46 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
health that it became necessary to find some other means 
of adding to his resources and relieving him from a heavy 
debt contracted for the publication of his work on fossil 
fishes and for other scientific investigations. These perplex- 
ities were solved by Mrs. Agassiz, who met the situation 
with as great adaptability as Elizabeth Perkins had dis- 
played when she was left a widow, and Samuel and Sarah 
Cary when they lost their Grenada property. As she lay 
awake one night anxiously turning over ways and means for 
repairing the family purse, there suddenly flashed into her 
mind the idea of establishing a school for girls in the upper 
part of the Quincy Street house with the assistance of her 
two older step-children. Quickly the scheme built itself up in 
her ready imagination, and she no less promptly proceeded 
to carry it out. A note to her father shows that she first 
consulted him and then secured the coéperation of her step- 
children. 
TO THOMAS G. CARY 
Cambridge [March, 1855] 
I rnp that Ida feels exactly as I expected about our 
plan. It seems that the thought is not a new one to 
any of us; we have had it in our minds under different 
forms. I must say that the hearty pleasure with which 
both Alex and Ida enter into the project gives me 
new confidence in it, and I trust the end will show 
that it was the right and wise course to take. I shall 
be in again to-morrow to have another talk before 
you go to New York. Your approbation and sympathy 
about the plan have made me really strong, and in- 
deed if you had not listened to it so promptly, I should 
never have dared to propose it to any one else. 
