comfortable support. About this time I
became acquainted with Mr. Harwood, who had a short time before
commenced the practice of law in the city of Edinburgh, and one year
later I became his wife. His pecuniary circumstances were but moderate,
as he had been only a short time engaged in the practice of his
profession. We resided with my mother, as she could not bear the idea of
being separated from me. I continued as usual to assist her in the
duties of her school. We, in this way, lived happily, till the event of
my mother's death, which took place two years after my marriage. She
took a sudden cold, which settled upon her lungs, and terminated in a
quick consumption, which, after a short period of suffering, closed her
life. She died as she had lived, full of religious hope and trust. Of my
own sorrow I will not now speak; the only thought which afforded me the
least consolation was--that what was my loss, was her eternal gain.
About a year after the death of my mother my husband formed the idea of
going to America. He had little difficulty in gaining my consent to
accompany him. Had my mother still lived the case would have been very
different; as it was, I had no remaining tie to bind me to Scotland, and
wherever he deemed it for the best to go, I felt willing to accompany
him, for he was my all in the wide world. We left the British shores on
the tenth of June, and after a prosperous voyage, we found ourselves
safely landed in the city of Boston. We brought with us money sufficient
to secure us from want for a time, and my husband soon began to acquire
quite a lucrative practice in his profession, and our prospects for the
future seemed bright. For a long time my spirits were weighed down by
home-sickness. I felt an intense desire to return to the home we had left
beyond the sea, but in time this feeling wore away, and I began to feel
interested in our new home, which appeared likely to be a permanent one.
When we had resided for a little more than a year in our adopted
country, my little Ernest was born, and the lovely babe, with my
additional cares, doubly reconciled me to my new home. When my little
boy was about a year old I was attacked by a contagious fever, which at
that time prevailed in the city. By this fever I was brought very near
to death. I was delirious most of the time, and was thereby spared the
sorrow of knowing that my child was consigned to the care of strangers.
But the fever at length ran its c