CHAPTER I

The parents--Home life--Education, teachers, books--Astronomical
instruments--Solar eclipse of 1831--Teaching--Appointment as librarian
of Nantucket Atheneum--Friendships for young people--Extracts from
diary, 1855--Music--The piano--Society--Story-telling--Housework--Extract
from diary, 1854


CHAPTER II

"Sweeping" the heavens--Discovery of the comet, 1847--Frederick VI. and
the comet--Letters from G. P. Bond and Hon. Edward Everett--Admiral
Smyth--American Academy--American Association for the Advancement of
Science--Extract from diary, 1855--Dorothea Dix--Esther--Divers extracts
from diary, 1853, 1854--Comet of 1854--Computations for comet--Visit to
Cape Cod--Sandwich and Plymouth--Pilgrim Hall--Rev. James Freeman
Clarke--Accidents in observing


CHAPTER III

Wires in the transit instrument--Deacon Greele--Smithsonian
fund--"Doing"--Rachel in "Phèdre" and "Adrienne"--Emerson--The hard
winter