signifies, in the Hebrew, the open mouth, a name given her to denote her quick sensibility and lack of firmness. She was a creature of feeling, bat there was wanting the strength of will to perform what she had purposed as duty. After the death of Elimelech and his two sons, Naomi, with her two young daughters-in-law, set out to return to her own land; Orpah seemingly more earnest than Ruth to accompany Naomi. But when the trials of the undertaking were set before them, Orpah "kissed" her mother-in-law, and went "back to her people and her gods."
OSGOOD, FRANCES SARGENT,
One of the most gifted daughters of song America has produced, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, about the year 1812. Her father, Mr. Joseph Locke, was a merchant, and her mother a woman of cultivated taste; both parents encouraged and aided the education of their children. They were a talented family: but no other one had the genius with which Frances was endowed. Her poetical faculty was an endowment of nature, not an acquired art; nor in our research through the annals of female genius have we found another instance, among the Anglo-Saxon race, of the true improvisatrice, such as Mrs. Osgood certainly was.
Mrs. Hemans studied her art passionately, and profited greatly by her learning; Miss Landon had motives, encouragements, and facilities, which carried her onward in her literary career. But Mrs. Osgood never required study or encouragement; she poured out her strains as the birds carol, because her heart was filled with song, and must have utterance. Her first specimens of poetry were almost as perfect, in what are called the rules of the art, as her later productions. Rhyme, and the harmonies of language, came to her as intuitively as the warm emotions of her heart, or the bright fancies of her imagination.
Her first printed productions appeared in the "Juvenile Miscellany," a little work, but an excellent one for the young, edited by Mrs. Maria L. Child. In 1831, Miss Locke, who had chosen "Florence" as her turn de plume, began to write for the "Ladies' Magazine," the first periodical established in America for ladies, and then under the care of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, the present editor of the "Lady's Book."
In 1835, Miss Locke married Mr. S. S. Osgood, a painter by profession, who has since reached a high rank as an artist; he was also a man of literary taste, who appreciated the genius and lovely qualities of his gifted wife. The young couple went to London soon after their marriage, where Mr. Osgood succeeded well, and Mrs. Osgood made many friends, and her talents became known by her contributions to several of the English periodicals. While there, she published a small volume, "The Casket of Fate," which was much admired; and she was persuaded to collect her poems, under the title of "A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England." This volume was published in London, in 1838, and was favourably noticed by several of the leading journals in that metropolis.
In 1840, after an absence of more than four years, Mr. Osgood returned to Boston with his wife and their little daughter Ellen, (the pet of many poems,) and opened a studio in that city. Mrs. Osgood devoted her leisure to literary pursuits, and prepared several
