recovery she was placed at the school of Miss Gilbert, in Albany; and
there, in a short time, a more alarming illness brought her to the very
borders of the grave. Before she entered upon her intemperate course of
application at Troy, her verses show that she felt a want of joyous and
healthy feeling--a sense of decay. Thus she wrote to a friend, who had
not seen her since her childhood:--


And thou hast mark'd in childhood's hour
The fearless boundings of my breast,
When fresh as summer's opening flower,
I freely frolick'd and was blest.

Oh say, was not this eye more bright?
Were not these lips more wont to smile?
Methinks that then my heart was light,
And I a fearless, joyous child

And thou didst mark me gay and wild,
My careless, reckless laugh of mirth:
The simple pleasures of a child,
The holiday of man on earth.

Then thou hast seen me in that hour,
When every nerve of life was new,
When pleasures fann'd youth's infant flower,
And Hope her witcheries round it threw.

That hour is fading; it has fled;
And I am left in darkness now,