[Paragraph breaks added here for ease of reading.]Charleston S.C. April 17th 1849
Dear Cousin
A most beautiful token of friendship in the form of an interesting letter was received from you a few weeks ago. Seldom have I perused an epistle with equal interest and pleasure. So filled with the goodness of its fair author now with language eloquent breathing friendship in every line; and now in a style beautiful and pathetic narating [sic] facts in relation our loved friends especially our dear sisters which fills the heart with gratitude to our Heavenly Father and if possible with more love for those dear ones.
Again the scene changes, and habiliments of mourning - the graves & the departure of friends are touchingly alluded to and the sympathetic tear is unconsciously drawn forth. Then follows hearty testimonials of attachment to your western home and friends & then to the teachers "who all have the spirit of Christ" - the happy "band of Sisters" with many congenial spirits - the "mountains, the streams, and pleasant vales" of your Mt. Holyoke home.
But here you touuch a point which always awakens within me the most lively feelings. Home is a word always fraught with peculiar interest. I love to think about home, to hear from home, to write home. I love the word home, & have often written it as a copy for the Misses of Fountain Grove Seminary Ky.
Ah! home is dear to every breast;
And well I know it is to thine,
A name that gives the wanderer rest,
Tho far away as mine.
But Cousin does not one's affection for home increase as he increases his number of homes? You have but two or three and you love neither less but rather more than when you called but one place by that endearing title. I have perhaps a hundred homes, and think you that my love for the cheerful fireside when "she whose breast pillowed my infant head" still presides a kind Father still ministers at that loved place the family altar and the most affectionate sisters, whom an only brother almost worships continue by their frequent presence to enhance the pleasures of that Home is in any degree lessened?
Nay. I love it more. To me there is no less truth and poetry than formerly in the quaint line of the Poet. "Home home sweet home" so you perceive that one of my failings as a correspondent especially when writing to one whom I highly esteem is that I know not when to stop, but knowing that I am writing to a friend who is aware that I have "doffed" the teacher and become the business man, and will therefore kindly overlook all want of logic. Believe me Dear Friend that whatever failings there may be, that there is no lack of a warm heart, a heart that beats faster when imagination carries me into the presence of the Friends formed in Kingsville. Since that time some of your relatives have taken up their residence in the "happy land." For your loss I sympathise but for their gain I congratulate. No doubt your bereaved Father like Mrs Sanborn knew where to go for consolation.
Remember me to your friends there. Doubtless your Dear Sister is making rapid advances in the Christian path. In Louisa's last letter she seemed happy in increased assurance of her acceptance at the Court of Mercy through the medium of a Redeemer, and hinted at her intention of making a public profession of religion. You express my feelings exactly and most beautifully on these to us most interesting conversions. I cannot find language to express my feelings of thankfulness to God and congratulations to them and to all their friends for the happy change. When angels rejoice should we keep silent? Still I rejoice with trembling and pray that they may not fall into the snare of the enemy of souls, but may continue "faithful unto death."
Sister speaks most affectionately of your letters and loves your sister more than ever. Permit me to thank you for the letter I prize so highly and request a continuation of correspondence. Also for your kind invitation to accompany Louisa to Mt Holyoke at the coming anniversary. Nothing would give me more pleasure and then one happiness would be doubled by having your company to the west (unless you have concluded to make a "permanent settlement" at some place not a thousand miles from your Seminary which is frequently the case with the graduates).
But I fear that will be impossible for my business demands my whole time and probably will 'till annother [sic] season. The fact is Cousin I am exerting myself that I may be able to be more useful; to be able to be permanently located in a home of my own "some day." If health and my success continue my labors will not be invain. [sic]
Perhaps however when "old Sol" becomes very ardent in his glances or should the cholera visit the region, I may appear to those friends in the north where imagination carries me so frequently. I am daily expecting a letter from Sister Louisa in which she will inform me of the close of her school and the time she will return to Penna. Should I ever get a wife that will have continued possession of as large a share of my affections as that dear sister does, I shall be happy.
The wether [sic] for the last six weeks has been warm and pleasant untill yesterday when the thermometre [sic] changed from 73 [degrees] its position the day before to 40 [degrees] and the roofs & pavements where whitened with snow "on the 16th of April in South Carolina," a circumstance which the "oldest inhabitant" never saw before.
Dear Cousin I have not written half that I would like to but fearing that your patience will be wearied with this hasty scribble I will close by assuring you that I am still your sincere friend & Cousin,
C. B. Jones
I shall go to Savannah again about the 1st of June. Do write soon. Remember me to Miss Luce I have not forgotten her melodious voice & agreeable conversation.