she managed all the household affairs by native servants
of her own training, made bread, butter, and all the clothes of the
family; taught her children most carefully; kept also an infant and
sewing school--by far the most popular and best attended we had. It was
a fine sight to see her day by day walking a quarter of a mile to the
town, no matter how broiling hot the sun, to impart instruction to the
heathen Bakwains. Ma-Robert's name is known through all that country,
and 1800 miles beyond.... A brave, good woman was she. All my hopes of
giving her one day a quiet home, for which we both had many a sore
longing, are now dashed to the ground. She is, I trust, through divine
mercy, in peace in the home of the blest.... She spoke feelingly of your
kindness to her, and also of the kind reception she received from Miss
Burdett Coutts. Please give that lady and Mrs. Brown the sad
intelligence of her death."

The reply of Mrs. Moffat to her son-in-law's letter was touching and
beautiful. "I do thank you for the detail you have given us of the
circumstances of the last days and hours of our lamented and beloved
Mary, our first-born, over whom our fond hearts first beat with parental
affection!" She recounts the mercies that were mingled with the
trial--though Mary could not be called _eminently_ pious, she had the
root of the matter in her, and though the voyage of her life had been a
trying and stormy one, she had not become a wreck. God had remembered
her; had given her during her last year the counsels of faithful
men--referring to her kind friend and valued counselor, the Rev.
Professor Kirk, of Edinburgh, and the Rev. Dr. Stewart, of
Lovedale--and, at last, the great privilege of dying in the arms of her
husband. "As for the cruel scandal that seems to have hurt you both so
much, those who said it did not know you _as a couple_. In all _our_
intercourse with you, we never had a doubt as to your being comfortable
together. I know there are some maudlin ladies who insinuate, when a man
leaves his family frequently, no matter how noble is his object, that he
is not _comfortable_ at home. But we can afford to smile at this, and
say, 'The Day will declare it.'...

"Now my dear Livingstone, I must conclude by assuring you of the tender
interest we shall ever feel in your operations. It is not only as the
husband of our departed Mary and the father of her children, but as one
who has laid himself out for the emancipation of t