Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/20

14 honor of being the birthplace of Nancy Priest. After two or three years, the family returned to Winchendon, where they have continued to reside, with the exception of three or four years in Hinsdale, N.H., between 1851 and 1855.

Nancy never attended school after leaving Winchen don, when in her fifteenth year, except for a term or two in Bernardston in 1858. "She was never from home," says her mother, " any length of time till married, which took place December 22, 1865." Her husband, Lieut. Arrington Clay Wakefield, had made an honorable record in the war of the Rebellion, then brought to a triumphant close by the success of the national arms. They had three children. The eldest, Francis Arrington (born July 6, 1867), and their second, Harry Cavino (born May 28, 1869), are still living (1882) with their father. Their only daughter, Alice Emma (born on the 2?th of August, 1870), died on the isth of the following September. Six days later Mrs. Wakefield followed her child into the fold of the Good Shepherd.

Such are the outline facts in the life of one who lived about thirty-four years in the privacy of home, and never attracted notice except by the publication of an occa sional poem. And, as these were generally anonymous, the author was heard of by few outside of her immediate neighborhood until after her lamented decease. " Lizzie