Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/123

Rh am ungrateful, as Timon was to his servants. Yet, Heaven be praised, though sometimes forgetful of them in absence, I make it up in presence, so far that I think I do not give pain, as I pass along this world.”

Other rye-bread days were spent in writing letters of counsel to her younger brothers, who were, during a portion of this time, away at school. There is the whole range of a New England elder-sister’s life in the two following extracts from the same letter to Richard Fuller (May 12, 1842). First, the love of Greek, perhaps flagging, must be stimulated: —

“While here I have been reading (only in translation, alas!) the ‘Cyropædia,’ and other works of Xenophon, and some dramas of Euripides; and, were envy ever worth our while, I should deeply envy those who can with convenience gain access to the Greek mind in its proper garb. No possession can be more precious than a knowledge of Greek.”

But the boyish wardrobe, a severer problem than even Greek, must be also supervised; she must even encounter the dawning sensitiveness as to shirt-collars, from which no sister can escape.

“Out of this money I wish you and Arthur both to give your aunt some to buy linen for your shirt-bosoms. No one here understands how you wish them made; whether you wish to have bosoms and collars sewed on or separate; and you must each leave with her separate,