during bad weather she occupied herself with reading the books in her father's library, including shakespeare, and fulfilling her "domestic duties". in later life she recollected "these occupied a great part of my time; besides, i had to shew my sampler, working the alphabet from a to z, as well as the ten numbers, on canvas". her aunt janet came to live with the family and reportedly said to her mother "i wonder you let mary waste her time in reading, she never shews more than if she were a man". as a consequence mary was sent to the village school to learn plain needlework. the youngster "was annoyed that my turn for reading was so much disapproved of, and thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for knowledge if it were wrong to acquire it." the village school master came to the house on several evenings in the week to teach mary. he taught her how to use the two small globes in the house. in her "personal recollections" mary notes that in the village school the boys learned latin, "but it was thought sufficient for the girls to be able to read the bible; very few even learnt writing."