Page:Letters of Life.djvu/417

Rh she seemed to have been reinvigorated, and to enter with new pleasure and animation into all her accustomed duties. We gain from her journal some of the items of her busy life:

September.—"The weather so fine that I am constrained to work out of doors, trimming a long row of beans, and watering and lifting tomato-vines to the sun—also helping in the kitchen with the flat-irons, any household work being preferred to the pen, though I wrote four letters, and exchanged eighteen calls. Thankful to 'live, move, and have a being,' in this beautiful world."

October.—"Left an offering of sympathy with a note, at the door of a neighbor. No character seems to me so desirable as the distinction mentioned in Scripture, of 'Him that comforteth the mourners.

On Sunday, the opening day of the new year, she thus writes:

"Beautiful New Year's morn! bearing the name of God upon thy forehead! Consecrated thus by His sabbatical blessing—I greet thee with joy.

"Giver of all that we have or hope for, wilt Thou peculiarly sanctify this opening year. Make it to me a season of health of body, vigor of mind, and cheerfulness of soul. May my infirmities be removed, my perceptions quickened, my memory strengthened, and my zeal in doing good unwearied. Open for me new ways of aiding improvement, and conferring happiness on my fellow-beings. Bless all that I may be enabled to write, or have already written, to the greatest amount of instruction, satisfaction, and comfort, that it is possible for it to produce.