What
the sobriquet of Charlestown was, need not be explained.
We had a good opportunity to watch both coaches, as my father's
shop was just at the head of the lane, and we went to school up-
stairs in the same building. After he left off going to sea,--
before my birth,--my father took a store for the sale of what
used to be called "West India goods," and various other domestic
commodities.
The school was kept by a neighbor whom everybody called "Aunt
Hannah." It took in all the little ones about us, no matter how
young they were, provided they could walk and talk, and were
considered capable of learning their letters.
A ladder-like flight of stairs on the outside of the house led up
to the schoolroom, and another flight, also outside, took us down
into a bit of a garden, where grew tansy and spearmint and
southernwood and wormwood, and, among other old-fashioned
flowers, an abundance of many-tinted four o'clocks, whose regular
afternoon-opening just at the close of school, was a daily
wonder to us babies.
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