Introduction

About nine years ago Miss Heidi, of New Castle (or Harris--as one deems to look at it), with only a student's minimum wage, had the good luck to captivate English majordom, of BYU studies, in the county of Utah, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a non-Open Major, with all the comforts and consequences of a focused course of study and decreased savings. All exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her brother, of the cousin major, himself, allowed her to be at least nodded at in passing the narrow JKHB hallways.

In its course of student life her improvement was sufficient—and in many other points she came on exceedingly well; for though she could not write sonnets, she brought herself to read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing a whole congregation into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, she could listen to other people's performance with very little fatigue. Her greatest deficiency was in the pencil—she had no notion of drawing—not enough even to attempt a sketch of her crush's profile, that she might be detected in the design. There she fell miserably short of the true heroic height.

Yet the pencil in terms of writing began to make its improvements, and she enjoyed turning her mind to not only reading the written word, but analyzing pieces of it to the very fraying of her mind and paper. The unfortunate sorrow in this task was the writing to meet the professors' approval. Though given free reign (mostly) to analyze as she chose, her expression, style, and technique still found criticism with those who strove to teach her. These attempts at betterment found their mark, and did not detract from her love of writing. In truth, it increased the desire and made an indelible mark on her young heart.

This love eventually made manifest itself to Miss Heidi as the toils of education soon ebbed and scholarly distractions were brought almost to a halt. Seeking outlets of joy and amusement, the young lady decided upon joining one love with another. In other words, using her loved skill (or lack thereof) in writing to expound on her love of things in general. And in enjoying such ventures herself, she allowing others the opportunity to share in them might be enjoyable to them as well.