my ears."

In a letter to Sarah Douglass, written towards the close of their
residence in Belleville, she says:---

"In our precious children my desolate heart found a sweet response to
its love. They have saved me from I know not what of horrible despair,
or rushing into some new and untried and unsanctified effort to let
off the fire that consumed me. Crushed, mutilated, torn, they
comforted and cheered me, and furnished me with objects of interest
which drew me from myself. I feel that they were the gift of a pitying
Father, and that to love and cherish them is my highest manifestation
of love to the Giver."

As the children grew, the parents began to feel the difficulty of
educating them properly without other companions, and it was at last
decided to take a few children into the family to be instructed with
their own.

This was the beginning of another important chapter in their lives. As
educators Mr. and Mrs. Weld very soon developed such rare ability,
that although they had thought of limiting the number of pupils to two
or three, so many were pressed upon them, with such good reasons for
their acceptance, that the two or three became a dozen, and were with
difficulty kept at that figure. In this new life their trials were
many, their labor great, and the pecuniary compensation exceedingly
moderate; but it is inspiring to read from Sarah the accounts of
Theodore's courage--"always ready to take the heaviest end of every
burden," and of Angelina's cheerfulness; and from Angelina the
frequent testimony to Sarah's patience and fidelity. It took this dear
Aunt Sai many years to learn to like teaching, especially as she never
had any talent for governing, save by love, and this method was not
always appreciated.

With their new and exacting work, the farm, of course, had to be given
up, and was finally sold.

In 1852 the Raritan Bay Association, consisting of thirty or forty
educated and cultured families of congenial tastes, was formed at
Eagleswood, near Perth Amboy, New Jersey; and a year later Mr. and
Mrs. Weld were invited to join the Association, and take charge of its
educational department. They accepted in the hope of finding in the
change greater social advantages for themselves and their children,
with less responsibility and less labor; for of these last the
husband, wife, and sister, in their Belleville school, had had more
than they were physically able to endure longer. Their desire and plan