she "used to write poetry on her slate, and rub it out quickly if it was likely to be read." This shyness about exposing her lines to the eyes of others, characterized her through life. Her facility in making rhymes was soon found out by her schoolmates, who used to coax her to make poetry for them. And in this way much was extorted from her in after years, for particular occasions, and sometimes for the press.
Something of her peculiarities may be learned from the following extract of a letter written by a respected Baptist minister, the pastor of her parents, the Rev. Andrew Dunn:—
"She showed in early life a strong desire for books, and made them her companions by giving herself to reading and meditation. A slight acquaintance with her in her childhood, would fail to impress any one with the idea that she possessed peculiar traits of mind, which betokened future greatness, as she was retiring in her habits, and very reserved in the presence of strangers; being rather indifferent to the common affairs of every-day life, willing that other members of the family should work or play, if she could be left undisturbed in her reading and meditations. Her love of books conduced to make her in school one of the best scholars of her age. Her readiness to acquire knowledge, and to comprehend the reason of things, while quite young, showed the careful observer that she possessed powers of mind above mediocrity. She seemed to know, as by intuition or abstract thought, what others acquired by hard study."
