Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/335

 Rh express the dismal state of his family. As for his first wife she was, I believe, a good Christian, and very careful to instil good principles in her children: but she was not a fit wife for this country, so by that means, and by her ignorance of country business, my brother was almost ruined in his estate. She left one girl and three boys, and if it had pleased God to have taken them with her, it would have been a great blessing; for this woman he has married is a mighty housewife, but a cruel woman, and she has the entire dominion over her husband, so he has been induced to cast off all paternal duty to his first children. His eldest son Francis that was a boy of good parts, and was in the College, he bound to a carpenter, and when he was sick and in necessity he had no bowels of compassion for him. They are going to bind John to a carpenter. God in his great mercy hath lately taken the youngest son, named Thomas, from under her tyranny. As for poor Molly, the negro women she brought with her are more indulgently used than she is. My brother has a boy and girl by her, and he spares no pains with the boy, who is about seven years old, who is a wonder for his age, while the others are castaways.

I did my best to get the poor girl away from her, but she was too serviceable.

I assure you, dear sister, it has been a great grief to me to see one I loved so well, one in his station, a shepherd to guide his flock, that he should be so inhuman to his own flesh and blood. He is grown an enemy to all our families here, to ours especially, because I reminded him of his duty to his children, for which good will of mine we are quite rejected, as are all others that do not like of her doings. She is his only lawgiver, a terrible exchange for that of his Maker.