Barnwell, June 15, 1855. Juna, I am sitting in my husband's study, in our Barnwell home, which we now call the Parsonage. I am so thankful that Robert was willing to come here. You knew that long ago, but I love to talk over the things that make me glad. It is a very happy home. Dear mother divides her time between Amelia and me. She is a treasure which we are almost ready to fight over. Robert is her devoted son, and sometimes, when he visits a sorrow-stricken home he takes her there and leaves her for a while, saying: "She will comfort you better than I."
Her hair is as white as silver and her heart as warm and sweet as June sunshine, and yet I feel often that her life is already largely in the other world, and that when the time comes for her to go she will step softly into another room, into the dear presence of those she loves, and be more truly at home there than here.
Keren is a wonderful teacher. She is really making another Mt. Holyoke, and the Female Academy prospers greatly under her care. At our earnest request, she has kept her old room here, and she has such exquisite tact that we never feel her presence an intrusion. We can never be thankful enough for the greatly loved sister and daughter my dear brother gave to us. She spends her vacations with mother at the farm.
Amelia is a lovely matron, and Charles as kind a son and brother as ever. I tell you privately, Juna, that I believe that much of the trouble with mothers-in-law is their own fault; but then I know that Robert and Charles are unusual men.
The twins! They are nearly six feet high. Dear Jimmy is an excellent farmer, and as merry-hearted and witty as ever. Under Amelia's tuition he has learned to love good reading, and devours, besides, everything he can and on what he calls his "profession." Why not?
Johnny has developed so differently. He spends his school time with us, a useful boy and thorough student, of whom we are all proud. He will be ready for college in another year.
Somehow I must go on and on to-night, Juna, talking of those I love.
Robert is everything that a husband can be. We have many tastes in common and read much together - history, poetry and literature. One of our chief delights is a daily study of the Greek New Testament, in the hour just after supper. I am a minister's wife, Juna, and I must be equipped, as well as I may, to lead wandering feet to the cross of the Christ. My heart swells with gratitude as I write that this joy has more than once been mine. I try to comfort those in sorrow and to rejoice with hearts to whom gladness comes in full measure. I wonder whether great joy and great sorrow are alike necessary if one would be a comforter. I have known the radiant heights of the one, the despairing depths of the other.
We have our faults, Robert and I, and recognize them in our effort to conquer them, each for the other's sake. We do not find it hard to forgive each other, because the need for pardon is like a feather in the balance. The other side is heavily weighted,beyond all computation, with love.
Robert's life-long homesickness has found its consolation, he says, in the dearest wife, and -
And now, Juna, I have something new to tell you, of which you have only known the promise. Wait a moment -
A baby is lying in my lap - my own little son. As I bend over him he opens his great gray eyes and smiles, and his name is