sex, the first demand for equal rights for women found echo in Susan’s heart.  And, though she was in the beginning startled to hear that women had actually met in convention, and by speeches and resolutions had declared themselves man’s peer in political rights, and had urged radical changes in State constitutions and the whole system of American jurisprudence; yet the most casual review convinced her that these claims were but the logical outgrowth of the fundamental theories of our republic.

At this stage of her development I met my future friend and coadjutor for the first time.  How well I remember the day!  George Thompson and William Lloyd Garrison having announced an anti-slavery meeting in Seneca Falls, Miss Anthony came to attend it.  These gentlemen were my guests.  Walking home, after the adjournment, we met Mrs. Bloomer and Miss Anthony on the corner of the street, waiting to greet us.  There she stood, with her good, earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray delaine, hat and all the same color, relieved with pale blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness and sobriety.  I liked her thoroughly, and why I did not at once invite her home with me to dinner, I do not know.  She accuses me of that neglect, and has never forgiven me, as she wished to see and hear all she could of our noble friends.  I suppose my mind was full of what I had heard, or my coming dinner, or the probable behavior of three mischievous boys who had been busily exploring the premises while I was at the meeting.

That I had abundant cause for anxiety in regard to the philosophical experiments these young savages might try the reader will admit, when informed of some of their performances.  Henry imagined himself possessed of rare powers of invention (an ancestral weakness for generations), and so made a life preserver of corks, and tested its virtues on his brother, who was about eighteen months old.  Accompanied by a troop of expectant boys, the baby was drawn in his carriage to the banks of the Seneca, stripped, the string of corks tied under his arms, and set afloat in the river, the philosopher and his satellites, in a rowboat, watching the experiment.  The baby, accustomed to a morning bath in a large tub, splashed about joyfully, keeping his head above water.  He was as blue as indigo and as cold as a frog when rescued by his anxious mother.  The next day the same victimized infant was seen, by a passing friend, seated on the chimney, on the highest peak of the house.  Without alarming anyone, the friend hurried up to the housetop and rescued the child.  Another time the three elder brothers entered into a conspiracy, and locked up the fourth, Theodore, in the smoke-house.  Fortunately, he sounded the alarm loud and clear, and was set free in safety, whereupon the three were imprisoned in a garret with two barred windows.  They summarily kicked out the bars, and, sliding down on the lightning rod, betook themselves to the barn for liberty.  The youngest boy, Gerrit, then only five years old, skinned his hands in the descent.  This is a fair sample of the quiet happiness I enjoyed in the first years of motherhood.