William was a mechanical genius, so mother set him to making little
chairs, which he readily sold, but he liked better to construct fire
engines, which were quite wonderful but brought no money. He had a
splendid physique, was honorable and faithful, and if mother had been
guided by natural instinct in governing him, all would have been well;
but he never met the requirements of the elders of the church, who felt
it their duty to manage our family affairs. So he was often in trouble,
and I, who gloried in him, contrived to shield him from many a storm.

At this time there was a fashionable _furor_ for lace work. Mother sent
me to learn it, and then procured me pupils, whom I taught, usually
sitting on their knee. But lace work soon gave way to painting on
velvet. This, too, I learned, and found profit in selling pictures. Ah,
what pictures I did make. I reached the culminating glory of artist
life, when Judge Braden, of Butler, gave me a new crisp five dollar bill
for a Goddess of Liberty. Indeed, he wanted me to be educated for an
artist, and was far-seeing and generous enough to have been my permanent
patron, had an artistic education, or any other education, been possible
for a Western Pennsylvania girl in that dark age--the first half of the
nineteenth century.

Mother made a discovery in the art of coloring leghorn and straw
bonnets, which brought her plenty of work, so we never lacked comforts
of life, although grandfather's executors made us pay rent for the house
we occupied.



CHAPTER IV.