During these difficult years with her husband Mrs. Frost devoted herself to church and the works of the Lord. Her son, Robert Frost, was baptized by Reverend John Doughty in a small house of worship without the presence of his father (12). Mr. and Mrs. Frost also conceived a little girl named Jeanie who was born on June 25th 1876 while visiting Frosts grandparents (13). After Jeanie was born Mrs. Frost avoided her husband all together and refused to see him. She wrote to him about the children, but they remained separated because he drank too much and became very violent with her and the children.
As a grown man, Frost said that his earliest memories of childhood were romping with his mother in the dimly lit corridors of their San Francisco home (18). Frost�s mother was very loving to her children, always protecting them and shielding them from harm. But she was never a good housekeeper or a cook. She focused more on her children and their education and moral reasoning (20). She read to them often and included stories from the Bible. Frosts believes that is was because of her efforts that made him and Jeanie well advanced when school began
Mrs. Frost taught young Robert all the way through first grade, until she was sure he could attend second grade at the public school (22).
Much to his mother�s dismay, her son had an incident in school that started up his great pains again. On Valentines Day at his public school, he became very brave and crawled across the back of the room on his hand and knees to retrieve a Valentine from an empty desk (22). He was caught by his teacher and punished in front of the entire class, but the pain of her slapping his right palm did not compare to his public disgrace (22). He refused to go to school the next day, and his mother took on the task of home schooling her sick son once again. Frost began third grade at a public school.
At this time Frosts father was also running for Democratic office, and on the day the votes were counted, it became clear that William Prescott Frost, Jr. was not going to take office (43). Frost�s father took this defeat very hard and did not come home for many days after the election. He slipped into a depression for the next few months of his life and some say he drank himself to death.
On the afternoon of May, 1885, Frost and his sister were playing when they saw their father being helped off a cable car with a bloody handkerchief hanging from his mouth (44). They were not allowed to see him and were not told anything about the scene they witnessed outside their home. Shortly after they finally joined some other children outside, they were told of there fathers demise. Their father�s last request before he died was that his body be buried in New England (45). The children made their goodbyes and headed out with their mother and what little cash they had, along with their father�s body.
