must give herself to the Lord to be his child forever. There were
hours of darkness when she felt that she was too great a sinner to
be forgiven, but light came at last and she was happy in the
consciousness that she was an accepted child of God.

From her father's family she inherited a fund of Irish humor,
while her mother, of good old New England blood, inclined to
quietness of spirit with earnestness of purpose; and this blending
of fun and sobriety caused the young Christian much perturbation
of spirit. Conscientious in the extreme, she had many an hour of
self-questioning when she feared that, in the exuberance of
youthful merriment, she had cast a shadow on her Christian
profession and caused sorrow to the heart of her loving Master.
Then it was that the wise and tender mother helped her to see that
it was the duty of a Christian, though only a child, to be
cheerful and joyous, and that it was possible to please God in her
play hours as well as in attendance at church or Sunday school or
prayer meeting,--just to be the happy child that he meant her to
be, and to ask his help to keep her good and true.

Her school books did not satisfy her mind, and one who knew her
at that time says she frequently visited the neighbors and
borrowed books, some of which she read over and over again.

Her love for children led her, when she was about twelve years
old, to accept the proposal of the wife of the village merchant
that she assist her in the care of her baby, and the money thus
earned was used to help her with her studies.

In 1848, Clara's sister Ann went to Michigan to teach, making her