Was ever a child as unselfish as Mary Rice, afterwards Mary Livermore?
Sliding on ice was for her a climax of fun. Returning to the house
after revelling in this exercise, she exclaimed: "Splendid, splendid
sliding." Her father responded: "Yes, Mary, it's great fun, but
wretched for shoes."
Those words kept ringing in her ears, and soon she thought how her
father and mother had to practise close economy, and she decided: "I
ought not to wear out my shoes by sliding, when shoes cost so much,"
and she did not slide any more. There was no more fun in it for her.
She would get out of bed, when not more than ten years old, and
beseech her parents to rise and pray for the children. "It's no matter
about me," she once said to them, "if they can be saved, I can bear
anything."
She was not more than twelve years old, when she determined to aid her
parents by doing work of some kind; so it was settled that she should
become a dressmaker. She went at once into a shop to learn the trade,
remained for three months, and after that was hired at thirty-seven
cents a day to work there three months more. She also applied for
work at a clothing store, and received a dozen red flannel shirts to
make up at six and a quarter cents a piece. When her mother found this
out, she burst into tears, and the womanly child was not allowed to
take any more work home. We all know Mrs. Livermore's war record and
her power and eloquence as an orator.
I would not say she was a spiritualist, but she felt sure that she
often had advice or warning on questions from some source, and always
listened, and was saved from accidents and danger. And she said that
what was revealed to her as she rested on her couch, between twilight
and dusk, would not be believed, it was so wonderful.
Mrs. Livermore had a terrible grief to bear,--the lifelong illness of
her daughter from a chronic and incurable disease. She told me, when I
was at her house, that she kept on lecturing, and accepting
invitations, to divert her mind somewhat. She felt at times that she
could not leave her unfortunate child behind, when she should be
called from earth, but she was enabled to drive that thought away.
From a child, always helping others, self-sacrificing, heroic, endowed
with marvellous energy and sympathy, hers was a most exceptional life;
now "Victor Palms" are her right.
I spent one day at the famous Concord School of Philosophy during its
first season. Of course I understood nothing that was going on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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