the festivities till daylight. Once a party went to Saratoga Springs,
and, to Miss Anthony's grief, her favorite young man invited another
girl, and she had a long, dreary drive trying to be agreeable to one
while her thought was with another. To add to the unpleasantness her
escort took this opportunity to ask her to give up teaching and preside
over a home for him.
One winter was spent with relatives at Danby, Vt., and here, with the
assistance of a cousin, Moses Vail, who was a teacher, she made a
thorough study of algebra. Later, when visiting her irrepressible
brother-in-law, Aaron McLean, she made some especially nice cream
biscuits for supper, and he said, "I'd rather see a woman make such
biscuits as these than solve the knottiest problem in algebra." "There
is no reason why she should not be able to do both," was the reply.
There are many references in the old letters to "Susan's tip-top
dinners."
She taught one summer in Cambridge, and then, for two years, in the
home of Lansing G. Taylor, at Fort Edward. Mrs. Taylor was the daughter
of Judge Halsey Wing. The journals of that date either were abandoned
or have been lost in the half century since then, and there is but one
letter in existence written during this very pleasant period. In it,
July 11, 1844, she says:
As the week draws toward its close my mind travels to the dear home
roof. It seems to fly far hence to that loved father and mingle
with his spirit while he is wandering in the wilds of Virginia, and
it raises to the throne of grace an ardent wish for his safe
return. Oh, that he may make no change of land except for the
better! Then do my thoughts rest with my dear mother, toiling
unremittingly through the long day and at eve, seated in her
arm-chair, wrapt in solemn stillness, and later reclining on her
lonely pillow. How often, when I am enjoying the sweet hour of
twilight, do I think of the sadness that has so long o'ershadowed
her brow, and ardently entreat the God of love and mercy to give
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