His children complained that although the horse was good when it was bought, yet as Mr.Mitchell never allowed it to be struck with a whip, nor urged to go at other than a very gentle trot, the horse became thoroughly demoralized, and was no more fit to drive than an old cow! There was everything in the home which could amuse and instruct children.

The eldest daughter was very handy at all sorts of entertaining occupations; she had a delicate sense of the artistic, and was quite skilful with her pencil.
The present kindergarten system in its practice is almost identical with the home as it appeared in the first half of this century, among enlightened people.

There is hardly any kind of handiwork done in the kindergarten that was not done in the Mitchell family, and in other families of their acquaintance.

The girls learned to sew and cook, just as they learned to read,--as a matter of habit rather than of instruction.

They learned how to make their own clothes, by making their dolls' clothes,--and the dolls themselves were frequently home-made, the eldest sister painting the faces much more prettily than those obtained at the shops; and there was a great delight in gratifying the fancy, by dressing the dolls, not in Quaker garb, but in all of the most brilliant colors and stylish shapes worn by the ultra-fashionable.
There were always plenty of books, and besides those in the house there was the Atheneum Library, which, although not a free library, was very inexpensive to the shareholders.
There was another very striking difference between that epoch and the present.