I got a birthday present from my roommate this year-- the book Uppity Women of the New World, by Vicki Leon. So from time to time, I'll share with you about some of the people in the book, for your reading entertainment. Today's little mini-tale is about Mary Peck Butterworth.

Mary Peck Butterworth is not a character you should emulate. In fact, for a blog like this one, she's probably not the best choice of feature. But she struck me as funny. Mary was an 18th century New England housewife with a husband and seven children to support. How did heroic Mary do this? Well... she became a counterfeiter. As the book says, "She invented the first disposable plate for counterfeiting, fashioned from the stiff muslin of her own petticoats!" (58). Using her talent for ironing, she ironed the impression of colonial paper money onto muslin and then transferred it to paper. She kept this up little operation for seven years, even enlisting help from the members of her church (so beware what you're signing up for on those little sheets as you leave worship!!). She was finally arrested, but then released due to lack of evidence.

Okay, okay, I'll give you another one. This one is Jeanne Baret, a French orphan who disguised herself as a boy and became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. An orphan whose prospects didn't look good, she managed to convince the ship's botanist to hire her as a servant for an expedition to collect plants. She managed to avoid detection all the way from France to Tahiti, when the natives picked up on what the French had not seen. By then, however, the crew had grown to like her and let her stay on as the botanist's assistant. It is even thought that perhaps Jeanne married her botanist. In any case, she did eventually return to France with the crew in 1769 before vanishing into the pages of history.

So keep plugging along, my friends-- who knows but that somebody won't feature you in a book someday?

"But Ruth said, 'Do not press me to leave you or to ture back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God." --Ruth 1:16

Kelsey

PS-- I leave for Texas tomorrow, so I may not be able to write, at least not at the time you've come to expect. Keep tuned in, though, to hear about my travels!!