Portland, Lizzy always appeared to me pre-eminently the life and charm
of the household, it would not be exactly true, though she would
have been so of almost any other household. The Payson family was a
delightful one to visit, all were so bright, and in the contest of wits
that took place often between Lizzy and her merry brothers, it was
sometimes hard to tell which bore off the palm.

I do not know that I ever thought of her at that time as an author. If
anybody had predicted to me that one of that group would be the writer
of books, which would not only have a wide circulation at home, but be
translated into foreign languages, I should certainly have selected
Louisa, and I think most persons who knew them would have done the same.
The elder sister's passion for books, her great powers of acquisition,
the range of her attainments--embracing not only modern languages and
their literature, but Latin, Greek and Hebrew--her ability to maintain
discussions on German metaphysics and theology with learned Professors,
all seemed to point her out as the one likely to achieve distinction in
the literary world.

I do not remember whether it was Lizzy's early contributions to "The
Youth's Companion," showing already the germ of the creative power in
her, or her letters to her sister, which first suggested to me that the
pleasure her friends found in her conversation might yet be enjoyed by
those who would never see her. Louisa had given up her school for the
more congenial employment of contributing to magazines and reviews and
of writing children's books. And as the greater literary resources of
Boston drew her thither, she was often for months a welcome guest at our
house, where she first met Professor Hopkins of Williamstown, and whom
she afterward married. The letters which Lizzy wrote to her at those
times were never allowed to be the monopoly of one person; we all