The Boarding School; Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils / Consisting of Information, Instruction and Advice, Calculated to Improve the Manners and Form the Character of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added, a Collection of Letters, Written by the Pupils to Their Instructress, Their Friends, and Each Other.

by Hannah Webster Foster

What little I have shall be rightly expended:

And a trifle, by justice and wisdom obtained,

Is better than millions dishonestly gain’d!

Yet I hope and presume that I never shall be

excluded his pocket for the lack of a fee!

Thus the muse and the purse—till I took the direction,

And destin’d the latter to your kind protection.

My wishes attend her, with fervor express’d,

That in yellow or white she may always be dress’d;

And e’er have the power each dull care to beguile;