What insignificant things one remembers in a world of small events!
I recall how one morning when we had all gathered in chapel for
prayers, none of the professors appeared on the platform but our
French teacher, and, as praying for us was not one of his duties,
he hurried off to find some one to perform that function, while we
all sat and giggled.
In the spring of 1855, with eight or ten dollars in my pocket which
Father had advanced me, I made my first visit to New York by steamer
from Catskill, on my way to New Jersey in quest of a position as
school-teacher. Three of our neighborhood boys were then teaching
in or near Plainfield, and I sought them out, having my first ride
on the cars on that trip from Jersey City. As I sat there in my
seat waiting for the train to start, I remember I actually wondered
if the starting would be so sudden as to jerk my hat off!
I was too late to find a vacancy in any of the schools in the districts
I visited. On one occasion I walked from Somerville twelve miles to a
village where there was a vacancy, but the trustees, after looking me
over, concluded I was too young and inexperienced for their large
school. That night the occultation of Venus by the moon took place.
I remember gazing at it long and long.
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