Part 24 (1/2)

And now the children have got together again, and I o and stay with them till their bed-time, when, partly for the sake of the walk, partly because they asked us, ain are going to see the Smiths

I rather think, hts, you would drop hts, I won't deny that, and so ones; but you would also see an abominable lot of elated, conceited, horrid ones; self-laudation even at good planned to do, and admired before done But God can endure what no mortal eye could; He does not love us because we are so lovely, but because He always loves what He pities I fall back upon this thought whenever I feel discouraged; I was going to say _sad_, but that isn't the word, for I never do feel sad except when I've been eating so I'd no business to! Good-bye, dearie

_To the Saereally the only thing I want to do, unless it be to lie half asleep on the sofa And that I can't do, for there's no sofa in the rooreeable to have a fire in the dining-roorate, and this makes it a cheerful resort for the children, especially as the long table is very convenient for their books, , etc And wherever the rest are the mother must be; I suppose that is the law of a happy family, in the winter at least

The reason I aht is that I have been unexpectedly to Newark I went, as soon as I could after breakfast, to market, and then on a walk of over two -circle! Ihome, and asked him to see what ailed one of the drawers of my desk that wouldn't shut We had a terrible ti out, and turn my desk topsy-turvy, and your letters and alldistracted, and all -wax, old pens, and dear knohat not, when down comes A from the school-rooht out, thinking she was dying I knew nothing about the trains, always trusting to Mr Prentiss about that, but in fivethe depot found I had lost a train by ten minutes, and that there wouldn't be another for an hour

Then I had leisure to reet hoe for him, had hid away all the letters that had come in his absence, where he couldn't find theht he would be dreadfully frightened, etc, etc Soet rid of a part of the ti up soot to Newark, I found that Mrs Stearns' disease had suddenly developed several unfavorable symptoms She had made up her mind that all hope was over, had taken leave of her faood-bye She heldme to talk I spoke freely to her about her death; she pointed up once to an illu: SIMPLY TO THY CROSS I CLING

”That,” she said, ”is all I can do” I said all I could to coht word or not

On e near the corner of our street, whoot hohted ere to meet so unexpectedly! M rushed to reat reliefs; you have got hoot home; and Aunt Anna is still alive” My children were never so lovely and loving as they are this winter; s don't belong to this world We have just heard of the death in Switzerland of Mr Prentiss' successor at New Bedford, classmate of one of my brothers, and so written at Florence by hied to say another word

_Dec 4th_--”I do not get _any_ tis its own special work that can't be done to-morrow; as to letters, I scratch the else What a resource they are! They do instead of crying forand pleasant!

What do you think of this? I hope it will h--a lady told me she never confessed her sins aloud (in prayer) lest Satan should find out her weak points and tempt her more effectually! And I want to ask you if you ever offer to pray with people? I never do, and yet there are cases when nothing else seems to answer Oh, how many questions of duty come up every hour, and how many reasons we have every hour to be asha_--It was a shame to write to you, when I was so tired that I could not write legibly, but ed to be near you Now Monday has co day, yet all is sunshi+ne in ht to oing to run out to see how Mrs Stearns is Our plan is for ements to stay with her, if I can be of any use or co better than the house of feasting

Alland sorrow make sorrow-stricken homes homelike, and I can not but feel, because I know it from experience, that Christ loves to be in such horatulate oes I wish you could have heard yesterday's ser as _characteristic, individual_ a love to each of us as we have to our friends Think of that, dear, when you remember how I loved you in Mrs

G's little parlor! Can you realise that your Lord and Saviour loves you infinitely more? I confess that such conceptions are hard to attain

Can't you do M---- S---- up in your next letter, and send her to ot you, I want her and everybody else who is really good, to fill up so, scra letter, but I don't care, and don't believe you do Well, good-bye; thank your stars that this bit of paper hasn't got any ar you!

_To Mrs Leonard, New York, Dec 13, 1868_

There is half an hour before bed-ti for you, till I feel that I _ot to tell you, how the verses in my Daily Food, on the day of your dear husband's death, seee and portion”--Ps cxliii 5

'Tis God that lifts our coives, and blessed be His naave and the Lord hath taken away--JOB i 21

I have had this little book thirty-three years, it has travelled within the house of e This has been our colad of the rest and peace it has afforded, for I have done little during the last ten days but fly from one scene of sorrow to another, from here to Newark and from Newark to Brooklyn So I have alternated between the two dying beds; yesterday Jennie P went into a convulsion just as I entered the room, and did not fully come out of it for an hour and a half, when I had to coet hoht it is! They use chlorofor all violence in a few seconds Whether the poor child came out of that attack alive I do not know; I had no doubt she was dying till just before I cah still unconscious The family see these turns, that I shall feel that I must be there all I can I ao to, but hope God will direct

Mr Prentiss is a good deal withered and worn by his sister's state; he had never, by any means, ceased to hope, and he is o at any o from place to place, I think often of you I think one reason e do not get all the love and faith we sigh for is that we try to force the that they ifts, to be won by prayer

And now Mr P has cohan, and we have decided to go to both Newark and Brooklyn to-o to bed You reat proof of h it does not say h which I a, and hardly fit therefore to write What I do not say I truly feel, real, deep, constant sympathy with you in your sorrow and loneliness May God bless you in it

[1] Dorset is situated in Bennington county, about sixty miles from Troy and twenty-five miles fro the western slope of the Green Mountain range, on the line of the Bennington and Rutland railroad Its western part--the valley in which Mrs Prentiss passed her summers--is separated from East Dorset by Mt Aeolus, Owl's Head, and a succession ofto the Taconic system of rocks, which contains the rich marble, slate, and lie sweeps round toward the Equinox range, enclosing the beautiful and fertile upland region called The Hollow Dorset belonged to the so-called New Haanised into a townshi+p shortly before the Revolutionary War Its first settlers were largely froent, liberty-loving race, and iious character, which remains to this day

[2] Mrs Arthur Bronson, of New York A life of Mrs Prentiss would scarcely be corateful mention of this devoted friend and true Christian lady She was the centre of a wide fa and old, she was greatly endeared by the beauty and excellence of her character She died shortly after Mrs

Prentiss

[3] While supposing that her brothers had been burnt out and had, perhaps, lost everything, she wrote to her husband with characteristic generosity: ”If they did not kill the to get on their feet again Every cent I have I think should be given the associated withelse”