Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/195

Rh

The subject of the foregoing lines, Ann Maria Hyde, was a native of Norwich, Conn., and born on the first spring-morning of 1792. She was reared with the most ardent parental solicitude, which was repaid with warm affection, and the early development of uncommon powers of mind.

She derived instruction from books, at an age when many children are employed with the simplest modifications of the alphabet. Sport and pastime with her playmates she enjoyed, but for her highest pleasures stole quietly away to her little library. The historical parts of Scripture she read with great delight, and when her tiny hands were unable to sustain the weight of a large Bible, and her infantine form rendered it unsafe for her to sit by it at a table without the care of others, she would spend hours and even days, stretched on the carpet studying its pages, sometimes suddenly raising her little bright face, to read aloud such passages as peculiarly arrested her attention, or affected her heart.

When old enough to attend, school, her eager desire for knowledge, and scrupulous regard to all the wishes of her instructors, distinguished her among her companions, as well as the accuracy of her recitations, and the classic beauty of her written thoughts. So close was her application, and so precocious her intellect, that at twelve, she was pronounced well grounded in the solid branches of a good education. Her taste led her to philosophical and historical studies, which