were not to sail for Australia till next month, and I have been
thinking if my poor testimonial to your worth and abilities could be of
any service to you I ought to give it but how can I trust myself?--for
could any one read what I feel my heart dictates it would be thought
absurd. You were always one of the greatest ornaments of my school,
best girl and the best scholar, and from the time you could put three
letters together you have evinced a turn for teacing--so clear-headed
and so patient, and so thoroughly upright in word and deed, and your
knowledge of the Scriptures equal to that of many students of Divinity,
so should you ever become a teacher you have nothing to fear. You will
be able to undertake both the useful and the ornamental branches of
education--French, Italian, and Music you thoroughly understand. I
feel conscious that you will succeed. Please to remember me to your
excellent mother, and with love to Miss Spence and my darling Mary,
believe me, my beloved Catherine, your affectionate friend and teacher.
Sarah Phin.


My knowledge of music was not great, even in those days, but I could
teach beginners for two or three years with fair success. We thought
that my mother and the two eldest girls could start a school, and
brought out with us a good selection of schoolbooks, bought from Oliver
J. Boyd. Edinburgh, superior to the English books obtainable here,
which we used up in time; but we dared not launch out into such a
venture in 1840, and my sister Jessie had no desire to teach at all.
The years at Brownhill Creek and West terrace were the most
unhappy of my life. I suffered from the want of some intellectual
activity, and from the sense of frustrated ambition and religious
despair. The few books we had, or which we could borrow, I read over
and over again. Aikin's "British Poets," a gift from Uncle John Spence,