Page:Frances Wood Shimer 1826-1901.djvu/10

 than her young sister, and gave her a mother's care. Frances was a “strong girl who matured young, and had a massive head and body as a child.” She began school when two and a half years old, and persisted in learning to read, the school being just across the green, and the teacher&mdash;Sarah Billings, afterward Mrs. Powell&mdash;an intimate friend of Caroline. In later years the Seminary never had more devoted friends or more welcome guests than Mr. and Mrs. Powell.

Being so much younger than her two brothers and sister, Frances, much petted and little restrained, was left to amuse herself with the animals about the home and farm. She had a fondness for fun, and a keen sense of the ludicrous. She was extremely fond of pets. Her cats were trained to perform surprising antics. In winter she harnessed calves as ponies to draw her handsled. Sometimes she had hairbreadth escapes, but never gave up. Her control over animals was remarkable. From childhood she was considered very skilful in managing spirited horses. She loved nature, and took great interest in everything with life. Her horticultural experiments commenced when “a very little girl.” A neglected lilac bush was a source of constant distress, and her delight was unbounded when her father gave her permission to trim it. She undertook by pruning to make it symmetrical, but each branch removed, revealed equal or greater deformities. Finally only one stalk remained, which the young horticulturist pronounced “more crooked than any other,” so she heroically cut that down and grew a bush to her liking.

Her love for books was early manifested. When six years old, a “book peddler” came to the house, and she was so enraptured with his books that she invested the whole of her first earnings in a volume entitled Watts on the Mind; of this she was very proud. At the age of seven, she was sent to a private school, boarding with her father's cousin, but was very homesick. Too proud to complain, though she suffered intensely, she plunged into study with the same energy which characterized her whole life. Her mother's death saddened the home, and the death of her favorite brother, Tallmadge, who was killed in California by Indians, left its impress on her mind, and made her more serious than children