ut them. People who set themselves up to be pastors and
teachers must "learn in suffering" what they teach in sermon and book.
I felt a good deal reproved for making so much of mine, however, by my
further visits to the house of mourning of which we spoke to you. The
little boy died early on the next day, and before his funeral his poor
mother, neglected by everybody else, found it some comfort to get into
my arms and cry there. It made no difference that twenty years had
passed since I had had a sorrow akin to hers; we mothers may cease to
grieve, outwardly, but we never forget what has gone out of our sight,
or ever grow unsympathetic because time has soothed and quieted us. But
I need not say this to _you_. This was on Saturday; all day Monday I was
there watching a most lovely little girl, about six years old, writhing
in agony; she died early next morning. The next eldest has been in a
critical state, but will probably recover a certain degree of
health, but as a helpless cripple. Well, I felt that death alone was
_inexorable_--other enemies we may hope and pray and fight against--and
that while my children lived, I need not despair. The tax on my
sympathies in the case of those half-distracted parents has been
terrible, and yet I wouldn't accept a cold heart if I had the offer of
it.

To give you another side of my life, let me tell you of a pleasant
dinner party one night last week, when we met Gov. and Mrs. C----, of
Massachusetts, and I fell in love with her then and there.... Well, this
is a queer world, full of queer things and queer people. Will the next
one be more commonplace? I know not. Good-bye.

Word has come from that afflicted household that the grandfather has
died suddenly of heart disease. His wife died a few weeks ago. Mr.
Prentiss saw him on Saturday in vigorous health.

_To Miss Rebecca F. Morse, New York, March 5,1872._

Can you tell me where the blotting-pads can be obtained? I have got into
a hospital of _spines_; in other words, of people who can only write
lying on their backs, one of them an authoress, and I think it would be
a mercy to them if I could furnish them with the means of writing with
more ease than they do now. I was sorry you could not come last Friday,
and hope you will be able to join us Saturday, when the club meets
here.... How you would have enjoyed yesterday afternoon with me! I went
to call on a lady from Vermont, who is here for spinal treatment, and
found in her