this philosophic resignation to the necessary ills of life, combined with a remarkable elasticity of temperament, which enabled her to endure the intense nervous strain to which she was for many years unavoidably subjected, and helped to prolong beyond threescore years and ten a life, in childhood frail, in youth and middle age constantly overburdened with severe mental and physical toil.
Soon after her birth in the little town of Pelham, Mass., January 15, 1811, her parents, Wing and Diama (Daniels) Kelley, removed to Worcester, where the little Abigail, because of her delicate health, was allowed to grow up in comparative freedom from the restraint imposed upon the girls of her day. But, in spite of this, she used to tell me that she constantly rebelled against the limits set to the physical activity of girls. She felt it a humiliation to be permitted to go on the ice only in tow of some condescending boy who might offer to drag her behind him by a stick. But she would climb trees and fences, and coast down hills on barrel staves, undeterred by the epithets "hoyden" and "tomboy," heaped upon her by the girls who only played with dolls in the house. Thus early did she exhibit that love of freedom which was her leading trait through life.
Her mother, the strictest of orthodox Friends, taught her children to follow with unquestioning obedience the leadings of "the Spirit," that inner voice which the world calls conscience. It was to this early training of the conscience and the will that Mrs. Foster attributed her moral strength in later life. The severe discipline of the household was mitigated, however, by the genial influence of the warm-hearted, impulsive father, whose kindly nature found expression in tender affection toward his children and abounding hospitality to a large circle of friends.
Pecuniary misfortunes reduced the family income by and by, and put to the test the character of the young girl who was just now beginning to realize the serious meaning of life. She had learned all that the best private school for girls in Worcester could teach her. Her parents could not afford to send her away to school, so at the age of fourteen she borrowed money of an elder sister to pay her expenses for a year at the Friends' School in Providence, R.I. Though not (as she declared) a brilliant scholar, she was a most faithful student, often working so hard over her lessons that the perspiration would stand out on her face as if from hard physical exertion. She took a high rank in her class, and was there- fore able to obtain from her teachers a recommendation which secured her a school the next year, though she was only fifteen years old. Having paid her debt and earned a little beside, she returned to school; and for three years she alternately taught and studied, until she had finished the most advanced course of instruction which New England then offered to women. From the age of fourteen she paid all her own expenses.
She was fond of dress, and indulged to the full in the few frivolities -allowed by her sect, which did not altogether frown upon rich silks anil satins, if plainly fashioned and of subdued tints. Abby (I think she had already dropped the "gail") had an eminently social nature, and did not disdain the pomps and vanities of parties and balls, with their attendant beaux, among whom her slender, graceful figure and beautiful dancing made her a favorite.
Miss Kelley must have been about nineteen when she went to Lynn, where for several years she had charge of the private school of the Friends' Society. It was while here that she first heard the subject of slavery discussed. She listened to the burning words of William Lloyd Garrison and to the strong Quaker utterance of Arnold Buffum. The "inner voice" began to call to her, and she replied by accepting the secretaryship of the Lynn Female Anti-slavery Society, just formed. Her own words, taken from the letter to which I have referred, give a vivid picture of the strong impression which the reform had already made upon her.
"From this time I did what I could to carry forward the work, by circulating petitions to for legislative bodies, scattering our publications, soliciting subscriptions to our journals, and raising funds for our societies, in the meantime by private conversations enforcing our principles and our measures in season and out of season, taking more and more of the time
