On the front of evils she generally discerned signs of good; and often,
while others were in sorrow, her heart was glad. Her sedate parents looked
upon these exhibitions of cheerful disposition with some feelings of
regret, and often chided their child for what they deemed an uneasy and
restless spirit, little thinking that this very cheerfulness was to sustain
her under many a trial which would have bowed others to the earth with
crushed and broken spirits. God seemed to have adapted her to the very
position in which he designed to place her; and her whole after career gave
evidence of the wisdom of the divine arrangement. Had she been of different
mould, she would have sunk ere half her work was done, ere half her toils
were over.

While at Bradford Academy, Miss Hasseltine became a subject of renewing
grace. Her own account of her conversion, found in her published memoir and
elsewhere, is of the deepest and most thrilling interest to every pious
heart. During the first sixteen years of her life, she, according to her
own statement, had few convictions. She had been taught that she must be
moral and virtuous, and in this way avoid suffering and secure peace of
conscience. The awful necessity of being "born again" did not press itself
upon her attention. Light and vain amusements engrossed much of her time,
and employed many hours which should have been given to God and the
practice of holiness. The prayers which she learned in youth were now
forgotten, her Bible neglected, and her mind given up to vain and sinful
pleasure. She did not realize that she was immortal; that she was a
traveller to a long and unknown eternity; but the present hour, the present
moment, received all her care and engrossed all her attention. From this
state she was aroused by seeing in a little volume which she took up to
read on Sabbath morning, just before going to the house of God, this solemn
sentence: "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." The words
sunk deep into her thoughtless heart. In vain she strove to banish them;