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Rh any way a comfort to you. To lose one's husband or wife I take to be the greatest calamity that can befall any one who may be happily married, and that you had that comfort in Cam I have every reason to be absolutely certain of. But, my dear child, it is among the inevitable laws of nature that these unions must be broken up at some time or other, and one or the other be left to mourn. It is therefore seemly that we should be grateful for such measure of happiness as we have been permitted to enjoy, and to bow our heads reverently and without a rebellious spirit when the All Wise sees fit to checker our path. I trust you may succeed, after a time, in schooling your mind to this necessity.

"Dr. Baird's letter to me shows him to be a very sincere friend of yours. He discusses your situation with a great deal of feeling, and exhorts me to go to see you, if possible, and, if not possible, to send some one on whose friendship you may be supposed to rely. . . . For myself, you may remember that I returned from the Pass a month or two ago (or were told that I did) so entirely indisposed as to make it doubtful whether or no I should ever get over it. I am unable now to undergo any extra exertion, and get to my garden with some difficulty, but force myself to go, as better than continuous inactivity. I never even go to Dry Grove if it can be avoided. It was therefore impossible for me to accede to Dr. Baird's suggestion by going to your house."

", 6th January, 1878.

"God bless my child and her children and her husband! And you thought of me in connection with the 4th, and your husband thought of me in connection with Christmas and oysters, and you forgot to write to me about it! But all is well that ends well, as you say; and I now know more about oysters than I ever did. I thought they must be lost, but I told Edward to bring them out unless they would knock a buzzard over. There were but two spoiled ones. The