Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals by Maria Mitchell
page 55 of 291 (18%)
page 55 of 291 (18%)
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freely. It must have been a pleasant visitor in the four or five
households which it has entered. We have had Dr. Kane's book and now have the 'Japan Expedition.' "The intellectual suffering will, I think, be all. I have no fear of scarcity of provisions or fuel. There are old houses enough to burn. Fresh meat is rather scarce because the English steamer required so much victualling. We have a barrel of pork and a barrel of flour in the house, and father has chickens enough to keep us a good while. "There are said to be some families who are in a good deal of suffering, for whom the Howard Society is on the lookout. Mother gives very freely to Bridget, who has four children to support with only the labor of her hands. "The Coffin School has been suspended one day on account of the heaviest storm, and the Unitarian church has had but one service. No great damage has been done by the gales. My observing-seat came thundering down the roof one evening, about ten o'clock, but all the world understood its cry of 'Stand from under,' and no one was hurt. Several windows were blown in at midnight, and houses shook so that vases fell from the mantelpieces. "The last snow drifted so that the sleighing was difficult, and at present the storm is so smothering that few are out. A. has been out to school every day, and I have not failed to go out into the air once a day to take a short walk. "January 24. We left the mercury one below zero when we went to bed last night, and it was at zero when we rose this morning. But it rises |
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