Cooledge is in petickelar want 
 of a sitivation, being as how old Miss Amory 
 died two weeks ago, and ain't left her no pro- 
 vision." 
 
 On the following morning I had a conversa- 
 tion with Mr. Tucker about Lucy Cooledge. 
 The narration interested me, though I drew the 
 inference that she would not be as dexterous in 
 " thrashing about among the pots and kettles" 
 as her predecessor. She had been adopted in 
 orphan-infancy by Mrs. Amory, and educated 
 as well as her slender means would permit. 
 The tendency of her teaching," it appeared, was 
 to form a religious character, and cultivate great 
 original sensibility in her young charge. For 
 two years, Mrs. Amory had been lingering with 
 a chronic affection, and left Lucy, at the age of 
 seventeen, without a shelter, except from the 
 charity of neighbours. 
 
 "It was a crying sight," said Mr. Tucker, 
 "to see the poor thing the day Mrs. Amory
 
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 43 
 
 died, looking around so piteous, as much as to 
 say, ' I have nothing left now !' She sat as 
 still as could be, for you know there are folks 
 enough always busy at layings-out, and just 
 watched what they did in a wistful kind of a 
 way. I made a shift to get a neighbour to ride 
 around with the meats for me, first picking put 
 a real tender bit of mutton for some broth .for 
 Miss Lucy ; and made as good a bargain as I 
 could about the coffin. I happened in again 
 on the afternoon of the burying, and I was 
 scared to see her so quiet. When her name 
 was called out to walk with Deacon Hodges as 
 chief mourner, she just went straight forward, 
 without putting her handkerchief to her eyes, 
 and didn't seem to care to lean on his arm, even. 
 She walked right on to the grave, and gave a 
 look as if she could not look far enough, nor 
 long enough, and then came back but no cry- 
 ing, not a drop. She went into the sitting-room, 
 where the chairs still stood, thick and close, 
 and sat down, and there wasn't one of us that 
 know'd what to say. You know, ma'am, if she
 
 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 had only took on, we could have comforted her. 
 At last Deacon Hodges' wife went to take off her 
 bonnet, seeing she didn't move, and took hold 
 of her hand. ' My gracious, Lucy,' says she, 
 'your hand is like ice;' and so it was, though 
 it was a warm day, and her cheeks were like 
 ice*too; and says she, with a kind of shiver, 
 ' My heart is ice.' They fell to rubbing her 
 hands, and gave her some wine to drink, and in 
 a half an hour or thereabouts, she fetched a 
 sigh, and large tears rolled down her cheeks ; 
 and them as stood by wiped them off, for she 
 seemed not to know that she was a crying. She 
 has come to now pretty much, but has an ugly 
 cough, and I don't like the look of her eyes. 
 Mrs. Amory taught her all kinds of housework, 
 and I've a notion, if she was in a reg'lar family, ' 
 she would be quite pert again. A man, you see, 
 Miss Packard," continued Mr. Tucker, clear- 
 ing his throat, " can worry through these things, 
 and make shift for a living; but it's hard for 
 young women to push on through thick and 
 thin."
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 45 
 
 I should liave been glad to assist Lucy in 
 a pecuniary way, but to a character like hers 
 independence was the better charity; and as 
 Cinda had fixed on the day for quitting me, Mr 
 Tucker promised to engage a seat in the New- 
 ton stage for her to Boston. 
 
 The stage arrived about ten o'clock on foe 
 day appointed, and Lucy was the only pas- 
 senger. It was a great unwieldy vehicle, with- 
 out glasses, the leathern curtains napping all 
 around, the worn cushions as slippery as glass, 
 and so little spring in its construction, that Lu- 
 cy's slight figure was thrown from side to side 
 as the horses, for city display, whisked up to 
 the door. 
 
 She was dressed in simple mourning. There 
 was no affectation of better days about her; 
 she entered the kitchen as the scene of her 
 duties with quiet gravity, and went through her 
 work with precision and fidelity, and only on 
 Sunday evenings allowed herself the luxury of 
 reading. 
 
 Servants' apartments, in New-England, are
 
 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 always in the house with the family ; Lucy's 
 bed-room was near mine, and every night be- 
 fore she retired, for three months, we heard her 
 sweet voice in an evening hymn. Gradually, 
 however, from five or six verses she diminished 
 to one, until at last no music was heard ; but a 
 h^ptrse, deep cough broke in even on my mid- 
 night slumbers. 
 
 Still she moved on in her daily duties, though 
 I could not but regard with anxiety the colour 
 that lit her cheek at evening, and made her in- 
 tellectual face even beautiful. I gradually 
 lightened her heavier employments, and gave 
 her sewing in the parlour, for Polly had by this 
 time become familiar with my arrangements, and 
 with occasional assistance was strong enough 
 to engage in carrying them out. 
 
 But Lucy drooped daily, struggling on; I 
 was often obliged to take her work from her 
 forcibly, so conscientious was she. I sent for 
 a physician. She met him with a gentle smile. 
 After parting with her, he said to me, " There 
 has been some heart-sickness in this case, I
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 47 
 
 suspect. There is a fine organization in some 
 systems, tending to early decay, and yielding 
 alike to mental and bodily pressure ; and hers 
 is of that stamp. The case is a call on your 
 charity, and I will cheerfully co-operate with 
 you." 
 
 When I returned to the parlour, Lucy had 
 laid her sewing on her lap, and sat with her 
 hands, folded, as in revery. 
 
 " I see, by your countenance, Mrs. Packard," 
 said she, "what Dr. Webster thinks of my 
 case, and I am not very sorry. I am only 
 sorry because I shall be a source of care and 
 anxiety, in such a scene of quiet happiness as 
 your house always presents. 
 
 "To me, dear madam," continued she, after 
 a pause, turning her large dark eyes upwards, 
 " to me, to die is gain? 
 
 I had been educated religiously, attended 
 church regularly, learned appropriate cate- 
 chisms and hymns, and found in the example of 
 my dear mother the best of all instruction; 
 but I had never suffered, never seen death in 
 
 ' '
 
 48 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 any form, and my religion was the overflowing 
 of gratitude, not the want of poor humanity. I 
 could not realize the force of Lucy's expres- 
 sion. To be willing to leave this bright world, 
 so full of the blossoms of hope and love, to quit 
 the pure air, and the bright skies, and be the 
 mouldering tenant of the solitary tomb how 
 could it be gain? I looked at her thin pale 
 cheek inquiringly, and could not restrain my 
 tears. 
 
 Lucy smiled sadly " Life appears," said she, 
 " very differently to one who, like you, enjoys 
 the sympathy of friends, of such friends too ! 
 I am now only a weed on the stream of time. 
 When I pass into the ocean of eternity, who 
 knows but that I may be attached to something 
 bright and beautiful too ?" 
 
 From that moment, that httle moment of 
 heart and sensibility, my relations with Lucy 
 assumed a different aspect. I drew a chair 
 near her " Lucy," I said, cheerfully, " 1 will 
 be the beautiful thing to which you shall be at- 
 tached in this world ; so do not talk of another,
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 49 
 
 dear." I was checked by the pressure of her 
 thin hand, where even labour had not been 
 able to shade the blue veins, so light was their 
 covering. 
 
 From the moment that this delicate chain of 
 sympathy was thrown over our minds, there was 
 a quiet but distinct course of action between us. 
 My part was to strengthen and animate her sink- 
 ing frame. I brought her fresh flowers, new 
 books, kind friends, and little luxuries that cool 
 the feverish lip ; but Lucy had a higher task to 
 perform. It was, to direct my thoughts to a 
 feeling of the value and necessity of Christianity; 
 to teach me to subdue the idolatry of my affec- 
 tions, and give them a spiritual bias. 
 
 She spoke of Edward as a " being of soul, 
 a candidate for immortality." " He is too beau- 
 tiful for the grave, Lucy," said I ; " I can never, 
 never let him die. I can go myself, if God 
 calls me, but I cannot spare him ; that manly 
 form, those high and generous feelings, that 
 warm, warm heart, oh, they are my life. Talk 
 to me of any thing but the death of Edward !"
 
 50 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Still she gently recurred to high and spiritual 
 topics, and led my thoughts at times beyond 
 earthly affections. She marked passages in the 
 Bible of the most attractive character for me to 
 read to her, and, when her cough would allow, 
 breathed out a hymn in sweet and happy strains, 
 in which I soon loved to join. Time wore 
 away, and she revived a little with reviving 
 spring. She still had strength to carry her 
 plants from window to window to catch the 
 sunbeams, and could sit to watch the twilight in 
 its dying glory. 
 
 But soon she failed again, and one night 
 Edward and I were awaked to go to her. She 
 could but whisper to us as we bent over her, 
 " Do not love each other too well. Pray with 
 and for each other. Forget not that Christ 
 lived and died for you. I shall expect you 
 both, both in Heaven." And thus she died. 
 
 One favour only had she asked of us. It was 
 that she might be buried in the country church- 
 yard of her native town. 
 
 "I would have overcome that little prefer-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 51 
 
 ence," she once said, " did I not know there is 
 something soothing in complying with the 
 wishes of the dying. How idle a fancy," she 
 continued, smiling, "to wish that trees should 
 wave and birds sing over this wasted form ; but 
 nature has been so lovely to me that I have a 
 kind of gratitude to her, and it is sweet to think 
 that I shall repose among those objects which 
 God has given me sensibility to enjoy." 
 
 She was carried to her favourite resting-place. 
 From that period a religious repose chastened 
 the intense tenderness of our hearts, as we re- 
 membered Lucy's character and death; and 
 when we occasionally left the city to breathe 
 the country air, our souls were refreshed by a 
 visit to her grave.
 
 52 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JEALOUSY. 
 
 Ever at early dawn, and close of day, 
 Oh ! be Amanda's toil to thine allied 
 Labour shall lead me smiling by thy side, 
 
 So but a smile of thine my toil repay. 
 
 WlELAND. 
 
 MY next domestic trial was unconnected 
 with household cares. My "help" was "the 
 perfectest pattern of excelling" housekeepers, 
 and my affairs went on like clockwork. Our 
 meals "came like spirits." No half-cooked 
 potatoes betrayed a cold and hard heart beneath 
 a soft surface no half-picked poultry came to 
 the table as if reluctant to resign the feathery 
 insignia. The amalgamation of sauces and 
 gravies was like the intercourse of society, 
 where the piquant is softened by the modest, 
 and the feeble animated by the strong. My 
 windows were clear as a good conscience, my
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 53 
 
 brasses bright as ready wit, and like Narcissus 
 in the stream, I half fell in love with myself in 
 the polished mahogany. 
 
 From whence then came the cloud to shade 
 this happy picture? I was jealous. Not of 
 women, for my husband not only professed to 
 love me, but treated me with remarked atten- 
 tion in the society of others ; and often when I 
 saw married men display their gallantry to any 
 but their wives, I felt proud of those prefer- 
 ring attentions, which Edward directly, but 
 without display, tendered me. My jealousy, 
 and I write it with half a blush, was of 
 books. 
 
 Edward was becoming an ambitious lawyer. 
 His singleness of character and clearness of in- 
 tellect gained him unexpected friends, and the 
 strongest efforts of his mind were directed to 
 eminence in his profession. Gradually, book 
 by book was brought from the office. Black- 
 stone was on one window-seat, Coke upon Lit- 
 tleton on another, and Chilly's Pleadings lum- 
 bered the well-dusted mantelpiece. An in- 
 E2
 
 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 stinctive regard and respect for my feelings 
 prevented his passing his evenings abroad ; but 
 he read and read, while I silently pursued my 
 sewing, until at last the heavy whitish looking 
 volumes were laid on the breakfast or tea-table, 
 beside the cup of coffee, which was often al- 
 lowed to cool before it was tasted. He no longer 
 asked me for a song at evening; and when 
 I found my voice unheard by him, I shut the 
 harpsichord in disgust. Our sunset walk was 
 often forgotten; and when I sometimes said, 
 " Come, Edward, I am ready ;" he answered, 
 " Yes, dear, directly just let me finish this para- 
 graph." The paragraph might be finished, but 
 I, sitting in silence, felt a languor steal over me ; 
 and when in a half hour he closed his book, 
 and said briefly, "What are you waiting? 
 Let us go," the walk seemed heavy, and the 
 twilight sad. Perhaps, had I rallied him, he 
 might have perceived that he was trying a dan- 
 gerous, though unintentional experiment with a 
 devoted heart ; or had I seriously opened my 
 feelings, he would probably have understood
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 55 
 
 them ; but I was ashamed, and tried to think 
 that /was unreasonable, and he in the perform- 
 ance of his duty. I remembered that it was for 
 my subsistence he toiled, and lingered through 
 even the midnight hour. 
 
 But with a feeling of unconquerable dim" 
 dence in the expression of my thoughts, I grew 
 reserved. My step was slow and careful, or 
 -quick and agitated, and I sometimes said cut- 
 ting things in the impatience of my spirit. He 
 was all truth and openness, and occasionally 
 looked perplexed at my manner. 
 
 " I should think you were unhappy," said he 
 one day to me, after he had been studying a hor- 
 rid looking, parchment-covered book, at the 
 breakfast-table, " if I did not see every thing 
 around you appearing so cheerful and comfort- 
 able. There never was such a sweet home as 
 ours." 
 
 My eyes filled with tears, but I hid them and 
 was silent. 
 
 " Clarissa," said he, "you look thin, and now 
 I think of it I am afraid your appetite is not
 
 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 good. Those nice cakes, did you eat some this 
 morning?" 
 
 "We had toast for breakfast," I replied; be- 
 fore I could say more, he was absorbed in his 
 book. 
 
 I took my sewing, that I might be with him 
 the half hour before he went out. Just at this 
 period a little boy who lived opposite, and who 
 was in the habit of visiting us frequently, came 
 in, and began his customary prattle. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Packard," said little John, running 
 to him, " let me see that book." 
 
 " What for," said my husband, keeping his 
 finger on a paragraph. 
 
 "Why, because," said the rogue, "aunt 
 Clara (the name he always gave me), aunt 
 Clara got angry with it yesterday." 
 
 " Angry, my boy ; how so ?" said he. 
 
 "Why, sir, after you had done sipping your 
 coffee, with the big book by your plate, and took 
 your hat and walked out like a judge, ^he went 
 to gather the cups to wash, and when she came 
 to the big white book by your cup she dashed
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 57 
 
 it down on a chair, and said, ' I hate you !' and 
 looked as if she was going to cry." 
 
 Edward leaned his head a moment over the 
 chair on which he sat, and mused. I sewed as 
 if life hung on my needle. 
 
 " Clarissa," he said, at length, with a sweet 
 earnest voice and look, taking my hands in his, 
 " I know now what is the matter with you. I 
 have been to blame, dearest, in not consulting 
 more affectionately the feelings of my own 
 wife. It was not enough, it ought not to be 
 enough for me, to have given you comforts and 
 luxuries; you require sympathy. You have 
 been struggling with the wants of your heart. 
 I wish I had understood them before. As for 
 this book," said he, playfully, " I cannot ' hate 
 it,' since it has given me such a revelation of 
 my duty." 
 
 From that period his deportment at home had 
 a perpetual view to my happiness and improve- 
 ment. He brought books to read to me, calcu- 
 lated to interest while they elevated my lit- 
 erary taste. He referred to me for opinions,
 
 58 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 and by sounding the depth and power of my 
 intellect, found, that under his guidance there 
 were occasions when even my advice might 
 avail him. When a case occurred which obliged 
 him to study at home, he detailed it in sim- 
 ple terms to me, told me the course he should 
 pursue, and its probable results ; while, satisfied 
 and happy, I would sit by his side like Klop- 
 stock's Meta, "looking so still in his sweet 
 face." Understanding his conduct and feel- 
 ings, I began to be ambitious for him. Step 
 by step he mounted the ladder of fame. I saw 
 all eyes gazing on him with delight, heard every 
 lip echoing applause; and those sights and 
 sounds were doubly dear to me, for I knew 
 every spring that moved his noble heart, and 
 that his thoughts were mine before they were 
 the world's.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GREASE. 
 
 Chattels which, yesterday, good housewifery 
 Had rang'd, in cleanly and delightful order, 
 Lay now disjointed, broken, rent. GOETHE. 
 
 IN the subject I am about to introduce, I am 
 confident of the sympathy of housekeepers. 
 The theme is grease, which, if I may be al- 
 lowed a poor pun, has produced as many do 
 mestic disturbances in modern, as it did politi- 
 cal in ancient times. Who can tell the amount 
 of temper that has been roused by this evil, 
 from the single drop of lamp oil on the finger, 
 to which the olfactory sense, though driven 
 back, returns with painful tenacity, to the mass 
 which, sinking in your white floor, looks fresher, 
 like the stain on Blue Beard's key, for many 
 a scouring ? 
 
 I hope I may be excused here for a homely 
 piece of advice, which is, that wives should not
 
 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 only keep the lamps of their souls trimmed 
 and burning, but attend to that department in 
 their household economy. If they do not, their 
 husbands may as well sit down to sup with the 
 ladies of Queen Charlotte's Sound, whom Cap- 
 tain Cook describes as not only " drinking the 
 oil from his lamps, but eating the cotton wick." 
 In return for the various attentions we had re- 
 ceived, Edward and myself sent out invitations 
 for an evening party. We had not the facilities 
 for lighting our rooms . which make it so little 
 trouble now, by sending for a professor in the 
 art, to produce a blaze that shall cast no sha- 
 dow; but we treated ourselves to an astral 
 lamp, they having been newly brought to this 
 country. Being somewhat ambitious of intel- 
 lectual display, and the time beginning to pass 
 away when ladies did not feel themselves pinned 
 to the same seat for three hours, we man- 
 aged, by buying and borrowing, to collect some 
 amusing novelties ; among them was a magni- 
 fying glass, with splendid Italian views. These 
 were arranged on the sofa table, illuminated
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 61 
 
 by our new lamp, which attracted universal 
 admiration. The Italian views became the 
 chief subject of attention, but alas ! as our guests 
 crowded around the table it was suddenly over- 
 thrown, and the lamp shattered to pieces. Satin 
 slippers and gentlemen's pumps received the 
 indiscriminate shower of oil, and the beautiful 
 engravings coming in for a share, a young beau, 
 who never lost a pun, even in calamity, whis- 
 pered to me that they were " oil paintings." 
 
 A general shock was given to our before 
 complacent group ; first were circulated whis- 
 pered complaints and commiseration, then in a 
 louder tone followed details of similar misfor- 
 tunes, and recipes for extracting them. 
 
 I contrived to affect great indifference, and 
 Edward got up his best jokes, but after a strug- 
 gle at general sociability the company retired, 
 and left us, at an earlier period than we expected, 
 gazing on the wreck. 
 
 It is easy to preserve a sweet smile in the 
 presence of fifty people, but the test of good 
 
 nature follows in a tete-d-ttie. 
 
 r
 
 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 " What an awkward wretch that Mason is," 
 said Edward. "I wish people would not go 
 into society until they are civilized !" 
 
 " I am surprised at your blaming Mr. Mason," 
 said I. " It was Miss Otis who knocked over the 
 table that girl thinks she must be first in every 
 thing." 
 
 "Mrs. Packard, I am confident that it was 
 Mr. Mason," returned Edward. 
 
 " Mr. Packard," replied I, " I saw Miss Otis do 
 it with my own eyes." 
 
 " Women are always obstinate," said he, turn- 
 ing away. 
 
 " And men are always domineering," I an- 
 swered, in the same tone. 
 
 There ended our first party, and began our 
 first quarrel ; but it seemed so odd, that turning 
 round, our eyes met, and we burst out into un- 
 affected laughter. 
 
 I will not enter into a detail of similar mis- 
 fortunes. Who has not, after long deliberation, 
 purchased a set of expensive lamps, only to 
 suffocate himself or his friends with smoke ?
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 63 
 
 Who has not heard his glass shades pop one after 
 another, with a report as harassing as the small 
 , arms of an enemy ? Who has not welcomed 
 " the tall mould candle straight and round," while 
 the costly lamp, that gave for five minutes a 
 gleam of light, is 
 
 "Wisely kept for show." 
 
 But I have other themes of varied trouble to 
 relate. One commencement day a large party 
 assembled to dine with us, after the college 
 exercises. Edward had presented me with a 
 new silk dress. It was a rare and important 
 addition to my wardrobe, and I made my toilet 
 with many resolutions to be careful of it. As 
 I sat at the table, with the consciousness of a 
 well-ordered dinner and an appropriate dress, 
 whose value to me was doubly enhanced by its 
 being Edward's choice, one of the waiters, 
 with a zeal worthy of a better cause, jostled by 
 another, who was reaching above my shoulder 
 to deposite a gravy-boat, and knocked it over. I 
 felt the warm stream trickle through my lace
 
 64 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 tippet, and saw it pour into my lap. SelcTi la 
 regie, I was obliged either not to notice or make 
 a jest of it. I had the resolution not to look at 
 the servant (how often have I seen looks speak 
 more than words !) and turning quietly to my 
 left-hand neighbour, I said, " Pray, sir, excuse 
 my being helped first." 
 
 A short period only elapsed before Edward 
 was called upon to sympathize with me in a 
 similar experience. Being invited to a ceremo- 
 nious party, he mounted a new coat. I could 
 perceive considerable complacency in his man- 
 ner of pulling down the waist and turning out 
 the collar. He was in excellent spirits through 
 the evening, and on his return said, laughing, 
 
 " Either I or my new coat was a great favour- 
 ite this evening, for my friends certainly re- 
 garded me with uncommon interest." 
 
 " And well they might !" I exclaimed, in alarm, 
 on looking at him, " for you have half of one of 
 Mrs. Winthrop's candles streaming down from 
 your collar to your elbow." 
 
 Poor Edward was thrown all aback. " Hang
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 65 
 
 it," said he, quite off his guard, " I can inter- 
 pret their looks now. They could not quite re- 
 solve to tell me what a figure I cut, and I 
 thought they were admiring my genteel person, 
 while I was strutting about with the sign of a 
 tallow-chandler on my shoulder." 
 
 Speaking of a new coat reminds me of an 
 anecdote of Mr. Shaw, a literary friend of ours. 
 In the pride of his heart he too put on a coat 
 fresh from the tailor's, to attend a party, and while 
 bowing to the ladies, an acquaintance tapping 
 him on the shoulder said, " Shaw, your coat 
 was very reasonable," pointing at the same 
 time to the tailor's mark, which was pinned 
 conspicuously on the skirt. 
 
 When albums were first in vogue, a choice 
 one was sent us for our contributions. I have 
 always loved albums, much as they have been 
 ridiculed. They seem to me the leading-strings 
 of literature, and it interests me to see the ar- 
 dour of a young lady, when, opening the gilt 
 leaves, she finds there sentiments dedicated to 
 
 her alone. Wo to him who shall dare to trace 
 F2
 
 66 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 impure characters on those unsullied leaves! 
 Indeed, so sacred are they, that though folly often 
 intrudes upon them, vice rarely profanes them. 
 The album sent us was elegantly bound, and 
 enriched by contributions from native poets. Ed- 
 ward and I communicated our mite immediately. 
 It is a good rule. The next day I looked at the 
 book to review what I had written, but what 
 was my dismay at finding its beautiful pages 
 discoloured with lamp oil. Down it had streamed 
 over a sentimental effusion of Wilde; Per- 
 cival's wing was clogged, and even Bryant's 
 purity was marred by the contact. 
 
 " I did not think to shed a tear" 
 
 over my silk frock or Edward's coat, but this 
 was really alarming. An album I could pur- 
 chase, but how restore the handwriting of those 
 poets on which I knew the enthusiastic owner 
 loved to dwell with natural pride ? I summoned 
 Becky Rand, "my woman in the kitchen," 
 (the New-England circumlocution for cook). 
 
 She confessed that after I had retired she 
 thought it would do no harm to read a little, 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 67 
 
 and being "dozy," she let the kitchen lamp fall 
 on the book and " il'd" it. 
 
 I suspected as much from Becky's literary 
 taste. I had often observed a volume of " Zim- 
 merman on Solitude," covered with blue home- 
 spun, lying on the dresser, and once, being in 
 want of a skewer, detected one put for a mark 
 at the following anecdote. 
 
 "The celebrated Armelle, who died in the 
 convent of Vannes, was placed by her parents, 
 who were villagers, as a menial servant in the 
 house of a neighbouring gentleman, with whom 
 she lived five-and-thirty years (just Becky's 
 age). During this time his groom, finding the 
 kitchen-door fastened, had the curiosity to peep 
 through the keyhole, where he discovered the 
 pious maid hi a paroxysm of divine ecstasy, 
 spitting a fowl. The youth was so much 
 affected by this religious fervour, that he devoted 
 himself to a convent." 
 
 Becky was very sentimental, and usually 
 had an interjectional remark whenever I entered 
 the kitchen.
 
 68 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 " Oh, ma'am," said she to me one day, point- 
 ing to a bean she had trained over her kitchen 
 window, "how can the human natur's heart 
 help for to see how miraculous beans is !" 
 
 I did not ridicule Becky's sentimentalities, 
 but found pleasure in moralizing over the prog- 
 ress of her bean vine, and even kept my coun- 
 tenance when, the morning after a frost, she as- 
 sumed a pensive attitude, and said, " ah, Miss 
 Packard, so frail is the human natur's life of 
 a bean !" 
 
 I heard, however, a conversation between 
 herself and Polly, as we were preparing for a 
 guest at dinner, that completely excited my 
 risibility. 
 
 "Who is coming here to day ?" said Polly. 
 
 " A tutor from Cambridge," answered Becky. 
 
 " What is a tutor ?" asked Polly 
 
 " Mercy ' child, don't you know?" said Becky, 
 " why, a person that tutes !" 
 
 Becky's sentimentalism was not confined to 
 her bean vine. She rarely took up the gridiron 
 without a sigh over the remains of the beef and
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER 69 
 
 poultry, and one would think from her looks she 
 was about to bear the martyrdom of St. Law- 
 rence on its well scraped parallels. 
 
 But the place where her mind was most under 
 my inspection was the ironing-table, where, 
 as Mr. Packard's shirts and cravats were my 
 first care, I felt a feminine pride in smoothing 
 their snowy texture. 
 
 Many were the experiences detailed by 
 Becky as we gave the sheets a finishing snap in 
 folding, or wielded our irons with the skill of 
 artists. 
 
 And when on Tuesday evening 1 every article 
 was translated to its appropriate drawer, and 
 Becky sat by the kitchen fire, at her pine table, 
 with her mending, I have often heard her say, 
 
 " Polly, child, always regulate your concerns 
 in the day, and then when you come to set by 
 your taper (looking at the small tallow candle), 
 you can have time to meditate on the human 
 natur's heart." 
 
 Alas, for romance ! Becky married my butch- 
 er, and became Mrs. Ichabod Whittemore !
 
 70 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIRST-BORN. 
 
 As mine own shadow was this child to me, 
 A second self, far dearer, and more fair. 
 
 SHELLEY. 
 
 THERE can be but few domestic trials, com- 
 paratively speaking, without children. In their 
 absence, that combination of articles expres- 
 sively designated clutter, seldom alarms the 
 eagle-eyed housewife. From day to day, from 
 week to week, from year to year, may she de- 
 scend to the breakfast-table with her smooth 
 morning dress, her well combed hair, and her 
 face un wrinkled by nursing vigils. 
 
 Such was my happy predicament until Mas- 
 ter Frederick Packard entered on the before 
 tranquil scene, when forthwith appeared an ac- 
 companying train of vials, fennel-seed, and 
 pap. He was blessed from the moment of his
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 71 
 
 birth with a pair of lungs that needed no De- 
 mosthenean pebbles to bring them into play. 
 Two-thirds of the time his face was in lines as 
 thick as the rivers on a well-drawn map, and his 
 roaring brought kind inquiries from the neigh- 
 bours " if any thing was the matter with the 
 baby ?" His father nattered himself that he 
 was destined to make a noise in the world, and 
 descanted long and loud (for we were obliged 
 to speak at "the top of our voices") on the 
 kindness of Providence in permitting infants to 
 scream, since it was necessary to the healthy 
 action of the lungs ; he added, moreover, that 
 all sensible children were cross, and that his 
 mother had often said he was the most fretful 
 child in the world. 
 
 Polly, now thirteen years of age, succeeded 
 the regular nurse in assisting me to attend my 
 little boy, and if ever any one, with the kindest 
 intentions, had a knack at making a child scream, 
 it was she, notwithstanding my woman in the 
 kitchen would occasionally put her hrad into the 
 parlour door and call out, " Polly, Polly, why
 
 72 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 don't you s hue* the child ?" but alas ! Polly's 
 sole ability lay in trotting and walking, walking 
 and trotting, with all the energy of human mus- 
 cles ; her last resource, and it was often effect- 
 ual, was to sit on a particularly hard chair, and 
 rock backward and forward on an uncarpeted 
 floor. At each jolt Master Frederick's voice 
 grew fainter and fainter, until at length, over- 
 powered by superior physical strength, he 
 dropped asleep, and looked as if no storm had 
 ever hung over his placid brow. 
 
 How beautiful is the sleep of infancy, with 
 its breathing like the uplifting of lily leaves on 
 a summer wave ! It would be sculpture-like, 
 did not the motion of the lips betray a sweet 
 remembrance of its natural wants, 
 
 " As the shifting visions sweep, 
 Amid its innocent rest." 
 
 Edward often stole from his office at the hour 
 of our infant's slumber, and we knelt together 
 by his cradle, our thoughts leaping from baby- 
 
 * Probably meaning kuth.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 73 
 
 hood to manhood, living long, long years in that 
 lingering gaze. He always blessed us by 
 awaking with a smile. An unutterable sweet- 
 ness played over his lips, and his hands were 
 outstretched in gentle joy. 
 
 " His hair is growing darker. He will look 
 like you, Clarissa." 
 
 " No, Edward, his cradle shades it. See 
 now, as I turn it to the light, your own sunny 
 brown, and Polly thinks his eyes are blue." 
 
 To this day the point is not settled. ' Frede- 
 rick, who is now a successor in his father's 
 office, has dark eyes when shaded by fatigue or 
 sorrow, but in health and joy they light up with 
 his father's hue. 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Packard's arguments 
 about expanding the chest, and though he was 
 as brave as a lion, and, in the old uniform of 
 " The Ancient and Honourable Artillery," white 
 broadcloth, faced with red, with a gold-laced 
 chapeau bras, he looked as though 
 
 " his eye 
 
 Could create soldiers, and make women fight," 
 G
 
 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 yet was he a mere coward when Frederick 
 opened his infantile battery of screams ; and 
 from this weakness arose the uncomfortable 
 habit of walking with him at night. Even 
 after my husband became Judge Packard, you 
 might have seen his honour at the dead of night, 
 with a half naked baby in his arms, whose whims 
 increased in proportion to their indulgence. For 
 myself, I scarcely knew whether to laugh or 
 weep one night, when, as peeping from my 
 comfortable pillow, I saw the judge dividing 
 the remains of a cold turkey between little Mar- 
 tha, my eldest daughter, and her brother. Fred 
 was then four years old. 
 
 When Frederick ceased to be fretful, he be- 
 came mischievous. By a well-timed slap, I 
 cured him of some daydawn experiments on 
 me ; but his favourite plaything at that hour, so 
 delightful for repose after a disturbed night, was 
 his father's nose ; and when with a groan or 
 remonstrance he turned away, the boy's scream 
 became so tremendous that the nasal toy was 
 restored. 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 75 
 
 Nothing is more helpless than a kind-hearted 
 man with a passionate child. Its very weak- 
 ness is its strength, and though one finger of 
 his masculine hand could terminate its existence, 
 yet the infant's feeblest touch can conquer both 
 body and mind. 
 
 It is not my intention to theorize on the sub- 
 ject of managing children ; I am simply prac- 
 tical. When Frederick was a week old, his 
 father brought home the treatises of Hamilton, 
 West, Edgeworth, &c. on education. I had 
 previously seen him poring over Rousseau and 
 Xenophon. He read them faithfully, and dis- 
 cussed them eloquently, yet not one of these 
 writers could induce him to deny Fred his nose ; 
 therefore, finding them insufficient to establish 
 his authority, and not having much taste for 
 reading, I did not look into these celebrated 
 works, and yet my boy obeyed my words, and 
 even my looks. I found great virtue in a ra- 
 tional, well managed rod. Scolding is every 
 way injurious. It is pouring water into a sieve ;
 
 76 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 your child becomes accustomed to threats, and 
 the passions of both rise with the voice. 
 
 " How did you contrive to be so cool," said 
 a gentleman to a Quaker, " when that rascally 
 porter cheated you ?" His reply is a lesson to 
 parents and housewives. " Friend, I long ago 
 obliged myself not to speak loud, and therefore 
 [ never lose my temper." 
 
 I have seen so many well-regulated families 
 brought up under Solomon's discipline, and 
 sometimes controlled by the mere sight of a 
 switch hung over the mantelpiece, that I am 
 tempted to think he is getting too much out of 
 fashion, and modern theories, with their feather 
 rods, " seem to me like the crackling of thorns 
 under the pot." 
 
 My first sally from my bedroom was to ride ; 
 a common custom in New-England. My babe 
 protested with all his lungs, and well he might, 
 against the preparations of his cumbrous toilet. 
 He instinctively raised his trembling hands to 
 his frilled cap, and when a smart blue satin hat
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 77 
 
 was perched on the top of that, making him by 
 contrast look the colour of a mummy, his indig- 
 nation was beyond all bounds ; and the flannel 
 blanket, enveloping the whole, scarcely smoth- 
 ered his screams. The motion of the chaise 
 fortunately soon lulled him to sleep, and I was 
 enabled to enjoy the repose of nature. 
 
 Every object was as fresh as though it had 
 just sprung into being before my eyes. The 
 beautiful sloping hills of Brooklyn, the spark- 
 ling fulness of Charles river emptying into the 
 bay, the apple orchards filling the senses with 
 gentle colours and odours, the sweet-brier throw- 
 ing out its perfume at the very feet of passen- 
 gers, the barberry bushes, with their delicate 
 yellow blossoms, preludes to the scarlet fruit of 
 autumn, and even the palace-like buildings, 
 placed at almost regular distances along the 
 road from Cambridge to Sweet Auburn, seemed 
 all made for me. I pressed my boy close to 
 my heart, with a gush of gratitude to Him who 
 had thus blessed me. The cares of life had 
 not taken rough hold of Edward or myself, nor
 
 78 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 were we satiated with its pleasures. There was 
 ever a fount of gayety in our hearts, that threw 
 its sprinklings over the deeper shades of parental 
 consciousness, and gave that relish to the 
 ludicrous which is almost always discernible 
 in delicate minds. 
 
 But rides, like all things else, must end. Fred 
 awoke, and began to grow restive beneath the 
 " bonnet of blue." I " shued" him as well as 
 my strength would allow, but his clamour in- 
 creased. Every father and mother, who have 
 ridden through a populous city with a scream- 
 ing child, will know how the perspiration stood 
 on our faces at this awful publicity, and how we 
 imagined that every eye was fixed on us, and 
 every individual condemning the breeding of 
 Master Packard. 
 
 I gave my hopeful baby into Polly's arms on 
 our return, and reconnoitred my establishment 
 below. A good-tempered woman was govern- 
 ing all its various departments. Mrs. Philip- 
 son was one of those who seemed to think the 
 old allowance of a " peck of dirt" to a man was
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 79 
 
 too small, for her practical allowance was a 
 bushel. 
 
 In vain did I seek for my own reflection in 
 the dim looking-glass; a kitchen towel was 
 thrown on the sofa ; Edward, forgetful of all my 
 hints and hopes, " that every thing was in order 
 down stairs," had suffered his slippers, coat, 
 books, &c. to accumulate with utter uncon- 
 sciousness of the effect ; no dusting-cloth had 
 passed, like the wing of a good angel, over the 
 furniture, and a waggish friend had written in 
 plain characters on one of the tables, with his 
 finger, " Mr. B 's compliments."
 
 80 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INTELLIGENCE OFFICE. 
 
 Voyons done, je vousprie ; 
 
 Mettons 1'original aupres de la copie. 
 
 Par ma foi, c'est vous-meme ; 
 
 Jamais peintre ne fit portrait si ressemblant. 
 
 RKGNAUD. 
 
 What charm can sooth her melancholy, 
 What art can wash her guilt away 1 
 
 Vicar ofWakefield. 
 
 MRS. PHILIFSON, the votary of the Penates 
 mentioned in the preceding chapter, had been 
 obtained for me by my mother at the intelli- 
 gence-office. It often startles me when I reflect 
 what unprincipled wretches may be brought 
 into the very heart of our domestic circles, and 
 how the pure minds of our children may be 
 blighted in their very unfolding, by these ne- 
 cessary but vicious instruments. 
 
 Mrs. Philipson was a chubby woman of forty,
 
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 81 
 
 with a scarlet face and scarlet throat laid in fat 
 folds. Her eyes were prominent and whitish. 
 Her round elbows rested upon her hips, from 
 whence her short arms projected, and her hands 
 hung from her wrists with an imbecile air. 
 She spoke softly, and was liberal in promises. 
 Polly, whom my readers may recollect as the 
 little girl of our establishment, was necessarily 
 greatly under the influence of the cook, par- 
 ticularly as she occupied the same room. She 
 was an orphan from the Female Asylum, bound 
 to me until the age of eighteen. She was so 
 docile and innocent, that could I always have 
 sheltered her under my own wing, she would 
 have been pure as a bird, and might have 
 plumed her flight from me to Heaven; but 
 after the birth of Frederick, new affections 
 came to me and new cares to her. I could no 
 longer confine her to the parlour, in her half- 
 s'ized chair, with her calico frock and apron, 
 and her hair simply parted. One morning I 
 discerned a row of ambitious paper-curls on her 
 head ; soon, a soiled muslin frill was pinned round
 
 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 her neck ; and on the following Sabbath, when 
 I was conjecturing what stranger was passing 
 the window stealthily, a second look revealed 
 to me Polly, with a bunch of faded flowers 
 surmounting the simple green riband on her hat, 
 and an old silk dress, which, hanging like a 
 bag about her trim figure, betrayed at once the 
 ungainly circumference of Mrs. Philipson. I 
 called to her to come back. She blushed, and 
 said "the last bell was tolling." 
 
 " Come in, immediately," said I. 
 
 She walked slowly and sulkily back, and I 
 asked her why she wore borrowed clothes ? 
 
 For the first time in her life she looked pertly 
 as she answered, " I don't see why I can't dress 
 as well as other folks." 
 
 I reasoned with her, and used affectionate 
 persuasions, but finding her obstinate, ordered 
 her to take off finery so unsuited to her age 
 and situation. My anger was new to her, and 
 she obeyed. For several days she was sulky 
 and silent ; every action seemed forced, and she 
 looked at me as if I were a tyrant. This ex-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 83 
 
 pression wore off, and I hoped for better things. 
 I would willingly have discharged Mrs. Philip- 
 son, but how could I, with an infant in my 
 arms, my husband's comfort to study, and the 
 fang-like chains of custom clinging to me ? 
 
 Two weeks elapsed in apparent acquiescence 
 to my wishes. My whole soul was absorbed 
 in Frederick, or perhaps I should have noticed 
 the under-current that was hurrying Polly to 
 destruction. To see his intelligent smile awa- 
 kening like young creation, to kiss his rounded 
 limbs as they came flushed like the heart of a 
 white rose from the morning bath, to feel his 
 dimpled hand on my cheek, or press the little 
 velvet luxury in my own, to dress him with 
 maternal pride in robes wrought by the hand of 
 friendship, to sing him lullabies conjured up 
 from the breathings of love, and to whisper to 
 my own heart a thousand and thousand times, 
 "he is an angel" was not this occupation 
 enough for a young mother ? 
 
 I was surprised one morning not to hear the 
 usual movements in the house below, and on
 
 84 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 descending, found the shutters unopened, no 
 fire in the kitchen, and the outer door unlocked. 
 I repaired in some trepidation to the kitchen 
 chamber. It was untenanted. Astonished and 
 agitated, I ran to acquaint Edward, and we 
 proceeded to examine the premises. Polly's 
 reasons for departing were told in language as 
 strong as words, by a bundle of her plain 
 clothes directed to me. 
 
 With what a crash comes the first breach of 
 confidence on the affections, as the circle of 
 agitation is more violent when a stone is thrown 
 on a smooth lake, than on the wilder ocean ! 
 I had loved Polly like a younger sister. She 
 came to me when my cup of happiness was 
 full, and I was glad to see her taste her daily 
 draught with me. She had looked at me with 
 a trustingnessthat seemed to say, "you are my 
 oracle !" She had confided to me her childish 
 sorrows, and was a willing hearer when I talked 
 of Edward. I had administered to her in sick- 
 ness, and when my head ached, if every other 
 step was heavy, hers was light and careful. 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 85 
 
 [ looked round her chamber. There was 
 the little glass hung against the wall, before 
 which she had so often combed her parted 
 hair, and which had recently reflected the first 
 awakened glance of vanity. She had forgotten 
 her Bible, Edward's gift. It was lying on the 
 pine dressing-table, with her pocket-handker- 
 chief folded over it, as if it had been her in- 
 tention to take it, but it was forgotten! I 
 glanced at Edward, and sinking on her bed, 
 burst into violent and bitter tears. Edward 
 comforted me with a husband's better love, but 
 though a neighbour sent us breakfast and as- 
 sistance, and we were at length seated at table, 
 I could not speak ; my voice was choked, and 
 large drops fell from my eyes on Fred's silky 
 hair, as he lay sleeping on my lap. 
 
 My dear mother hastened to me as soon as 
 Edward sent her intelligence of my misfor- 
 tune. She insisted on my returning with her, 
 and passing the remainder of the season ; and 
 as Edward was deeply engaged in business, 
 he urged it too. In- making the necessary ar-
 
 86 RECOLLECTIONS OP 
 
 rangements for my removal, I perceived that 
 several articles of my dress were missing, to- 
 gether with some silver, and my miniature. 
 The sorrowful conviction burst upon me, that 
 Polly, instigated by that human fiend, had 
 robbed me. 
 
 Several months elapsed, and all inquiries for 
 the poor child were unavailing. How gladly 
 would I have taken her back to my protection, 
 and showed her the " better part," for she was 
 young in sin. 
 
 On entering the court-house one day, Ed- 
 ward understood that the suit in which he was 
 engaged would not be brought up immediately, 
 and having some pressing business, he com- 
 menced writing. Quite absorbed, he knew not 
 what was occupying the bar, until he heard a 
 lawyer before him exclaim, 
 
 " By heavens ! it looks like Packard's wife. " 
 
 Edward started, and saw a miniature passing 
 from hand to hand among the gentlemen. He 
 rose to join them, and it came to him in turn. 
 It was my likeness. I may write, for the sake
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER 87 
 
 of ray narrative, what Edward said in his enthu- 
 siasm, for my age of vanity, if I ever possessed 
 any, has departed. A brilliant eye, a rose-tinged 
 cheek, and an airy form, speak only to me now 
 of the Great Architect who made them, and 
 who has beauty for us in reversion that will be 
 as the fine gold to dross. 
 
 " Clarissa," said my husband, " think what 
 must have been my sensations at that moment, 
 when the low jests of some of my brethren, 
 and the unsubdued admiration of others, igno"- 
 rant of my connexion with the picture, fell on 
 my ear. I gave one long glance at their linea- 
 ments to assure me of their identity. There 
 were your dark flashing eyes looking a sweet 
 defiance on that heartless crowd ; there were 
 your ruby lips softening those eyes with 
 smiles ; there were these very curls, nature's 
 handiwork, falling over the polished brow ; 
 there was this white hand, pledged to me in 
 truth and innocence, and those slight fingers, 
 with their one golden circlet, holding back 
 the clustering locks, and glancing among their
 
 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 darkness like breaks of the galaxy between 
 parting clouds. I thrust the miniature next 
 my heart, and held my hands crushed over it 
 as a miser holds a rescued treasure. I was 
 recalled to my recollection by an astonished 
 smile from those around me. A few words 
 to the counsel convinced them of my claim 
 on the picture, and my interest in the dis- 
 closures to be made." 
 
 But Edward soon forgot even me, for sta- 
 tioned at the bar were two female figures fa- 
 miliar to his memory. It was impossible to 
 mistake the vulgar air and face of Mrs. Philip- 
 son. As the various testimony was given in, 
 her eyes rolled in uneasy impudence from side 
 to side, her red hands were clenched in anger, 
 or she gave an hysterical sob, half affectation, 
 half alarm, and raised the corner of her shawl 
 to wipe pretended tears. But a deeper feeling 
 absorbed him when he scrutinized the timid 
 looking figure by her side. Her bonnet, a mix- 
 ture of sorry finery, scarcely hid her face, but 
 it was closely covered with both her hands.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 89 
 
 She looked like one who would gladly have 
 called on the rocks to cover her, and a feeling 
 of shame could be seen in the very bend of her 
 figure as it crouched by the side of the bolder 
 criminal. 
 
 Mrs. Philipson had committed a series of 
 thefts on the individual at whose charge she was 
 summoned, and it was proved but too clearly 
 that her young companion was her accomplice. 
 When Polly was requested to uncover her face, 
 she only pressed her hands upon it more closely. 
 The necessity was explained to her, and she 
 complied. It was pale as death, and care-worn 
 as though age had trampled over it. She gave 
 one frightened glance around, but that glance 
 took in the face of Edward, who was leaning 
 forward with harrowing interest. It was too 
 much for poor Polly. A scream of joy and 
 horror burst from her, and extending her arms 
 towards him, she fell senseless. He came for- 
 ward, and stating his relation to her, begged to 
 be allowed a few moments' conversation with 
 her in presence of counsel. The poor child 
 H 2
 
 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 soon recovered, and shrinking from the baleful 
 touch of her seducer, met Edward's compas- 
 sionate eye, who spake soothingly to her, and 
 she gathered courage. 
 
 " It was first flattery, then fear, that ruined 
 me," she said, in a low voice ; " but I have never 
 loved wickedness. I w r ould have come back to 
 you if I could, but that wicked woman fright- 
 ened me, and gave me vile drinks, and then I 
 did her bidding. I never stole for myself. She 
 gave me these clothes," continued she, earnestly, 
 " they are all I own in the wide world. If it 
 hadn't been for the picture, sir," and she shud- 
 dered as she spoke, " I might have been worse. 
 I hid it where she could not find it, and I knelt 
 down and looked at it when I was afraid to pray to 
 God, and it seemed to strengthen me, and make 
 me bolder in the right. They took it from me, 
 or I would give it to you, sir." Here her voice 
 was very mournful, but looking again terrified, 
 she said, " Do you think they can hang me for 
 this ? I am sure I shall grow good again." 
 
 The trial closed, and Mrs. Philipson was
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 91 
 
 sentenced to the heaviest penalty of the law. 
 Polly's youth and inexperience were mitigating 
 circumstances, and her punishment was almost 
 nominal. 
 
 About twilight on the evening of that day, 
 Edward came home, as I thought, with a 
 stranger. In a moment, Polly was at my feet, 
 asking pardon through gushing tears. Her story 
 was soon told, and I comforted the young peni- 
 tent with Christian promises. 
 
 The next morning she came down with her 
 calico frock and apron, her hair parted again 
 with girlish simplicity, and hid her bashfulness 
 in caresses of my Frederick. 
 
 She has been my tried and faithful friend, 
 through joy and sorrow, for many years ; and is 
 now sitting in her low chair, with a plain, re- 
 spectable looking cap over her hair, which is 
 just revealing the first tread of time, while my 
 grand-daughter Clarissa is roguishly trying on 
 her new spectacles.
 
 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 KITCHEN COURTSHIP. 
 
 his aspect breathed repose, 
 And in sweet torpor he was plunged deep, 
 Ne could himself from ceaseless yawning keep. 
 
 CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 
 
 IT was winter when I returned to housekeep- 
 ing, and installed Lydia, commonly pronounced 
 Lyddy Pierce, as president of the dishcloth. 
 She was of the demure sort, as silent and regu- 
 lar as the stars, past the heyday of youth, and 
 had reached an age which the eagle-eyed house- 
 keeper loves. I had restored Polly to full con- 
 fidence. The sooner you trust in a generous 
 mind after error, the more hold you possess 
 over its returning rectitude, and the more it feels 
 the practicability of virtue. 
 
 One of our visiters was Mr. Stockton, a gen- 
 tleman of broken mercantile fortunes, about 
 thirty-five years of age. He had reserved from
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 93 
 
 his creditors just sufficient for his own support ; 
 but not having much energy of character, stood 
 still at that point, and kept himself alive by 
 calling about once a week to pass an evening 
 with his friends. His ideas were all in a cir- 
 cle, and to us it was a mental tread-mill. We 
 soon learned to distinguish his knock at the door, 
 and what a death-peal was it to our imaginations 
 when, after having put Frederick to bed, I sat 
 sewing and Edward reading, in the luxury of 
 winter evening repose'. We could have tole- 
 rated his visits with cheerful politeness had they 
 been of moderate length ; or had he possessed 
 any conversational powers, we would have lis- 
 tened patiently; but Mr. Stockton seemed to 
 have nothing on earth to say. Why he came 
 to see us, and why he tarried so long, I have 
 never learned to this day. I once heard a father 
 say to a son who was going to college, " Sam- 
 uel, however intimate you may be, never make 
 long visits." This good advice Mr. Stockton 
 either never heard, or disregarded. 
 
 He had been sitting with us one evening five
 
 94 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 hours, having come to sociable tea. A pause in 
 the conversation being unusually long, I looked 
 up from my sewing, and saw Edward asleep. 
 I felt a little fidgety, and took the tongs to mend 
 the fire. Edward stretched forward his legs 
 and called out, " May it please your honour, the 
 plaintiff " I contrived to pass near him, 
 and trod upon his foot. He started and recov- 
 ered, somewhat refreshed, while Mr. Stockton, 
 brightening up with the incident, thought 
 proper to sit an hour longer. 
 
 Another evening (it was the Sabbath), when 
 Edward had taken two or three nods I went 
 into the kitchen, and with a preliminary yawn 
 told Polly that I could keep awake no longer, 
 and bade her come in and collect the silver to 
 carry to my bedroom, and close the parlour shut- 
 ters. " There is some hope," said I, " that Mr. 
 Stockton may observe what you are doing and 
 depart." It was then ten o'clock. Polly bustled 
 about and closed the shutters, and as she passed 
 me I whispered, " Make as much noise as pos- 
 sible."
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 95 
 
 " An excellent plan that," said Mr. Stockton, 
 " to close the shutters ; it keeps in the warm 
 air ;" and he buttoned up his coat, drew his 
 chair nearer the fire, and put his feet on the 
 fender. 
 
 Edward almost groaned, and we sat cogitating 
 until eleven o'clock before Mr. Stockton said, 
 with a hem and a little hitch of his chair, that 
 he "believed it was getting late." Edward and 
 1 were silent. - .,, 
 
 " The evenings are growing long," said he. 
 
 " Very," rejoined Edward and I, in a breath. 
 
 " These are fine nights for sleep, Mr. Pack- 
 ard," said our imperturbable visiter. 
 
 "Very," answered Edward, and I echoed 
 "Very." 
 
 " The fire treads snow,"* said Mr. Stockton, 
 " I think we shall have falling weather." 
 
 Edward rose, unbolted a window, and looking 
 out, said, " Yes, falling weather ;" and bolting 
 the window-shutter again, sat down. 
 
 " I believe I must think of going," said Mr. 
 
 * A phrase for a crackling sound in ignited wood.
 
 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 Stockton. A dead pause. At length, for all 
 late sittings, whether in Congress or parlours, 
 will have an end, our guest departed. 
 
 I usually visited the kitchen before retiring, 
 to observe whether all were safe. For several 
 evenings I found the ashes raked up in a sym- 
 metrical mound, the hearth swept clean, the 
 boiler filled and placed upon the trammels, and 
 the dough in its white trough, with its whiter 
 towel, set at a safe distance to rise. 
 
 After Mr. Stockton's "departure I went as 
 usual to inspect the premises, leaving the par- 
 lour-door open to light the passage. Every thing 
 was quiet, but I fancied that the settle, the back 
 of which was towards me, was too near the fire. 
 In the act of removing it I caught hold of a head 
 of well-greased hair, and heard, though too late, 
 a warning hem ! 
 
 I screamed, and Edward ran with a light. 
 Lyddy and a young man who sat beside her 
 rose in some confusion, but the maiden soon 
 recovered, and said with great composure, 
 
 "I forgot to tell you, ma'am, that I had a
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 97 
 
 spark. This is Nathan Osgood, Mr. Hill the 
 tailor's 'prentice, a very reputable person." 
 
 I apologized in my turn, and left Mr. Osgood 
 to " smooth his raven darkness." 
 
 There is a tacit agreement in New-England, 
 allowing this midnight intercourse in the best 
 regulated families ; families who would raise 
 their hands and eyes at every breach of de- 
 corum ; I therefore retired, and left Nathan 
 and Lyddy in undisturbed possession of the 
 settle. 
 
 It so chanced, that Lyddy having as little to 
 say in the kitchen as Mr. Stockton in the par- 
 lour, the happy couple fell asleep. In the mean 
 time the elements, which pay regard neither to 
 Leanders nor Nathans, were brewing a quiet but 
 potent snow-storm. They formed a regular and 
 sure barricade of snow-flakes through the silent 
 hours of night; a drifting wind bore them 
 against our doors and windows, and settling into 
 a biting northeaster cemented them there ; and 
 when Nathan, stiff from his sitting posture and 
 chilled with cold, awoke at the mechanic's early
 
 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 hour, he found himself imprisoned by these Al- 
 pine banks. 
 
 He awoke Lyddy, and called a council of 
 love. The snow-banks reached to the second 
 story over the kitchen. He might have gone 
 out at the front door, but was he a man to leave . 
 his Lyddy struggling with the powers of frost ? 
 Not he. With shovel in hand he commenced 
 operations, and in an hour she was able to fol- 
 low him with a broom, sweeping away the lighter 
 particles, under an arch of snow, to the wood- 
 house ; and in half an hour more he cleared his 
 way to the street, claimed a lover's reward, went 
 home, mounted his week-day clothes, and for 
 six days was as faithful a tailor as he had been 
 lover on the seventh. 
 
 I arose at eight, and found snow-patches in 
 every crevice of my windows, a tracery of frost- 
 work on the panes of glass, and the water in 
 the ewer a mass of ice. With chattering teeth 
 and purple fingers I descended to the parlour. 
 It was in perfect order ; a cheerful fire blazed 
 on the hearth, and Edward's boots, polished to
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 99 
 
 the highest, were warming by the fender. The 
 scene in the kitchen was equally auspicious. 
 Lyddy, with as grave a look as though she had 
 never felt la belle passion, stood at the wash-tub 
 (in which she had made far advances), watching 
 the baking cakes. Polly had Fred between her 
 knees, wrapped up in a flannel gown, his scorched 
 face looking like a full moon. She was dex- 
 terously keeping her sewing from his mischie- 
 vous grasp, and persevering in spite of him in 
 her industry. What could rival the comfort of 
 such a home, when, to complete the luxury, 
 Polly with her smiling face brought to the break- 
 fast-table the hot coffee, which, as the poet 
 sings of something else, was 
 
 " deep, yet clear, 
 
 Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full." 
 
 And all this with the thermometer below zero ! 
 I have not yet mentioned that Lyddy was ex- 
 cessively deaf. Polly used to say " she was as 
 deaf as a haddock." I have sometimes specu- 
 lated about this New-England phrase, but have
 
 100 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 not been able to trace its origin, and I do not find 
 that naturalists refer to any peculiar organiza- 
 tion of the species which authorizes it. 
 
 It was not the fault of my lungs if our neigh- 
 bours did not know the items of our daily food. 
 I often forgot that others were not deaf, and 
 caught Edward smiling at my trumpet-tongued 
 style. One day in particular, when a stranger 
 was dining with us, I had been unusually occu- 
 pied in preparing for dinner in the kitchen, and 
 had pitched my voice very high. Quite uncon- 
 sciously I turned to our guest, and his polite- 
 ness could scarcely prevent his starting when 
 I screamed, " Allow me to give you a piece of 
 ham, sir." 
 
 " Clarissa," said Mr. Packard, greatly amused, 
 " Mr. Stevens is not deaf." 
 
 I was sadly disconcerted, and it was some 
 time before our courteous visiter could bow and 
 smile me into self-possession. 
 
 One of the accidents which Lyddy's infirmity 
 caused was particularly provoking, and oc- 
 curred in the following manner at a fruit-party,
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 101 
 
 given by us to some New-Yorkers, who brought 
 us letters. I made unusual efforts to procure 
 fresh cream, and had succeeded so well, that 
 dishes with ladles stood at the head, foot, and 
 centre of the table ; enough indeed for a house- 
 keeper's measure, which is, to make every one 
 help freely, without looking round to see how far 
 a thing will go. My sensitiveness was perfectly 
 satisfied with the display, as I saw the thick 
 white volumes poured over the rich red raspber- 
 ries and strawberries, but as quickly I detected 
 a change in my guests ; here a half look of 
 disgust, there a glance of concern, in one quar- 
 ter unusual eloquence, in another unusual taci- 
 turnity. Every one knows that the lady of the 
 house is the last person to taste at table of her 
 own delicacies, and so confident was I in the 
 perfection of the cream, that I would have volun- 
 teered to stand in Hebe's place with it, as cup- 
 bearer to the gods. Edward's turn came before 
 mine. " Bless my soul, my dear," said he, with 
 a wry face, " what is the matter with the cream ?"
 
 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 I dipped my spoon in the compound which 
 has furnished the poet with so exquisite an 
 illustration of beauty, 
 
 " Her lips looked like strawberries smothered in cream." 
 
 and 
 
 " When fondly thinking to allay 
 My appetite with gust, instead of fruit 
 Chewed bitter ashes, which th' offended taste 
 With spattering noise rejected." 
 
 Or, to be less Miltonian, I tasted, and would wil- 
 lingly have thrown from my mouth a nauseous 
 mixture of salted cream. 
 
 Lyddy, who, as is not unfrequently the case, 
 had doffed her cook's habit and acted as wait- 
 ing-woman, perceived, in helpless ignorance of 
 wrong, the consternation that prevailed. I had 
 tact enough to know that to question her would 
 be worse than useless ; but Edward, forgetting 
 her deafness, asked her, as she stood near him, 
 " what was the matter with the cream ?" 
 
 " Very sweet and fresh, sir," said she, in the
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 103 
 
 guttural tone peculiar to very deaf people ; " kept 
 down the cellar all the forenoon." 
 
 This malapropos answer came in very well, 
 and turned mortification to mirth, which was 
 increased when Edward said, in a louder tone, 
 
 " But, Lyddy, what have you done to the 
 cream ?" and she answered, 
 
 " Yes, sir, very fresh ; Miss Hatch was spoke 
 to aforehand for the best, and I thought I would 
 salt it topresarve it, as Miss Packard tell'd me." 
 
 This grave answer let loose the flood-gates 
 of wit und laughter, and we finished our dessert 
 with attic salt, as a substitute for poor Lyddy's 
 mistaken mixture. 
 
 But while I thus detail circumstances which, 
 if taken by the housekeeper in a right spirit, 
 produce at worst but a passing shade over the 
 brightness of her regime, let me stop a moment 
 to pay a tribute to Lydia's unpretending virtws. 
 Happy shall we be if, like her, we only mistake 
 our duty. Through her long days of toil, her 
 onward course was calm and steady, unruffled 
 by passion, studious to please, contemplative
 
 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 and prayerful. Her study was to serve God 
 and her fellow-creatures. Peace to thy mem- 
 ory, my humble friend ! When the lords of this 
 world are summoned to the test of a high tribu- 
 nal, will they not envy thee ? 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 105 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HELPLESS BRIDE. 
 
 For the maist thrifty man could never get 
 A well-stored room, unless his wife wad let. 
 
 Gentle Shepherd. 
 
 In short, 'twas his fate, sir, 
 To eat mutton cold. 
 
 Goldsmith's Retaliation. 
 
 A LETTER which I have recently received 
 seems so appropriate to my recollections, that 1 
 hope I shall be excused for presenting it in these 
 details. Its writer, Emily Lawrence, seemed 
 never made for a coarser implement than a No. 
 12 needle. Before her marriage she breathed 
 the very atmosphere of indulgence, the acqui- 
 sition of various accomplishments being the 
 only discipline she was called to endure. Her 
 hands were white and soft as infancy, her step 
 untroubled and elastic, her spirits joyous and 
 gentle, her smile delicate as moonlight ; she was
 
 106 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 a sweet creature, and her friends loved to lift 
 her along the road of life without her touching 
 the earth. Her experiences after her marriage 
 will be best illustrated by her letter. 
 
 "QuiNCY, Mass. Aug. 9th, 18 . 
 " My Dear Friend, 
 
 " I have been for some time intending to write 
 to you, as I promised at parting, to give you a 
 description of our establishment, and the beau- 
 tiful scenery about this delightful region. I 
 have but little excuse for my delay, and will 
 make amends by a long letter. 
 
 " You recollect that when I left my dear ma- 
 ternal home, my mother provided me with 
 excellent domestics, and every thing useful 
 and elegant suited to our large fortune. In- 
 deed there seemed no deficiency throughout 
 the whole establishment, and she departed for 
 England, happy in the belief that the care and 
 expense bestowed on my education had been 
 attended with complete success ; that I was fit- 
 ted to adorn the fortune I inherited, and to pre-
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 107 
 
 side over a family with grace and dignity. 
 Alas ! she had only seen me in my drawing- 
 room, surrounded with taste and elegance, beau- 
 tifully dressed, with an admiring husband who 
 studied every wish. But, my dear friend, I 
 soon found myself involved in perplexities. Oh 
 how I wished you were here to enlighten me 
 by your experience ! 
 
 " The domestics I brought with me from Bos- 
 ton soon began to grow dissatisfied with the 
 monotony of a country life, and to feel the want 
 of those social pleasures to which all human 
 beings aspire. My cook, an excellent woman, 
 pined for her own minister. She had been a 
 very respectable member of the Congregational 
 church in her native town, and feeling the 
 want of those respectful attentions to which 
 she had been accustomed on the Sabbath, it 
 was always a melancholy day to her. In vain 
 I took her in our comfortable coach to the 
 Episcopal church, which was under the espe- 
 cial patronage of my husband, and seated her
 
 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 in a respectable pew ; she said " she did not 
 like to hear prayers i~ead, she wished to hear 
 the minister pray from his heart, as she had 
 been accustomed to hear." 
 
 " My chamber-maid Amanda, who was some- 
 thing of a coquette, and very fond of dress, 
 complained that she " might as well be shut up 
 in a prison;' to be sure the house was well 
 enough, and her wages were high, and she 
 hadn't much to do, and got presents from the 
 visiters, but what did all that signify if she was 
 to be moped up in a great castle of a place, 
 with nobody to speak to ? Besides, she didn't 
 like the prospect from the kitchen winders, and 
 Mr. Lawrence had not given her a rocking- 
 chair she had always been used to a rocking- 
 chair in kitchens." 
 
 " My own little waiting-maid, who knew no- 
 thing but how to dress me, and whose whole 
 happiness consisted inmaking me look beautiful, 
 was, except the coachman, the only contented 
 one in the establishment; her happiness was
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 109 
 
 complete when my dear Henry came into my 
 dressing-room, admired my charms, and the 
 taste with which Jane had adorned them. 
 
 " Complaints daily increased, although Mr. 
 Lawrence cut down a fine tree to open the 
 view from the kitchen, and provided a rocking- 
 chair for Amanda ; and she soon left me, be- 
 cause, when a smart young gardener in our 
 employ wished to stay with her, I would not 
 allow them a separate room from the kitchen to 
 court in. 
 
 " My footman was equally discontented ; he 
 was tired of a subordinate situation, and having 
 accumulated a considerable amount in the Sa- 
 vings Bank, decided to go back to the city and 
 set up in trade ; and this decision seemed ac- 
 celerated by Mr. Lawrence offering him a sec- 
 ond-hand hat, upon which he took up his own 
 and departed. 
 
 " Our cook/ who was a woman of principle, 
 gave us formal notice of her intention to go 
 away, and really seemed to feel for my situa- 
 tion ; but she said her conscience wouldn't let
 
 . 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 her stay. She remained, however, until we 
 were accommodated with such domestics as 
 the country afforded. 
 
 " The mistakes which occurred the first few 
 days after her departure we ascribed to acci- 
 dent, and, as we were without company, they 
 rather amused us. The waiting-man John, or 
 his first debut, placed the dinner service on the 
 table, putting a small dish of vegetables at. the 
 head, a piece of roast beef at one corner, and 
 deliberately moving the pickles in front of my 
 carver. I followed him, and gave him direc- 
 tions, to which he paid very respectful atten- 
 tion. As we seated ourselves, he took up a 
 newspaper and sat down by the window to 
 read. Mr. Lawrence was exceedingly annoyed, 
 because he could not instantly decide whether 
 he was impudent as well as ignorant. After 
 some embarrassment he said, 
 
 " ' Young man, it is not customary for a per- 
 son employed to wait at table to sit down.' 
 
 " John started up with great alacrity, and said t 
 ' Oh, isn't it ? Well, I'd as lief stand, I ain't
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. Ill 
 
 the least grain tired. You havn't a power of 
 work for a hired man to do.' 
 
 " We felt some comfort in the idea that we 
 had only ignorance to contend with, though that 
 was bad enough, considering our inexperience. 
 Henry very good-naturedly instructed him in 
 his business, and although it seemed very 
 strange to him that two persons should require 
 a third to stand and watch them while they 
 were eating, yet finding the work easy and 
 profitable, he soon acquitted himself to our 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " As we lived at some distance from town, I 
 was frequently without the common necessaries 
 for cooking, from my total ignorance of what 
 ought to be furnished beforehand. My new 
 cook, though perfectly obliging, knew nothing 
 of her business, and it was deplorable to see 
 her serve up a dinner. It happened, perhaps 
 unfortunately, that we had no company for sev- 
 eral weeks, and Henry and myself were too 
 much engrossed with each other to observe the 
 gradual decline of good order which had taken
 
 112 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 place since the departure of our city help ; but 
 we were at length aroused by a letter from 
 Henry's uncle and former guardian, announ- 
 cing that as we had been at housekeeping long 
 enough to have every thing in fine order, he 
 would pay us a visit. We were delighted at 
 the prospect of seeing him, and it did not oc- 
 cur to us immediately that he was very par- 
 ticular, and our domestics very ignorant. 
 
 " When he arrived I felt some anxiety that he 
 should have a comfortable dinner, and went into 
 the kitchen for the first time to consult with the 
 cook. I confess, with all my inexperience, I 
 felt shocked and alarmed at the dirt with which 
 I was surrounded, and at the singular appropri- 
 ations of the various articles of kitchen furni- 
 ture. One of the best tin pans was on the 
 hearth, full of ashes ; a fine damask towtl had 
 been used to wipe the dishes ; the oil-can and 
 rags stood in a chair ; and a pair of Henry's 
 good boots were thrust under the sink with 
 some iron pots, in which were the accumulated 
 skimmings of weeks.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 113 
 
 " I found that the butcher had left a leg of veal, 
 and nothing else ; but recollecting that my uncle 
 was very fond of stuffed veal, I told the cook 
 to stuff and roast it. She asked if I had any 
 sweet herbs. I told her that I believed the 
 herbs in the kitchen were used, but that my 
 mother had put me up several paper bags of 
 sage, catnip, &c., which I supposed would do 
 as well, and ordered her to put in a plenty, as 
 my uncle liked his food high-seasoned, 
 
 " My husband invited two neighbouring gen- 
 tlemen to take a family dinner. When the veal 
 was carved and tasted, I leave it to your imagi- 
 nation to conceive of my distress and Henry's 
 mortification, on finding that our only dish 
 was ruined. A half-picked ham-bone was 
 summoned from the store-room, on which our 
 guests satisfied the cravings of appetite. 
 
 " The following day we made more elaborate 
 preparations, and Mr. Lawrence asked me, in 
 the most gentle manner, just to look into the 
 kitchen and see that every thing was going on 
 right. Being sincerely desirous to please my 
 K2
 
 114 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 dear husband and discharge my duty, I deter- 
 mined to spend the morning in the kitchen. 
 But there I was in everybody's way, and only 
 worried by trying to hurry my unskilful do- 
 mestics ; indeed, I was wholly incompetent 
 even to advise them. 
 
 " I began to feel some trepidation as the din- 
 ner-hour approached ; and when I saw the hete- 
 rogeneous mass on the table, in a style so 
 different from our former elegant dinners, I 
 had scarcely courage to take my seat. My 
 uncle sat next to me, and offered to carve a 
 pair of roasted chickens. When he cut off the 
 wing, out dropped from the crop (as I have 
 since heard it is called) corn, and beans, and 
 grass, just as they had been eaten by the fowl. 
 I perceived by his countenance that some- 
 thing was wrong, but he adroitly concealed the 
 unsightly objects from our visiters, and refrained 
 from making any remark. 
 
 " When our guests departed, he took me aside, 
 and said, 
 
 " ' My dear child, you had materials enough
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 115 
 
 on your table for twenty persons, but your cook- 
 ery is deplorably deficient. Your mother neg- 
 lected a very important part of your educa- 
 tion. You will spend your fortune to very lit- 
 tle purpose if, amid the abundance with which 
 you are surrounded, you cannot procure a well- 
 cooked dinner.' 
 
 ' I felt at that moment as if I would have 
 given up all my French, German, and every 
 accomplishment, in exchange for the knowledge 
 which would make me a good housekeeper. 
 Every young married woman who is ignorant 
 of her duties will meet mortifications at every 
 step ; an elegant establishment, an ample for- 
 tune, and even a devoted husband, will not 
 secure her happiness. 
 
 " You may suppose that my nerves became 
 considerably excited ; indeed, I could not al- 
 ways control my feelings during my uncle's 
 visit. The day before his departure Henry 
 again had company, and had been at some pains 
 to procure a brace of partridges for dinner. 
 They looked very well, for I studied a cook-
 
 116 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 book that morning, but when my husband cut 
 them, they were nearly raw ; he gave a glance 
 at me, I burst into tears, and was so much agi- 
 tated that I was obliged to quit the table. He 
 followed, and said every thing he could to con- 
 sole me, but utterly unable to command my- 
 self, I begged him to carry my apology to his 
 guests, and I sobbed away the afternoon. 
 
 " My uncle has promised to look out for an 
 experienced housekeeper for me, and I have 
 engaged to take lessons of her, so that when 
 he comes again I can show him my own 
 cookery. I told him I should be more proud 
 of serving up a well-dressed turkey for him, 
 with all the accompaniments in good order, 
 than in performing the most difficult piece of 
 music. Both he and Henry smiled encour- 
 agingly on me, and said that with such a dis- 
 position to do right I could not fail of suc- 
 ceeding. But how much better would it have 
 been to have been taught these things under the 
 eye of a mother ! My husband is very social 
 in his disposition, and frequently brings home
 
 A. HOUSEKEEPER. 117 
 
 guests unexpectedly, and I often see his brow 
 clouded and his temper disturbed by the total 
 ignorance of his wife. Not that he complains, 
 for he knows how desirous I am to please him 
 ever to say a word to wound my feelings, but I 
 can perceive that he is anxious, and instead of 
 feeling light-hearted with his guests, is dread- 
 ing blunders which will make me ridiculous. 
 
 " And now, my dear and respected friend, let 
 me ask you to come, and counsel and teach me. 
 I find that wealth cannot produce order and 
 comfort, and I long for your example and advice 
 in the absence of my mother. 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 
 " EMILY LAWRENCE."
 
 118 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A STRUGGLE FOR POWER. 
 
 " He reprimands, by glancing with his eye 
 And she inflicts her soft reproach a sigh. 
 That's all and that's enough for man and wife ; 
 Did you expect an Iliad of strife 1 
 Why need invective to make error smart, 
 When looks and signs as deeply touch the heart 1" 
 
 THREE years passed quietly away before 
 Lyddy gave her hand in marriage to Nathan 
 Osgood. Notwithstanding her attention to the 
 duties of my family, Lyddy made two quilts of 
 marvellous beauty. One was in hexagon pieces, 
 each the size of a dollar. The other displayed 
 in the centre a tree, on which were birds 
 larger than the limbs thereof, while each corner 
 contained what I was glad to be informed was 
 a shepherd with his flock. To accomplish these 
 chefs cPwuvre I had seen several yards of good 
 chints destroyed ; but, as the gentlemen say, de 
 gustibus non est disputandum.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 119 
 
 Lyddy's successor, Hannah Sanders' first re- 
 quest on becoming my help was, that she might 
 attend night-meetings. I readily agreed to this 
 thinking that she was attached to some church, 
 and would be more conscientious from her re- 
 ligious profession ; but she proved to be the mere 
 child of excitement. She attended every de- 
 nomination, was out every evening. The toll- 
 ing of a bell unhinged all her faculties. When 
 I said to her, " Hannah, I should like to have 
 you reflect one evening on what you have heard 
 the evening before," she answered, " Oh, Mm 
 Packard, you don't know any thing about it. 
 When I am at meeting I feel like a gill cup 
 
 running over." 
 
 ^ . 
 But I must not omit to introduce at this 
 
 period a department of my establishment 
 which, though humble in itself, wrought im- 
 portant effects on my after happiness. 
 
 I carried with me from my mother's house a 
 cat, which was so beautiful that I named her 
 Fairy, in honour of the damsel who was changed 
 to Grimalkin in the old romance. If I had a
 
 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 prejudice, it was in favour of cats and against 
 dogs ; this was unfortunate, for soon after my 
 marriage I was introduced to a mastiff of Ed- 
 ward's nearly as large as myself. I had often 
 heard him speak of this dog, and praise the 
 faithfulness with which he guarded the office. 
 I was too busy in other interests to think much 
 of Growler for some time. I only observed, 
 that on his occasional visits (for the office 
 was his head-quarters), Fairy's back lose indig- 
 nantly, and I felt mine disposed to mount too. 
 At length, Growler finding the house so. com- 
 fortable, came home at night with his master, 
 and daringly laid his unwieldy form on the 
 centre of the hearth-rug, while Fairy, routed 
 from her luxurious station, stood upon her dig- 
 nity, hissing and sputtering in one corner. 
 
 For a long period a single look from me 
 would make Edward banish Growler from the 
 room ; but a present of a new office-dog from a 
 friend completely established him at home, and 
 my husband became accustomed to my look 
 and Growler's presence. "When he grew in- 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 121 
 
 different, my ire was roused. I affirmed, that 
 of all created things dogs were the dirtiest, 
 that the house was filled with fleas, that my 
 visiters never could approach the fire, that 
 Growler ate us out of house and home, and if 
 he was to be indulged in tracking the Wilton 
 carpet and painted floors, we had better live in 
 a wigwam. 
 
 Edward sometimes gently excused his dog, 
 sometimes defended him, and always turned 
 him out of doors. The animal, knowing he 
 had an enemy in the cabinet, would sneak in 
 with a coward look, his tail between his legs, 
 but invariably succeeded in ensconcing him- 
 self on Fairy's rightful domain. 
 
 At length I became quite nervous about him. 
 It seemed to me that he haunted me like a 
 ghost. I was even jealous of Edward's caresses 
 to him, and looked and spoke as no good wife 
 should look or speak to her husband. 
 
 It is from permitting such trifles to gain the 
 ascendency over the mind that most connubial 
 discord proceeds. We dwell on some little
 
 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 peculiarity in manner or taste opposed to our 
 own, and jar the rich harp of domestic happi- 
 ness until, one by one, every string is broken. 
 I might have gone on in this foolish ingenuity 
 in unhappiness, and perhaps have been among 
 those whose matrimonial bands are chains, not 
 garlands, had I not, when reading one Sabbath 
 morning the fifth chapter of Ephesians, been 
 struck with a sudden sense of my duty, as I 
 jnet the words " and the wife see that she rever- 
 ence her husband." 
 
 Oh, young and lovely bride, watch well 
 the first moments when your will conflicts with 
 his to whom God and society have given the 
 control. Reverence his wishes even when you 
 do not his opinions. Opportunities enough will 
 arise for the expression of your independence, 
 to which he will gladly accede, without a contest 
 for trifles. The beautiful independence that soars 
 over and conquers an irritable temper is higher 
 than any other. So surely as you believe 
 faults of temper are beneath prayer and self- 
 examination, you are on dangerous ground ; a
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 123 
 
 fountain will spring up on your household 
 hearth, of bitter and troubled waters. 
 
 When this conviction came over me I threw 
 myself on my knees, and prayed to God for a 
 gentle, submissive temper. After long and 
 earnest inquiry into my own heart, I left my 
 chamber calm and happy. Edward was read- 
 ing, and Growler stood beside him. I ap- 
 proached them softly, and patting the dog's 
 head, said, " So, Growler, helping your master 
 to read ?" Edward looked at me inquiringly. 
 I am sure my whole expression of face was 
 changed; he drew me to him in silence, and 
 gave me a token of regard he never bestowed 
 on Growler. From that moment, though I 
 might wince a little at his inroads on my neat 
 housekeeping, I never gave the dog an angry 
 word, and I taught Fairy to regard him as one 
 of the lords of the creation. 
 
 Growler's intelligence was remarkable, al- 
 though it did not equal that of Sir Walter 
 Scott's bull-dog terrier, Camp, who could per- 
 ceive the meaning of words, and who under-
 
 124 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 stood an allusion to an offence he had commit- 
 ted against the baker, for which he had been 
 punished. In whatever voice and tone it was 
 mentioned, he would get up and retire into the 
 darkest part of the room with an air of dis- 
 tress. But if you said, " The baker was not 
 hurt after all," Camp came forth from his 
 hiding-place, capered, barked, and rejoiced. 
 Growler, however, had many of those proper- 
 ties of observation which raise the canine race 
 so high in the affections of man. 
 
 When Edward made his forenoon sortie from 
 the office to look at his sleeping boy, Growler 
 always accompanied him, and rested his fore- 
 paws on the head of the cradle. As the babe 
 grew older, he loved to try experiments upon 
 the dog's sagacity and the child's courage. 
 
 Sometimes Fred was put into a basket, and 
 Growler drew him carefully about the room 
 with a string between his teeth ; as the boy ad- 
 vanced in strength, he was seated on the dog's 
 back with a whip in his hand. When my 
 attachment to Growler increased, new experi- 

 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 125 
 
 ments were made, particularly after the birth 
 of Martha. She was an exquisite little infant, 
 and it seemed to us that the dog was more 
 gentle and tender in his movements with her 
 than with Frederick. When two months old, 
 Edward sometimes arranged a shawl carefully 
 about her, tied it strongly, and putting the knot 
 between the dog's teeth, sent her across the 
 room to me. No mother ever carried a child 
 more skilfully. Of course all these associa- 
 tions attached him to the infant, and after a 
 while he deserted the rug, where Fairy again 
 established herself, and laid himself down to 
 sleep by the infant's cradle. 
 
 There is nothing more picturesque than the 
 image of an infant and a large dog. Every 
 one has felt it. The little plump hand looks 
 smaller and whiter in his rough hair, and the 
 round dimpled cheek rests on his shaggy coat 
 like a flower on a rock. 
 
 Edward and I and Frederick rode one af- 
 ternoon to Roxbury to take tea with a friend. 
 Our woman in the kitchen wished to pass the 
 L2
 
 126 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 night with a sick person after the evening lec- 
 ture, and I felt no hesitation in leaving Martha 
 to Polly's care. We were prevented, by an ac- 
 cidental delay, from returning until ten o'clock. 
 The ride over the neck, although it was fine 
 sleighing, appeared uncommonly long, for I had 
 never been so far and so long from my iiifant. 
 The wind was sharp and frosty, but my atten- 
 tion was beguiled by sheltering Frederick with 
 my furs, who soon fell asleep, singing his own 
 little lullaby. As we entered the Square we 
 perceived that the neighbouring houses were 
 closed for the night, and no light visible, but 
 a universal brilliancy through the crevices of 
 our parlour-shutters. Our hearts misgave us. 
 I uttered an involuntary cry, and Edward said, 
 that " a common fire-light could not produce 
 such an effect." He urged his horse, we 
 reached the house, I sprang from the sleigh to 
 the door. It was fastened. We knocked with 
 violence. There was no answer. We looked 
 through a small aperture, and both screamed in 
 agony " fire !" In vain Edward attempted to
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 127 
 
 wrench the bolt or burst the door, that horrible 
 light still gleaming on us. We flew to the 
 side-door, and I then recollected that a window 
 was usually left open in that quarter, in a room 
 which communicated with the parlour, for the 
 smoke to escape when the wind prevailed in 
 the quarter it had done this day. The window 
 was open, and as Edward threw down logs 
 that we might reach it, we heard a stifled howl. 
 We mounted the logs, and could just raise our 
 heads to the window. Oh, heavens ! what were 
 our emotions, as we saw Growler with his fore- 
 paws stationed on the window, holding Martha 
 safely with her night-dress between his teeth, 
 ready to spring at the last extremity, and sus- 
 pending the little cherub so carefully that she 
 thought it but one of his customary gambols ! 
 With a little effort Edward reached the child, 
 and Growler, springing to the ground, fawned 
 and grovelled at our feet. 
 
 Edward alarmed the neighbourhood and en- 
 tered the window. Poor Polly had fainted in 
 the entry from the close atmosphere and ex-
 
 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 cess of terror. She could give no account of 
 the origin of the fire, unless she had dropped a 
 spark on the window-curtain. The moment a 
 blaze appeared she endeavoured to extinguish it ; 
 " but," said she, " the flames ran like wild-fire ; 
 and when I found I could do nothing, I snatched 
 Martha from the cradle, and ran into the entry 
 to go out by the back door ; after that I recol- 
 lect nothing." 
 
 With prodigious efforts the house was saved, 
 though with a great loss of furniture. But 
 what were pecuniary losses that night to us ? 
 We were sheltered by a hospitable neighbour ; 
 our little cherub was clasped in our arms, amid 
 smiles and tears ; and Growler, our good Grow- 
 ler, with a whimpering dream, lay sleeping at 
 our feet.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FACTS AND REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Mistress of herself, though china fall. 
 
 POPI. 
 
 But see, the well-plum'd hearse comes nodding on. 
 BLAIR'S GRAVE. 
 
 EVERY housekeeper has experienced what is 
 called a " breaking season," when the centre of 
 gravitation seems shaken, as far as crockery is 
 concerned. Such an era followed the departure 
 of Hannah Sanders, who left me to reside with 
 a minister's lady. 
 
 I will offer no excuse- for this subject, since it 
 forms the point of discussion for half my sex in 
 their select circles, and constitutes, in some mea- 
 sure, the conversational boundary line between 
 men and women. True to my character of 
 housekeeper, let me proceed. 
 
 Compassion and interest induced me to offer 
 the situation of cook to a Mrs. Sliter, whose hus-
 
 
 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 band had recently died in the neighbourhood. 
 She was one of those persons who may look de- 
 cently in new crape, but who generally, with a 
 great display of pins on their waist and sleeves, 
 put them nowhere else ; or who apply them as 
 if totally ignorant of the " fitness" of dress, as 
 well as of things. I took her as a forlorn hope 
 one of those experiments that New-England 
 ladies are so constantly obliged to make of the 
 morals and dispositions of strangers. Edward 
 was detained late at court the day on which she 
 came, and I ordered some hashed lamb and 
 roasted potatoes for his supper. Mrs. Sliter, with 
 the hash in one hand and the hot potatoes in the 
 other, issued from the kitchen, but unfortunately 
 turned towards the cellar instead of the parlour 
 passage. We were startled by a sudden noise, 
 and hastened to the kitchen ; but neither cook 
 nor viands were there, and we heard a stifled 
 voice from the cellar, crying, " Marcy me, marcy 
 me !" Following the sound, and descending the 
 stairs, we found Mrs. Sliter lying at the foot, 
 who with her meat and potatoes had rolled down
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 131 
 
 into the ash-heap, and, in attempting to rise, 
 pulled over a barrel of soft soap. 
 
 It is difficult to describe her appearance as 
 she arose from this alkaline immersion. The 
 soap trickled from the deep frill of her widow's 
 cap in streams over her cheeks, and commin- 
 gling with the ashes, left scarcely a trace of th* 
 " human face divine ;" and what added to the 
 grotesqueness of the scene was her holding up 
 the mutton dish unharmed. How this was ac- 
 complished in her necessary gyrations down a 
 deep flight of stairs, we never could comprehend. 
 Her complaints were eloquent enough, min- 
 gled with some irritability at our ill-restrained 
 laughter. 
 
 In arranging the bed-rooms the following 
 morning she broke a toilet-glass, and was in 
 still deeper consternation. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Packard," she cried, " there will 
 sartainly be a death in the family. It was only 
 two months ago, poor Mr. Sliter that's dead and 
 gone broke his shaving-glass, and you see what's 
 come on't. I'm left, as it were, a poor lone 
 
 ''
 
 132 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 vider, without a partner ; and it was but a year 
 ago that my neighbour, Miss Stone, that keeps 
 the wittle (victual) house, broke her parlour- 
 glass, and that same day, as she was chawing 
 some fish, a bone choked her, and she was as 
 good as dead for an hour." 
 
 To verify Mrs. Sliter's prediction, Polly, a 
 month from the date of the broken toilet-glass, 
 heard of the death of a great-uncle whom she 
 had never seen, and Mrs. Sliter went about the 
 house with a self-congratulatory cackle at the 
 birth of the disaster. To me, however, the pre- 
 diction of trouble, if not of death, seemed real- 
 ized. Piece after piece of my dinner set (a 
 rare and beautiful style at the time, white ground 
 with a rose-coloured vine on the edge), came 
 tinkling on my ears with a sound that a house- 
 wife can detect from afar. 
 
 I early obliged myself not to stir on such oc- 
 casions. If one can sit still a few moments, 
 quietly lay down a book, or fold up one's work, 
 or knit to the middle of one's needle, there is 
 a favourable prospect of keeping the temper
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 133 
 
 smooth ; but as surely as you start up with 
 " there, now," your feminine dignity is gone. I 
 had a friend who once conquered an irritable 
 temper by obliging herself to count twenty 
 when under sudden excitement. 
 
 Mrs. Sliter's next feat was to lose the balance 
 of the breakfast tray, and deposite the whole ap- 
 paratus on the floor. Every housekeeper will 
 give me their sympathy when I describe to them 
 my sugar-bowl without a cover, my cream-pot 
 without a handle, my coffee-pot indented at the 
 side, and an unmatching slop-bowl called in from 
 the kitchen to complete the muster-roll. 
 
 An honest, open breakage, one can bear with 
 a tolerable grace, but it is hard to be the subjej 
 of duplicity as well as carelessness. Mrs. Sliter's 
 favourite practice was to conceal the results of 
 her organ of destructiveness, until they were 
 discovered in some nook or corner, in the form 
 of irregular triangles of glass or china. Frede- 
 rick, who was as great a collector of old china, 
 in his way, as Monkbarns, discovered, in Mrs. 
 Sliter's short but emphatic reign, treasure upon 
 
 M
 
 134 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 treasure; and his broken dishes, as he called 
 the pieces of crockery, were gathered up from 
 the cellar, the ash-heap, the wood-house, and 
 every other spot where his busy little feet resort- 
 ed for what is miscalled mischief. At length, 
 one day, he brought in a sample to his grandmo- 
 ther, who was visiting us. The moment she 
 saw it she detected the cup, the very teacup 
 from which Dr. Franklin had once drunk. It 
 had been a family boast, and she had given it 
 to me at my earnest solicitation. My mother 
 was really affected ; she took Frederick in her 
 arms, and told him the story of the cup ; how 
 Benjamin Franklin sat and talked with her pa- 
 rents as he sipped his tea; how her mother 
 whispered to her that he was a great man ; 
 how she took the cup from his hand, and said, 
 " No one shall use this again." 
 
 We were all silent as she sat polishing the 
 fragment with her pocket-handkerchief, and even 
 the boy laid it aside carefully: 
 
 To heighten my troubles at this period, I 
 found the contents of my decanters sensibly
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 135 
 
 lowered, and perceived that Mrs. Sliter was fre- 
 quently intoxicated. When accused of purloin- 
 ing the liquor she denied, until the proof became 
 too glaring, and when no longer able to evade, 
 said to me, " Miss Packard, you're the unf eel- 
 ingest person I ever see, to speak so onkind to 
 a lone vider that ain't got no consolation, and 
 vishes to raise her sperits. I ain't a going to 
 stay with a person that begrudges every mouth- 
 ful that's ate and drank, and you need'nt expect 
 me to give you a character, for I shan't recom- 
 mend your house to nobody." 
 
 She decamped in violent wrath, and we 
 were thrown for several weeks on our own 
 resources. 
 
 There could scarcely be a more striking 
 illustration of the lamentable dependance of 
 housekeepers on servants, than in the obligation 
 I felt myself under when deserted by Hannah, 
 to take under my roof this woman, with whose 
 character and disposition I was so little acquaint- 
 ed. Mrs. Sliter was the wife of a wood-sawyer, 
 and sent for me in haste, as a neighbour, to see
 
 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 her after her husband's decease. I went with 
 as much promptitude as possible. Mr. Sliter 
 had died in a fit of drunkenness, and his bloated 
 body was laid out in all the state that extreme 
 poverty could assume, in the small apartment, 
 the common bedroom and parlour of the mise- 
 rable pair. In an old chair, from which hung 
 the broken rushes, sat his wife, rocking in the 
 restlessness of unoccupied grief. 
 
 I took her hand, and was about offering her 
 consolation ; but her sorrow was not of that sort 
 that breaks the heart in silence, and I was in- 
 terrupted by her dolorous voice, preceded by a 
 long drawn sigh. 
 
 "Death is a dreadful thing, ma'am. Mr. 
 Sliter, poor man, that's dead and gone, and I 
 have lived nigh twenty year together. It's hard 
 to be left a lone voman, as it vere. He was 
 nobody's enemy but his own. I shall be a lone 
 body indeed," and she put her handkerchief 
 to the corners of both eyes. 
 
 I commenced once more the usual common- 
 place attempts at consolation, when looking up,
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 137 
 
 she said briskly, " Miss Packard, do viders vear 
 weils now ?" 
 
 This miserable attempt at the semblance of 
 mourning first led me to speculate on the pro- 
 priety of black apparel for the bereaved. If pur 
 friends are virtuous, and our belief in Christian- 
 ity sincere, why assume a mourning robe, when 
 they are clothed in the white garments of im- 
 mortality ? Why shroud our heads, when theirs 
 are crowned with amaranthine wreaths ? Why 
 utter sighs of wo, when they are hymning to 
 celestial harps, amid celestial choirs ? And when 
 a case occurs where those who should have 
 loved us have rent our hearts by sin^ or broken 
 them by harshness, and the weary spirit, shrink- 
 ing from observation, turns on itself to commune 
 in silence, why assume the ostentation of regret 
 before an unsympathizing world ? 
 
 Yet let me not treat lightly or harshly a prej- 
 udice founded on the delicate impulses of na- 
 ture. Perhaps the hand that writes these stric- 
 tures might be the first to mould those sombre 
 monuments which affection raises to departed 
 M2
 
 138 ' RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 friends, and would be the last to lay aside the 
 time-honoured associations that cluster in the 
 day of earthly separation. 
 
 However this may be, Mrs. Sliter, with a veil 
 of proper dimensions, followed him to the grave 
 who had thrice kicked her out of doors ; actu- 
 ally, if not nominally, caused the death of her 
 only infant by brutality; left her whom God 
 and society demanded him to support, a misera- 
 ble pauper, and gone down to the tomb, a bloated 
 carcass, to meet the changes, for weal or wo, of 
 an endless immortality.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A TEMPERANCE LECTURE TO MY COUSIN 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 She could go near the precipice, nor dread 
 A failing caution, or a giddy head ; 
 She'd fix her eyes upon the roaring flood, 
 And dance upon the brink where danger stood. 
 
 The Borough. 
 
 IT seems to me a dream, that I once cleansed 
 and replenished a gin and brandy decanter every 
 Saturday morning. My "swords are turned 
 into ploughshares, and my spears into pru- 
 ning hooks ;" for there they stand, the pictures 
 of innocence, converted into water-crafts and 
 molasses bottles. 
 
 Let every housekeeper seriously look back 
 through her past experience, and ask herself 
 how many individuals (unintentionally of 
 course) she has led into temptation with these 
 polished seducers : and if she has herself es- 
 caped a pit where so many of the bright and
 
 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 good have fallen, offer up a prayer of thank- 
 fulness. 
 
 I know not how others may have felt, but 
 my soul has often been wrung with anguish at 
 the utter hopelessness of preventing any indi- 
 vidual, who has betrayed a tendency to intem- 
 perance, from plunging daily further and fur- 
 ther into sin, when the means were spread out 
 before him, leaving unchecked his vitiated taste. 
 
 Edward, like others, provided liquors for his 
 sideboard, but only drank them as the compli- 
 ment which society demanded with his guests. 
 William Ingols, my cousin, an interesting young 
 man, entered his office as a student, and re- 
 sided with us. He w r as confiding and commu- 
 nicative, and I soon began to love him as a 
 member of our household. At his first dinner, 
 Edward joined him in a glass of brandy and 
 water; on succeeding days he took it unsoli- 
 cited ; in a short time he drank at the sideboard 
 before dinner ; and, in a few weeks, repeated the 
 draught at bedtime. 
 
 I asked Edward's advice on what was to be
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 141 
 
 done. He answered with a smile, "You are 
 a woman, and can manage these things better 
 than I. Talk with Ingols on the subject. You 
 know my detestation of this genteel tippling, 
 but I have no authority over him." 
 
 A fair opportunity offered, in Edward's ne- 
 cessary absence at a circuit court for a week, 
 to speak on the subject without implicating my 
 husband. 
 
 As Ingols was visiting the sideboard as usual, 
 and (what seems to me an alarming symp- 
 tom) covering the lower part of the tumbler 
 with his hand, I asked him, with a little hesi- 
 tation, if he drank brandy for his health. 
 
 " I cannot say that I do," said he, smiling. 
 " Will you take a little for yours, cousin ?" 
 
 " No, I thank you," said I ; " I am afraid of it." 
 
 " Afraid of it, cousin ? It will not hurt you. 
 You would be all the better for a little tonic." 
 
 " A little tonic might not hurt me, cousin 
 William, but I fear being tempted. I distrust 
 my own strength of character."
 
 142 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 " Pshaw ! you are not serious ! I have been 
 drinking a little several years." 
 
 " Why do you drink it ?" I asked. " Your 
 mind is naturally active, your conversation 
 agreeable, you have no mental or bodily suffer- 
 ing, and you have a thousand rational modes of 
 enjoyment. If you will only look into your 
 own feelings, you will find a cormorant settling 
 over them, whose guilty cry is ' give, give !" 
 
 " You are a sweet monitor, cousin Clara ; I 
 believe I must take a little brandy, if it is only 
 to hear you scold so prettily." 
 
 " Oh, Ingols," I answered, " do not, in mercy 
 to yourself, treat this subject so lightly. Why 
 society tolerates its abuse, I know not. I see 
 already a look directed to that bottle when you 
 are about to pour out its libations to your in- 
 cipient sensual desires, which speaks an awk- 
 ward consciousness. You are already screen- 
 ing the quantity you take. If you love my 
 schooling, hear it plainly. Your manly and 
 graceful form will soon begin to lose its firm-
 
 A. HOUSEKEEPER. 143 
 
 ness, your brilliant eyes shine with a drunk- 
 ard's glassy inexpressiveness, and your mind. 
 
 -" where God has set his seal 
 
 To give the world assurance of a man," 
 
 reduced to childishness, worse than childishness, 
 since its weakness will have no redeeming in- 
 nocence." 
 
 " But, Mrs. Packard," said Ingols, "you for- 
 get how many indulge in ardent spirits without 
 injury." 
 
 " I do not forget that, William, but I remember 
 more vividly how many have been destroyed, 
 soul and body, while these moderate drinkers, 
 favoured perhaps by constitutional resistance, 
 have been unscathed by the burning trial. But 
 they will not escape, cousin William ; they can- 
 not escape His eyes who watches motives rather 
 than deeds. They may be strong enough to 
 carry until death the unrighteous banner of the 
 drunkard without reeling, while others are fall- 
 ing on the right hand and on the left, but they 
 lead the way to the destruction of others, and 
 they must answer for it."
 
 144 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 " My dear cousin," said Ingols, " you take 
 this matter too seriously. You make a bug- 
 bear of a trifle." 
 
 " A trifle !" I exclaimed; "call not that a tri- 
 fle which rifles the mind and body of their 
 best gifts. If I were permitted, I would go 
 (not in the wildness of quixotism, but in the 
 spirit of him who drove the profaners from 
 God's temple) and destroy every implement like 
 that before you, which attracts you and others 
 from the simplicity of nature. They disgrace 
 our homes, they deform the purity of domestic 
 scenes, and often convert theni into bacchanalian 
 orgies. I had a friend once, William, young 
 and lovely; such a one as your warm heart 
 would have loved, and your discriminating 
 mind appreciated. She received a shock from 
 the early disappointment of her affections, 
 pined, sickened, and drooped like a withering 
 flower. Would to God she had died in the un- 
 stained paleness of her beauty ! Tonics were 
 recommended, and as medicine they were right. 
 Her health was restored, and all would have
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 145 
 
 been well, had they not been spread out among 
 the wants and luxuries of life. Her sensual 
 appetite increased. I sicken as I remember 
 the miserable subterfuges that marred her fair 
 character, first chilling the confidence of friends, 
 and then by open exposures disgracing them. 
 The enemy wrought surely, baffled but not 
 subdued by reproaches, by sarcasms, by en- 
 treaties, by the shunning eye of retreating 
 friendship, by the agonizing appeals of a dying 
 conscience. She died a drunkard. Her mo- 
 ther wept bitterer tears than should ever fall over 
 a daughter's grave; her sister's cheek paled 
 with a sorrow sadder than grief; and her father, 
 I tremble while I say it, cursed his first- 
 born child." 
 
 Ingols had not tasted his draught while I 
 was speaking, but held it in his hand, and when 
 I ceased, quietly placed it on the table and 
 said, " Cousin. I have not the heart to drink 
 this now, and will give it up if only to please 
 you." 
 
 " You are not angry, then," I said, eagerly. 
 
 N
 
 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 " Angry ? no," he replied. " How can I be 
 angry with a true friend, and a lady too ?" with 
 a low bow. 
 
 " Thank you," said I, " and now that I have 
 gone thus far, may I proceed ?" 
 
 " Yes, cousin, I give you carte blanche." 
 
 " I shall do it by actions, not words," I said, 
 with solemnity ; " and I warn you to be pre- 
 pared, for I have solemnly pledged myself in 
 prayer to God that I will never again aid the 
 cause of the destroying angel. But promise 
 me (not that I claim any right over you but 
 that of interest in your welfare) that you will 
 abstain from ardent spirits, now in the sunshine 
 of your youth, ' before the evil days come.' " 
 
 Ingols hesitated, reflected, and promised 
 half earnestly, half jestingly. 
 
 On the following day no decanter was to be 
 seen on my sideboard or table, and I carried 
 the keys up stairs. Ingols was very amiable, 
 and our week passed happily away. Edward 
 returned, and took no notice of the withdrawal 
 of the decanters.
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 147 
 
 I had retired to my bedroom early one even- 
 ing, when I heard Ingols enter, and ask Polly 
 for the keys. She came up stairs, and I gave 
 them to her in silence. I heard her transfer 
 them to him, and held my breath. He opened 
 the door. I trembled so much that I could not 
 stand. I had emptied every decanter. I heard 
 the rattling of the keys as the door closed, and 
 a faintness came over me at my own daring. 
 A half hour passed away, and Polly came back 
 with a slip of paper, on which was written, 
 " You have conquered, cousin. I thank you, 
 and thank God." 
 
 I burst into tears, and sobbed as if my heart 
 would break ; nor was I relieved until Edward 
 returned and said he loved me better for my 
 moral courage.
 
 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Frae morn to e'en its naught but toiling, 
 At baking, roasting, frying, boiling. 
 
 The Two. Dogs. 
 
 THE successor of Mrs. Sliter was Sukey 
 Hopkins, an untamed damsel from Nantucket ; 
 and as Edward required some attendance at 
 the office, he engaged a friend of hers, Aaron 
 Wheeler, who had driv her down, to remain with 
 us. I passed every forenoon for a month in the 
 kitchen, to initiate her in cookery; and even after 
 that period was obliged to be with her when- 
 ever I had guests, of course at the period when 
 I ought to have been most unincumbered with 
 care. I was obliged to watch the last turn ol 
 the spit, and the last bubble of the boiling 
 gravy, and even lay the meats in their right 
 position ; for know, inexperienced reader, that a
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 149 
 
 lady may as excusably stand on her own head 
 at her table, as have her turkey or goose in an 
 unauthorized posture. One bleak autumnal 
 day we had company to dine ; but I became so 
 much heated with my business and anxiety as 
 not to dream of the necessity of a fire. Just 
 five minutes before dinner was carried in, Iran 
 up stairs, changed my dress, and seizing a fan, 
 descended to the drawing-room. My zeal in 
 fanning was proportioned to the kitchen ther- 
 mometer; and it was not until I detected a 
 shiver in a lady who sat within the influence of 
 my ^Eolus, as Edward prettily called a fan, 
 that I perceived my faux pas. 
 
 The day after Aaron's induction into his du- 
 ties, I went to Cornhill, shopping ; and Edward 
 left word with him that if a certain gentleman 
 called, he must ask him in to sit until he came. 
 When Edward opened the door, what should 
 he behold but Aaron, sitting with his feet on the 
 fender, entertaining Mr. with the last Nan- 
 tucket news ! 
 
 A few evenings succeeding I invited com- 
 
 N2
 
 150 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 pany to tea. I was the whole morning drilling 
 Sukey and Aaron, and as I went to make my 
 toilet, I said, " be very careful, Aaron, that 
 the ladies and gentlemen are all supplied with 
 sugar and cream in their coffee." When the 
 company had assembled, and the very last 
 visiter, according to the old and formidable rule, 
 had arrived and was seated, Aaron entered 
 with his tea tray, followed by Sukey with the 
 cream and sugar. He walked round as care- 
 fully as if he were treading on eggs. When 
 the circuit was over, and he had reached the 
 door, his mind seemed to misgive him ; and 
 with an anxious look, standing on tiptoe, he 
 said, " I say, how are ye on't for sugar and cream 
 in that corner ?" 
 
 On that memorable evening a lady spilled 
 some quince syrup on the carpet, when, to my 
 utter dismay, Sukey set the waiter on the floor, 
 rushed out, and brought in the mop to wipe it 
 up. 
 
 I have inserted these lingering reminiscences 
 in this chapter, to show that the most skilful
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER 151 
 
 housewifery cannot counteract the mortification 
 and embarrassment of our present system. I 
 took infinite pains to make my daughter useful. 
 She was a sweet, docile girl, and at the age of 
 eleven often made our tea, arranged the table, 
 and assisted in handing it when we had com- 
 pany; but notwithstanding this early discipline, 
 the awkward blending of lady and housewife 
 led to countless anxieties ; indeed, it requires 
 an omnipresent eye to meet one's guests with the 
 personal welcome they demand, while providing 
 for their grosser wants. How many girls like 
 Sukey have I passed months in drilling, when, 
 just as I began to realize , the effects of my 
 care, they have taken a sudden whim and de- 
 parted ! How many were there whom I never 
 could teach, whose inattention or wilfulness 
 rendered me miserable ! How much hard la- 
 bour have I performed while paying high prices 
 for that of others ! What then can be done to 
 remedy this evil? It is the opinion of Adam 
 Smith, and an humble housekeeper agrees with
 
 152 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 him, that the perfection of society consists in the 
 division of labour. 
 
 Is it not monstrous that educated, intelligent 
 women, should be obliged to give over their 
 children to the care of servants, and pass their 
 days in the most menial occupation ? And 
 must our lovely daughters be called from intel- 
 lectual or graceful accomplishments, to asso- 
 ciate with the vulgar inmates of the kitchen ? 
 
 We have a partial system, which it appears to 
 me might easily be carried through the whole 
 order of social life. We have our chimney- 
 sweeps, our wood-sawyers, our bakeries ; why 
 not have our grand cooking establishments, our 
 scourers, our window-cleaners, &c. ? I will 
 give one example, a direct one however, of the 
 helplessness of a housekeeper on the present 
 plan of life. She perceives, and none but 
 those who have witnessed it can tell how irri- 
 tating is the feeling, that about five hundred 
 panes of glass in her house require washing. 
 How can they be cleansed ? It is properly a
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 153 
 
 man's business, but she must put an inex- 
 perienced female to the work who is required 
 for a hundred other things ; one, too, who per- 
 haps never wiped a glass before. A particular 
 set of cloths is required, step-ladder, hammer, 
 and a knack at cleaning glass. By the time 
 she has accomplished her task, which is proba- 
 bly imperfectly done, broken a few panes, and 
 left the sashes loose and clattering, dust and 
 flies have been equally active, and the gude 
 man begins to say, " my dear, our windows re- 
 quire a little cleaning." What a cheering sound 
 would it be to a lady so circumstanced, if she 
 could hear in the street " any windows to clean 
 to-day ?'' or, what is better, know where to 
 send to an establishment for a person devoted 
 to that object. 
 
 What a desideratum is a cooking establish- 
 ment, where families can be provided with 
 prepared food, and a still greater to have our 
 meals brought to us, now that the improve- 
 ments in steam can give them hotter than from 
 our own hearths. They could probably be
 
 154 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 furnished cheaper than on the present plan. 
 Our husbands would no longer be seen haggling 
 with butchers at their stalls, or balancing raw 
 meat in the open streets ; nor should we see 
 decent women, in utter uncertainty of their 
 dinners, throwing up their window-sashes to 
 the passing countrymen, with " Mister, what's 
 you got to-day ?" A friend could drop in with- 
 out disconcerting a family, and the lady of the 
 house sit without a thorn. How many more 
 smiles would kindle up around the domestic 
 board, could the wife be assured of her husband's 
 comfort. She has enough to do in the agitating 
 responsibility of her maternal cares ; her little 
 ones may be sickly, her own health feeble. 
 Many a woman breaks and sinks beneath the 
 wear and tear of the frame and the affections. 
 She rallies before the world, and " her children 
 rise up and call her blessed," and she is blessed 
 in the conscious attempt to discharge her duty ; 
 but cares eat away at her heart; the day 
 presses on her with new toils, the night comes, 
 and they are unfulfilled ; she lies down in weari
 
 A HOUSEKEEPER. 155 
 
 ness, and rises with uncertainty ; her smiles be- 
 come languid and few, and her husband won- 
 ders at the gloominess of his home. 
 
 How great a duty is it, then, to study modes 
 of comfort, and preserve the song of cheer- 
 fulness in the routine of domestic industry. It 
 is not below the task of legislation, if legis- 
 lation is a study of the order and happiness of 
 a community, or if legislators would have 
 neat houses, good dinners, and smiling wives. 
 
 THE END.
 
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