Miss
Clarissa Brown is assisting Catherine in the school. Besides her,
Catherine, and myself, there are two other teachers who both board in
the family with us: one is Miss Degan, an Italian lady who teaches
French and Italian; she rooms with me, and is very interesting and
agreeable. Miss Hawks is rooming with Catherine. In some respects she
reminds me very much of my mother. She is gentle, affectionate,
modest, and retiring, and much beloved by all the scholars. . . . I am
still going on with my French, and carrying two young ladies through
Virgil, and if I have time, shall commence Italian.
I am very comfortable and happy.
I propose, my dear grandmamma, to send you by the first opportunity a
dish of fruit of my own painting. Pray do not now devour it in
anticipation, for I cannot promise that you will not find it sadly
tasteless in reality. If so, please excuse it, for the sake of the
poor young artist. I admire to cultivate a taste for painting, and I
wish to improve it; it was what my dear mother admired and loved, and
I cherish it for her sake. I have thought more of this dearest of all
earthly friends these late years, since I have been old enough to know
her character and appreciate her worth. I sometimes think that, had
she lived, I might have been both better and happier than I now am,
but God is good and wise in all his ways.
A letter written to her brother Edward in Boston, dated March 27,
1828, shows how slowly she adopted the view of God that finally became
one of the most characteristic elements in her writings.
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