History adds another anecdote of the windmill, worthy to be preserved for its Nantucket flavor. Eighty-two years from its marvelous inception, the mill had grown so old and infirm that its owners concluded to sell it for lumber if need be. A meeting was called, and Jared Gardner, the man who was supposed to be wisest in mills of any on the island, was invited to attend, and succinctly asked by Sylvanus Macy―― “Jared, what will thee give for the mill without the stones?” “Not one penny, Sylvanus,” replied Jared as succinctly; and the other―― “What will thee give for it as it stands, Jared?” “I don’t feel to want it at any price, friend,” replied Jared indifferently. The mill-owners consulted, and presently returned to the charge with―― “Jared, thee must make us an offer.” “Well, then, twenty dollars for firewood, Sylvanus.” The offer was accepted immediately; the shrewd Jared did not burn his mill, even to roast a suckling pig; but repaired and used it to his own and his neighbor’s advantage, until the day of his death. REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN POETS OF AMERICA. Illustration: WOMEN POETS OF AMERICA _PHOEBE CARY_ • _ALICE CARY_ _LUCY LARCOM_ • _LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON_ _LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY_ • _ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH_ Illustration: (‡ decoration) LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. PIONEER FEMALE POET OF AMERICA. MRS. SIGOURNEY, was among the first, and is the most voluminous of all the early female poets of America. In fact she has been, up to this date, one of the most prolific of all the women writers of our country, having published fifty-six volumes of poetry and prose, the first appearing in 1815, and the last in 1863, ♦forty-eight years later. Her most successful efforts are her occasional poems, which abound in passages of earnest, well expressed thought, and exhibit in their graver moods characteristics of a mind trained by exercise in self-knowledge and self-control. Her writings possess energy and variety, while her wide and earnest sympathy with all topics of friendship and philanthropy was always at the service of those interests. Mr. Edward H. Everett in a review of Mrs. Sigourney’s works declared: “They express with great purity and evident sincerity the tender affections which are so natural to the female heart and the lofty aspirations after a higher and better state of being which constitute the truly ennobling and elevating principles in art as well as in nature. Love and religion are the unvarying elements of her song. If her power of expression were equal to the purity and elevation of her habits of thought and feeling, she would be a female Milton or a Christian Pindar.” Continuing he says: “Though she does not inherit ‘The force and ample pinion that the Theban eagles bear, Sailing with supreme dominion through the liquid vaults of air,’