Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.

[p. 84] hours most pleasant acquaintances are formed, and though they may be broken off as soon as commenced and never again renewed, they leave behind a larger love for our species and more favorable views of human nature in general. It was many years since I had passed so long a time in New York. At the American House where we lodged were several particular friends of my brother and his wife; we formed a party with them, and there being few other guests we felt perfectly at home, indeed we all concluded that we had won the hearts of the waiters if of no other members of the establishment. At the tea table one evening the discourse proceeded from prison discipline, reform, conservatism, etc., to the great law of human universal brotherhood, and one of the ladies gave a most eloquent description of a shoemaker now residing in Boston who is making himself as illustrious as the benevolent Howard by frequenting all the watch-houses and little police courts for the purpose of extricating luckless offenders not grown old in crime, but overtaken through folly or misfortune. The conversation was protracted until our vanity was exquisitely flattered by finding that the dozen or twenty servants in attendance had actually formed a ring round us, and were listening with open mouths as well as eyes, to our plans for mending the world; had we been queens we could not have been bowed out of the room more respectfully.

A little incident in Dr. Spring's church, where I attended on Sunday afternoon, amused me considerably. My companion and I being strangers, and no sexton appearing, we were a little embarrassed in choosing a seat. Finally a lady directed me to one of the front pews, but as I found the psalm books all having the name of the owner of the pew, I stooped to an old lady sitting in the pew on my right hand and expressed the hope that we might not be considered as intruding. ‘Intruding!’ she repeated rather fiercely, ‘I am a stranger too, but I come here whenever I please. I come as God's child, and feel that I have a right to be in his house. Do you come so—are you God's child?’ Seeing that she insisted on an answer, I modestly replied that ‘I had rather He should own me as such than proclaim myself,’ and she was really human enough to laugh with real good humor.