22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



Such education as she had she received in the 

 schools of Harbortown, but she never went to 

 school after she was twelve years of age. She 

 was, however, a great reader considering her 

 cares and opportunities had a remarkable mem- 

 ory and was clever at mathematics. She could 

 figure a problem " in her head " more quickly and 

 accurately than any of her sons. She was particu- 

 larly fond of Rasselas, Aesop's Fables in Rhyme, 

 Thompson's Seasons and Scott's Lady of the Lake, 

 the greater part of which she was still able to 

 quote in her old age. She could not sing at all 

 nor could any of her generation of the Burroughs 

 family; but she had an unusual love of poetry and 

 occasionally wrote letters in verse to her children. 



My mother died at the ripe age of seventy-nine 

 years in the house where she had lived for more 

 than fifty years and in the midst of loving children 

 and grandchildren. She had been " Aunt Betsy " 

 to the whole neighborhood and a friend to every- 

 one who needed anything she could give or could 

 do for them. 



My father and mother were married in 1820, as 

 I have already said, and the ceremony was per- 

 formed by the Reverend Palmer Roberts, an uncle 

 and an itinerant minister of the Methodist Church, 



