Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

Page 11 text:

The Aui Hsta Seminary Annual. 5 A Mornin n in the Library. The first heavy snow fall ot last winter was the import- ant event of the season to us Georgia girls; but with it came a sprained ankle for me, the result of a chase down covered way with Julia just behind me, her hands full of snow. I spent two wear} ' weeks on the lounge in the lower room at the Infirmary where I learned many lessons not out of books, lessons of patience, not only from my own siiffer- ings, but more than all, from her who gives us an example of all that is lovely and self-sacrificing, from our nurse, our friend. When I could first walk a little, I was allowed to spend my mornings in the Library ' . There I continued the studies of human nature begun on the sofa, as I had watch- ed Dr. Va5 ' t go in and out two or three times a day, or a half a dozen semi-invalids with their monotony of com- plaints, and unwearying, kind Alice and Luc} ' . One morning I entered just as the girls were going to Chapel, and finding no one in the room, wandered about for a while in search of something to read. I looked through the first case where I knew I should find Lowell, Addison, Irving, Macaulay, Carlyle, Mrs. Oliphant, and the other authors, dear to us of the Literature class; passed with a smile the locked case containing the books forbidden us during school hours, the Waverleys, and the works of Dick- ens, Thackera} ' , Hawthorne, George Eliot, and other novel- ists; and gained at last the poet ' s corner, where I was satisfied to stop for a while. Just as the last strains of Rock of Ages were wafted down to me firom Chapel, I selected a copy of Wordsworth, and curled m ' self up in the big arm chair, thinking to my- self, Conceal yoursel ' as weel ' s ye can Frae critical dissection. But keek through every other man We sharpened, sly inspection. A heavy tramp was heard, I knew that the girls were coming down, and I should soon have company. Nearer they came, and then I heard the noisy troop divide, and some go up covered- waj ' to recitations, while the