South Hadley, July 4th /66.Friend Charles.
I received your letter nearly a week ago, but as I have been very busy, I have not taken the time to write. I have nothing of importance to write, only that I close school next week, but am not coming home, for a while. I am going to stay through Anniversary week, and after that I think some of going to Mount Holyoke to stay a while and get rested a little. I went a few days ago to Northampton to ride [?] with my scholars. We numbered about sixty. We visited the Asylum and Jail, and had a splendid time. Mary wishes me to say to you
youthat she knows nothing of a Boston bachelor, neither does she know a person by the name of John Cymbol. I am preparing for a great examination at the close of school. Every thing goes right here in school, and everything is pleasant. I have nothing to trouble me, as I do in some places. There is no running about the neighborhood, and visiting on the Sabbath, as there is when I last taught school, but all is still, and every one attends public worship, which you know I always admire. in every one. There were six young ladies taken into the church here last Sabbath. It was a very solemn scene. I hear that your mother united, or was going to unite last Sunday at Greenfield.O, Charles will it not awaken your thoughts to a higher and more noble aim than merely to live for the trifling things of earth?
Alas! How often have I plead with, and prayed for you to become a christian, and must it be in vain, will you not listen to the earnest entreaty of your friends, and still more to the voice of God who is ever saying in the still, small voice, Give me thine heart. Perhaps you are waiting, thinking you may have a more convenient opportunity, but youth is the best time, before the heart has become hardened in sin.
'Tis religion that can give
Solid comfort, while we live,
After death its joys shall be
Lasting as eternity.Your friend
Mattie.Charlie, I send you much love and my best wishes, both for your present & future welfare.
Your true friend
Mary LizzieWill you please give this to Frank as soon as convenient.
Write again.
[I am not at all sure of the identification of the author. I had another letter from the same person to the same person, and I figured that it was Childs because she was the only Mary Elizabeth on the faculty in 1865-1866. Her hometown was Conway, Mass. which is about 14 miles to Greenfield, where the recipient of this letter resided. But "Mattie" is usually a nickname for Martha, not Mary Elizabeth. And Childs is listed in the faculty list as M. Elizabeth Childs, which suggests she didn't use her first name. An 1870 census report also suggests she went by Elizabeth, not Mary Elizabeth. The handwriting for the Mattie portion of the letter looks somewhat different from the handwriting for the Mary Lizzie portion, so they may be two different women writing to Charles. There is also no Martha in the faculty list for 1865-1866.]