Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
History
Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
Women -- United States -- Biography
And one still lives, the wonderful Scandinavian maiden, whose melody now
holds our own land in enchantment, and who exhibits, on a scale hitherto
unknown in the world's history, rare endowments, boundless liberality,
and deep humility; God's grace held in subservience to the good of her
fellow creatures. Through the power of song, which, as the compeer of
the nightingale, she possesses, and with a singular freedom from vanity
and selfishness, she charms and elevates, while with the harvest of her
toils she feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the desolate,
aids the hallowed temple to uplift its spire, and the school to spread
its brooding wing over the children of future generations.
One there lives, who doth inherit
Angel gifts with angel spirit,
Bidding streams of gladness flow
Through the realms of want and woe,
'Mid lone age and misery's lot,
Kindling pleasures long forgot,
Seeking minds oppress'd with night,
And on darkness shedding light;
She the seraph's speech doth know,
She hath learn'd their deeds below
So, when o'er this misty strand,
She shall clasp their waiting hand,
They will fold her to their breast,
More a sister than a guest.
If all true greatness should be estimated by its tendencies, and by the
good it performs, it is peculiarly desirable that woman's claims to
distinction should be thus judged and awarded. In this young western
world, especially in New England, her agency has been admitted, and her
capacity tested, of mingling a healthful leaven with the elements of a
nation's character. Here, her presence has been acknowledged, and her
aid faithfully rendered, from the beginning. There is a beautiful
tradition, that the first foot which pressed the snow clad rock of
Plymouth was that of Mary Chilton, a fair young maiden, and that the
last survivor of those heroic pioneers was Mary Allerton, who lived to
see the planting of twelve out of the thirteen colonies, which formed
the nucleus of these United States.
In the May Flower, eighteen wives accompanied their husbands to a waste
land and uninhabited, save by the wily and vengeful savage. On the
unfloored hut, she who had been nurtured amid the rich carpets and
curtains of the mother land, rocked her new born babe, and complained
not. She, who in the home of her youth had arranged the gorgeous shades
of embroidery, or, perchance, had compounded the rich venison pasty as
her share in the housekeeping, now pounded the coarse Indian corn for
her children's bread, and bade them ask God's blessing, ere they took
their scanty portion. When the snows sifted through their miserable
roof-trees upon her little ones, she gathered them closer to her bosom;
she taught them the Bible, and the catechism, and the holy hymn, though
the war-whoop of the Indian rang through the wild. Amid the untold
hardships of colonial life, she infused new strength into her husband by
her firmness, and solaced his weary hours by her love. She was to him,
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