need have much faith in the future to look hopefully at the present, and
perfect faith in the mercy of our Father in heaven, who alone knows how
much or how little of His blessed light has reached every soul of us
through precept and example....

You ask me of Margery's successor: she is an honest, conscientious, and
most ignorant Irish Protestant. You cannot conceive of what materials
our households are composed here. The Americans, whose superior
intelligence and education make them by far the most desirable servants
we could have, detest the condition of domestic service so utterly, that
it is next to impossible to procure them, and absolutely impossible to
retain them above a year. The lowest order of Irish are the only persons
that can be obtained. They offer themselves, and are accepted of hard
necessity, indiscriminately, for any situation in a house, from that of
lady's-maid to that of cook; and, indeed, they are equally unfit for
all, having probably never seen so much as the inside of a decent house
till they came to this country. To illustrate--my housemaid is the
sister of my present nursery-maid, and on the occasion of the latter
taking her holiday in town, the other had the temporary charge of the
children, and, when first she undertook it, had to be duly enlightened
as to the toilet purposes of a wash-hand basin, a sponge, and a
toothbrush, not one of which had she apparently been familiar with
before; and this would have been the case with a large proportion of the
Irish girls who present themselves here to be engaged as our servants.

Our household has been reduced for some time past, and I have no maid of
my own; and when the nurse is in town I am obliged to forego the usual
decency of changing my dress for dinner, from the utter incapacity of my
housemaid to fasten it upon my back. Of course, except tolerably
faithful washing, dressing, and bodily care, I can expect nothing for my
children from my present nurse. She is a very good and pious girl, and
though her language is nothing short of heathen Greek, her sentiments
are very much those of a good Christian. This same service is a source
of considerable daily tribulations, and I wish I only improved all my
opportunities of practising patience and forbearance....

F. A. B.

BUTLER PLACE, March 25th, 1840.
MY DEAR T----,

I have been reading