My great-grandmother lived just long enough to have her picture taken on a plate of silvered copper by the wonderful process of Daguerre,[29] a process so like something diabolical that she protected her soul from evil, as all sitters in that part of the country did, by resting her hand on a great Bible, the back turned to the front, so that the letters “Holy Bible” could be read, proving that the great book was not a profane dictionary. The operator who took her daguerreotype traveled from town to town, hiring a room in the village tavern furnished with a chair, a stand on tripod legs, a brown linen table-cloth, and the aforesaid Bible, and when such of the people as had the fee to spare, the courage to submit to a new-fangled idea, and no fear that the face on the magical plate would fade away like any other spirit face when they opened the stamped-leather case with the red plush lining after it had lain overnight in the darkened parlor, he moved on like the cracker baker or any other itinerant showman.

My great-grandmother had never sent or received a message by telegraph or ridden in a railway-carriage, and died in peace just before those portentous inventions came to destroy forever the small community life in which she had lived.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS

  1. Why does the writer employ such simple language?
  2. What sort of events does he narrate?
  3. Why does he give so few details concerning his early schooldays?
  4. How does he look upon his early misfortunes?
  5. Why does he do little more than present the picture of his great-grandmother?
  6. Point out examples of gentle humor.
  7. What do the sketches reveal concerning life in the past?
  8. What spirit characterizes both sketches?

SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION

1. My First Schooldays11. Punishments I Remember
2. My Grandparents12. Queer Old Customs
3. An Early Misfortune13. My First Superstitions
4. Some Vanished Friends14. A Wonderful Day
5. My Old Home15. Gifts
6. Playmates16. My First School-books
7. Old Toys17. Pictures of Childhood
8. My First Games18. My Relatives
9. A First Visit19. A Great Event
10. My First Costumes20. Relics of the Past

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING

Throw yourself back into the past. Conjure up the people with whom you used to associate. See once again the places where you played and where you lived. Think how happy it all was, and how good it is to look at it once more. Then put down on paper the things that you remember with the greatest interest. Write in such a way that you will give the reader the very spirit that you have. Remember: you are not to communicate facts; you are to communicate emotion.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Louis Daguerre (1789-1859). A French painter who perfected one of the earliest methods of photography.