Wiley, Susie Bonnell, Abby Walton, Dora Smith-to these and other leading spirits I was utterly devoted, and most of all to Marion. It was the greatest grief my life had known up to that time, when I learned that my father had determined not to send us back again, because he was a Methodist and preferred a school of that denomination. This being settled, we importuned the good man of the house until he told us he thought more favorably of Evanston, a new town a few miles north of Chicago, than of any other place. We had read in our church paper, The Northwestern Christian Advocate, that this was to be the Methodist Athens of the West. Dr. Clark Hinman, newly-elected president of the University, had spoken before the Conference in our own church, Bishop Morris presiding-the first "real, live Bishop" we had ever seen, and reverenced more in those years than he would be in these, when pew and pulpit almost meet.

Our cousin Morilla Hill came to see us at the holidays, 1857-58, and spoke so enthusiastically of Evanston, its present educational advantages and its assuredly metropolitan future, that we gave up our dream of Oberlin and our devotion to Milwaukee, and one day in early spring father was packed off, by the combined energies of wife and daughters, to "spy out the land" at Evanston. He attended the closing exercises of the term, was pleasantly impressed by Prof. and Mrs. Wm. P. Jones, the united head of the school family; Miss Luella Clark, the poet, who had the literature department; Miss Lydia Hayes, teacher of mathematics; Miss Baldwin, Miss Dickinson, and various other leading lights of the Ladies' College. So he brought home a good report, and we girls sang and shouted in glee; the spell was broken, the great world-voices charmed our youthful ears, so long contented with the song of zephyrs among the tasseled corn, or winds in the tall tree-tops that sheltered our sacred altar fires; our country life was ended, and forever ended, except that on our return from four months at Evanston, I taught a summer term in the "old school-house," in which Mary did the "art department," and our old playmates gathered in "for fun," while six delightful weeks proved that we could have our good times all the same, and yet be doing good to somebody.

The first sorrows that came into our girlish lives were caused by the departure from this world of our gifted, fine-souled cousin,

98

Northwestern Female College.

Charlotte Gilman, and our thoughtful, gentle playmate, Reverend Jamie." "Heaven's climate must be more like home to them than ours," said lovely Mary, herself so soon to follow. Life took a serious color from the loss of these sweet souls, and Nature's voices had thenceforth a minor key amid their joyfulness.

Evanston, twelve miles north of Chicago, on Lake Michigan, was founded in 1854, by Dr. (afterward Governor) John Evans, Orrington Lunt, and other leading laymen of the M. E. Church. Here they located the Northwestern University and secured a large tract of land for its endowment. The Garrett Biblical Institute, a theological school, was founded here also by Mrs. Eliza Garrett, of Chicago. But the school which most interested this father of young women, bent on their higher education, was the Northwestern Female College, owned and managed by Prof. William P. Jones, a graduate of Alleghany College, and his wife, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary. This was the only woman's college of high grade at this time known. Its course of study was almost identical with that of its neighbor, the University, and its advantages were of a high order. It was soon arranged that we should enter the College which was to become the Alma Mater of us both.

CHAPTER II.

COLLEGE DAYS.

Here comes in a sketch prepared by request of the powers that be" by my schoolmate, my sister Mary's classmate, and our beloved sister-in-law, Mary Bannister Willard. Her father was Dr. Bannister, long Principal of Cazenovia Seminary, N. Y., and for nearly thirty years Professor of Hebrew in our Theological Seminary at Evanston. With her two daughters, Katharine and Mary, Mrs. Willard has been for some years in Berlin, Germany, where she has a fine Home School for American girls :

None of the pupils who attended in the spring term of 1858 will fail to recall the impressions made by two young girls from Wisconsin on their entrance upon this new school-life. Mary, with her sweet, delicate face, winning, almost confidential manner, and earnest, honest purpose, conquered the hearts of teachers and pupils at once. School girls are a conservative body, reserving favorable judgment till beauty, kindliness, or fine scholarship compels their admiration. Frances was at first thought proud, haughty, independent-all cardinal sins, in school-girl codes. The shyness or timidity which she concealed only too successfully under a mask of indifference, gave the impression that she really wished to stand aloof from her mates. When it came to recitations, however, all shyness and apparent indifference melted away. The enthusiasm for knowledge and excellence shone from the young girl's face on all these occasions. After "class" her schoolmates gathered in groups in corridor and chapel, and discussed her perforce favorably. "My! can't she recite? out for your laurels now, Kate!" "The new girl beats us all,”—these were the ejaculations that testified of honest schoolgirl opinion, and prophesied her speedy and sure success.

Look