A carriage was driven up to Mrs.Howe's door to take her to the station to attend a federation at Louisville.

She came out alone, slipped on the second step, and rolled to the pavement.

She was past eighty, but picked herself up with the quickness of a girl, looked at her windows to see if anyone noticed it, then entered the carriage and drove away.
Was ever a child as unselfish as Mary Rice, afterwards Mary Livermore?
Sliding on ice was for her a climax of fun.

Returning to the house after revelling in this exercise, she exclaimed: "Splendid, splendid sliding." Her father responded: "Yes, Mary, it's great fun, but wretched for shoes." Those words kept ringing in her ears, and soon she thought how her father and mother had to practise close economy, and she decided: "I ought not to wear out my shoes by sliding, when shoes cost so much," and she did not slide any more.

There was no more fun in it for her.
She would get out of bed, when not more than ten years old, and beseech her parents to rise and pray for the children.