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The Life of Lidian Jackson Emerson by Ellen Tucker Emerson
- Michigan State University Press
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The Life of LidianJackson Emerson by Ellen Tucker Emerson [3.94.98.40] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:24 GMT) "Not afraid of the face of clay" Aunt Lucyl once told me that when she and mother were late in being dressed for church (their Mother was not going) their Father said he would not wait for them they might follow him. So they did and when they got there church had begun, the doors were shut and no one was to be seen. So she was frightened and said she would go right home, but Mother was determined to stay. "Howald were you?" 1 asked her. "I was seven and your mother was three. We had on our new wintercoats -&-capes, mine was dark green and your Mother's was scarlet. So she stood on tip-toe and rattled the latch till the sexton came to see what was the matter, and she marched in but 1 ran home. When they came home Father was delighted. He said 'this child isn't afraid of the face of clay. She made them let her in and walked up the aisle to the pew all alone.' " When she was three years old some near relative died. Everyone must wear mourning and as there was not time to make all that was wanted for the funeral Mother was sent to a neighbour to borrow the mourningbonnet of her little girl. The neighbour said "Let's try it on first. Why! you have a bushel of hair, dear, haven't you?" This Mother told me when 1 was asking how she looked. 1 gathered that she was got up something in this way. [See Sketch] Her hair never was cut in her life. As soon as it had any length it was done up in a twist with a comb. It never was braided or curled. This remark of the neighbour leads her to suppose it was thick. It was dark brown. Her garments from her earliest memory were a chemise, a petticoat, (sometimes lWO) and a short-sleeved lownecked long dress. Nothing else but her shoes & stockings. She on one occasion mentioned an apron-that at the school-room fire one day her apron caught fire and she laughed and shook it to call attention of the other children without a thought of danger, but the school-mistress rushed at her without stopping to raise herself from the sitting posture, [See Sketch] gathered the apron in her hands and clapped out the fire not without burning herself, 1 believe. When Mother told us this story she usually added that on one occasion Uncle Charles,2 a very little boy laid a small train of gunpowder from the school-room fire to the school-ma'am's chair. He asked to go to the fire, started the train which worked beautifully, and had the ineffable joy of seeing the school-ma'am leap from her seat crying "Lud'a'massy! 1 should think 1 was aboard a man-of-war! " 3 4 Ellen Tucker Emerson ... The Life of Lidian Jackson Emerson 5 6 Ellen Tucker Emerson I desire here to pin onto this paper a pattern of a little calico dress that her Mother made for herr;] it had a cape of the same, with a narrow ruffle round it.3 It is glazed, and when it was put on her, cape and all, she went out and sat down on the front door-step to enjoy its shining newness. A boy opposite looked at her and laughed. She was abashed and hurt. She got up and went right into the house. Her youngest brother, the last child, was born when she was nearly five, in August, 1807. He lived to be two years old, was handsome, with dark eyes and hair and was named John Cotton. His Father used to exclaim "When this child grows up, he'll be the greatest Jackson that ever wore a head!" They were all devoted to him, of course, as the youngest. He went into his Mother's room one day and, finding the lower door of a cupboard there open, proceeded to examine the interior. There was a small firkin there; it contained potash. He got the lid off and thought it was brown sugar. Of course he helped himself. He presently rushed to his Mother with loud screams, and the whole household was terrified when they saw what had happened[.] Mother remembered it all...