After leaving the academy, Miss H. engaged as a teacher, and with
considerable success employed herself in her vocation, in Haverhill,
Salem, and Newbury. Teaching with her was not an ordinary employment; she
remembered that her pupils had souls as well as bodies; and while she was
striving to expand the youthful mind, she also endeavored to improve the
youthful heart, and impress upon the conscience those lessons of truth
which time could never efface. It was at the same conference in which the
acquaintance between Mr. and Mrs. Newell commenced that Mr. Judson was
introduced to the subject of this sketch. He was then in need of a
companion who would share his anxieties, his labors, and his sorrows; and
he fixed upon Miss Hasseltine as the one whose tastes and feelings most
accorded with his own. He was probably attracted by her ardent piety, her
brilliant intellect, and her joyous spirit. Having duly considered the
subject, he gave her an invitation to go out with him to distant India, and
be his companion in the brightest hour of his prosperity and in the darkest
moment of his adversity. To decide the question was not an easy matter. It
was connected with obligations which she did not hastily assume, and hence
it was several months ere she had resolved to go. She was at times fearful
that her disposition for what was in itself romantic and strange would bias
her judgment and lead her to pursue a course which she should regret when
too late to turn back. Hence she brought all her feelings and motives to a
severe test, and looked down deeply into the hidden mystery of her heart.
Before God she laid herself completely open, and sought, by humble
supplication, his divine direction. With no example but that of Harriet
Newell, who had just consecrated herself to the work, she decided to make
India her home, and suffering and privation her lot. Her letters upon this
subject, about this time, abound with passages of thrilling interest, and
give evidence that the subject of missions absorbed her whole attention and
pervaded her whole nature.