How Captain Riley and his crew Were on Sahara's desert threw. How Rollins to obtain the cash Wrote a dull history of trash. O'er Bruce's travels I have pored, Who the sources of the Nile explored. Malcolm of Salem's narrative beside, Who lost his ship's crew, unless belied. How David Foss, poor man, was thrown Upon an island all alone.
The Bible towering o'er the rest, Of all the other books the best. Old Father Baxter's pious call To the unconverted all. William Penn's laborious writing, And the books 'gainst Christians fighting. Some books of sound theology, Robert Barclay's "Apology." Dyer's "Religion of the Shakers," Clarkson's also of the Quakers. Many more books I have read through-- Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" too. A book concerning John's baptism, Elias Smith's "Universalism."
The Lives of Franklin and of Penn, Of Fox and Scott, all worthy men. The Lives of Pope, of Young and Prior, Of Milton, Addison, and Dyer; Of Doddridge, Fénelon and Gray, Armstrong, Akenside, and Gay. The Life of Burroughs, too, I've read, As big a rogue as e'er was made; And Tufts, who, I will be civil, Was worse than an incarnate devil. --Written by John G. Whittier.
The books of this library now to be seen are the "Life of George Fox," in two leather-bound volumes, printed in London, 1709, Sewel's "Painful History," printed in 1825, Ellwood's "Drab-Skirted Muse," Philadelphia edition of 1775, and Thomas Clarkson's "Portraiture of Quakerism," New York edition of 1806.
The little red chest near the fireplace is an ancient relic of the family, formerly used for storing linen. The portrait of Whittier over the fireplace is enlarged from a miniature painted by J. S. Porter about 1830, and it is the earliest likeness of the poet ever taken. The original miniature may be seen at the Amesbury home. The large portrait on the opposite side of the room was painted by Joseph Lindon Smith, an artist of celebrity, who is a relative of Whittier's. Portraits of Whittier's brother, his sisters, his mother, and his old schoolmaster, Joshua Coffin, are shown in this room. The silhouette on the mantelpiece is of aunt Mercy, his mother's unmarried sister. A sampler worked by Lydia Aver, the girl commemorated in the poem "In School Days," is exhibited in this room. She was a member of the family who were the nearest neighbors of the Whittiers--a family still represented in their ancient homestead, where her grandniece now lives. She died at the age of fourteen.