Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/79

Rh was not a reading man, nor was the mother at all inclined to books. But both were members of the church, and on Sunday read their Bible, and regularly attended worship with their children, teaching them to fear God and reverence sacred things.

At the acre of fourteen, Ann went from home to learn the trade of dress-making. Up to this period, her home duties had been so constant and engrossing as to allow her but little time to mingle with young girls of her own age and condition. Her habits, feelings, and tastes were not, as may be supposed, at all refined, nor was there more than a rough polish to her manners. Five years of pretty constant and pretty hard labor about the house had taken from her limbs and movements the natural grace of childhood, and left her somewhat ungainly and awkward. To counterbalance these defects of habit and education, Ann had an honest mind, and possessed a natural independence of thought and action, with some shrewdness, and a good deal of common sense. Thus furnished, she left her father’s house, and went forth to gain an independent livelihood in the world. Her first experiences were rather painful. She found herself in the midst of some ten or fifteen young girls, from her own age up to twenty, all