Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals | Page 2

with the mainland was exposed to the same danger,
so that it was difficult to obtain such necessaries of life as the island
could not furnish. There were still to be seen, a few years ago, the
marks left on the moors, where fields of corn and potatoes had been
planted in that trying time.
So the young couple began their housekeeping in a very simple way.
Mr. Mitchell used to describe it as being very delightful; it was noticed
that Mrs. Mitchell never expressed herself on the subject,--it was she,
probably, who had the planning to do, to make a little money go a great
way, and to have everything smooth and serene when her husband
came home.
Mrs. Mitchell was a woman of strong character, very dignified, honest
almost to an extreme, and perfectly self-controlled where control was
necessary. She possessed very strong affections, but her self-control
was such that she was undemonstrative.
She kept a close watch over her children, was clearheaded, knew their
every fault and every merit, and was an indefatigable worker. It was
she who looked out for the education of the children and saw what their
capacities were.
Mr. Mitchell was a man of great suavity and gentleness; if left to
himself he would never have denied a single request made to him by
one of his children. His first impulse was to gratify every desire of their
hearts, and if it had not been for the clear head of the mother, who took
care that the household should be managed wisely and economically,
the results might have been disastrous. The father had wisdom enough
to perceive this, and when a child came to him, and in a very pathetic
and winning way proffered some request for an unusual indulgence, he
generally replied, "Yes, if mother thinks best."

Mr. Mitchell was very fond of bright colors; as they were excluded
from the dress of Friends, he indulged himself wherever it was possible.
If he were buying books, and there was a variety of binding, he always
chose the copies with red covers. Even the wooden framework of the
reflecting telescope which he used was painted a brilliant red. He liked
a gay carpet on the floor, and the walls of the family sitting-room in the
house on Vestal street were covered with paper resplendent with
bunches of pink roses. Suspended by a cord from the ceiling in the
centre of this room was a glass ball, filled with water, used by Mr.
Mitchell in his experiments on polarization of light, flashing its dancing
rainbows about the room.
At the back of this house was a little garden, full of gay flowers: so that
if the garb of the young Mitchells was rather sombre, the setting was
bright and cheerful, and the life in the home was healthy and
wide-awake. When the hilarity became excessive the mother would put
in her little check, from time to time, and the father would try to look as
he ought to, but he evidently enjoyed the whole.
As Mr. Mitchell was kind and indulgent to his children, so he was the
sympathetic friend and counsellor of many in trouble who came to him
for help or advice. As he took his daily walk to the little farm about a
mile out of town, where, for an hour or two he enjoyed being a farmer,
the people would come to their doors to speak to him as he passed, and
the little children would run up to him to be patted on the head.
He treated animals in the same way. He generally kept a horse. His
children complained that although the horse was good when it was
bought, yet as Mr. Mitchell never allowed it to be struck with a whip,
nor urged to go at other than a very gentle trot, the horse became
thoroughly demoralized, and was no more fit to drive than an old cow!
There was everything in the home which could amuse and instruct
children. The eldest daughter was very handy at all sorts of entertaining
occupations; she had a delicate sense of the artistic, and was quite
skilful with her pencil.
The present kindergarten system in its practice is almost identical with

the home as it appeared in the first half of this century, among
enlightened people. There is hardly any kind of handiwork done in the
kindergarten that was not done in the Mitchell family, and in other
families of their acquaintance. The girls learned to sew and cook, just
as they learned to read,--as a matter of habit rather than of instruction.
They learned how to make their own clothes, by making their dolls'
clothes,--and the dolls themselves were frequently home-made, the
eldest sister painting the faces much more prettily than