INTRODUCTION. Ivii
agreement in August, 1645, to support a free school in Roxbury.*
Mrs. Bradstreet had eight children, four sons and four daughters ; a fact which she has recorded in some fanciful verses, beginning, —
" I had eight birds hatcht in one neft, Four Cocks there were, and Hens the reft, I nurft them up with pain and care, Nor coft, nor labour did I fpare, Till at the laft thej felt their wing. Mounted the Trees, and learn'd to ling; "f
She goes on at some length, carrying out the simile, and describes their past life, their condition at that time, and her solicitude for their future health and happiness. Prompted by her love for her children, she wrote out her religious experiences, in a little book in which she also kept a record, partly in prose and partly in verse, of her sick- nesses, her religious feelings, and the most important inci- dents in her life.ij: The earliest date in it is July 8, 1656, § but it was undoubtedly begun before that.
Having had from her birth a very delicate constitution, prostrated when only sixteen years old by the small-pox, troubled at one time with lameness, subject to frequent attacks of sickness, to fevers, and to fits of fainting, she bore these numerous inflictions with meekness and resig- nation. Recognizing the inestimable blessing of health, she regarded it as the reward of virtue, and looked upon
- History of Roxbury Town, by Charles M. Ellis. Boston : 1847,
p. 37. Mr. Ellis has given the best sketch of Dudley's life which I have seen (pp. 97-104).
t See page 400. J See pages 2-39. § See page 17.
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