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316 ten years. Miss Mary Lyon, the truly remarkable originator of this institution, having overcome many obstacles by an indomitable energy, had now the pleasure of seeing it in successful operation. Her plan was to receive pupils of fifteen or sixteen, and conduct them through a thorough course of study for four years, to a regular graduation. Desirous also of repelling the indolence and frivolity often springing from boarding-school culture, she decided that the housekeeping department should be committed to them. Though I had long wished that practical utility, and a respect for home duties, should be carefully intermingled with the scholastic nurture of my own sex, I was skeptical with regard to the feasibility of this part of her plan, or rather whether it could be rendered agreeable to her disciples, and was therefore a critical observer. After a public recitation in Mathematics, Metaphysics, and other elevated sciences, that would have been creditable to graduating classes in any of our colleges, those white-robed young ladies resorted to the refectory of the Seminary, and, slipping on white aprons with long sleeves, shelled six bushels of peas, and made thirty pies, with the utmost alacrity and pleasant emulation. To do the honors of Mount Holyoke to their assembled guests, and see to the minutiæ of their comfortable accommodation, seemed an additional source of pride and pleasure. The spacious edifice was a model of neatness and order, and every department so arranged as to