AUGUST 5.-Dr.Cabot has come just as I need him most.I long for one of those good talks with him which always used to strengthen me so.Ifeel a perfect weight of depression that makes me a burden to myself and to poor Ernest, who, after visiting sick people all day, needs to come home to a cheerful wife.But he comforts me with the assurance that this is merely physical despondency, and that I shall get over it by and by.How kind, how even tender he is! My heart is getting all it wants from him, only I am too stupid to enjoy him as I ought.
Father, too, talks far less about his own bad feelings, and seems greatly concerned at mine.As to Martha I have done trying to get sympathy or love from her.She cannot help it, I suppose, but she is very hard and dry towards me, and I feel such a longing to throw myself on her mercy, and to have one little smile to assure me that she has forgiven me for being Ernest's wife, and so different from what she would have chosen for him.
Dr.Elliott to Mrs.Mortimer:
OCTOBER 4, 1838.
My dear Katy's Mother-You will rejoice with us when I tell you that we are the happy parents of a very fine little boy.My dearest wife sends "an ocean of love" to you, and says she will write her self to-morrow.That I shall not be very likely to allow, as you will imagine.She is doing extremely well, and we have everything to be grateful for.Your affectionate Son, J.E.ELLIOTT.
Mrs.Crofton to Mrs.Mortimer:
I am sure, my dear sister, that the doctor has riot written you more than five lines about the great event which has made such a stir in our domestic circle.So I must try to supply the details you will want to hear.....1 need not add that our darling Katy behaved nobly.
Her self-forgetfulness and consideration for others were really beautiful throughout the whole scene.The doctor may well be proud of her, and I took care to tell him so ill presence of that dreadful sister of his.I never met so angular, so uncompromising a person as she is in all my life.She does not understand Katy, and never can, and I find it hard to realize that living with such a person can furnish a wholesome discipline, which is even more desirable than the most delightful home.And yet I not only know that is true in the abstract, but I see that it is so in the fact.Katy is acquiring both self-control and patience and her Christian character is developing in a way that amazes me.I cannot but hope that God will, in time, deliver her from this trial; indeed, feel sure that when it has done its beneficent work He will do so.Martha Elliott is a good woman, but her goodness is without grace or beauty.She takes excellent care of Katy, keeps her looking as if she had just come out of a band-box, as the saying and always has her room in perfect order.But one misses the loving word, the re-assuring smile, the delicate, thoughtful little forbearance, that ought to adorn every sick-room, and light it up with genuine sunshine.There is one comfort about it, how-ever, and that is that I can spoil dear Katy to my heart's content.
As to the baby, he is a fine little fellow, and his mother is so happy in him that she can afford to do without some other pleasures.
I shall write again in a few days.Meanwhile, you may rest assured that I love your Katy almost as well as you do, and shall be with her most of the time till she is quite herself again.
James to his mother:
Of course there never was such a baby before on the face of the earth.Katy is so nearly wild with joy, that you can't get her to eat or sleep or do any of the proper things that her charming sister-in-law thinks becoming under the circumstances.You never saw anything so pretty in your life, as she is now.I hope the doctor is as much in love with her as I am.He is the best fellow in the world, and Katy is just the wife for him.
Nov.4.-My darling baby is a month old to-day.I never saw such a splendid child.I love him so that I lie awake nights to watch him.
Martha says, in her dry way, that I had better show my love by sleeping and eating for him, and Ernest says I shall, as soon as Iget stronger.But I don't get strong, and that discourages me.
Nov.26.-I begin to feel rather more like myself, and as if I could write with less labor.I have had in these few past weeks such a revelation of suffering, and such a revelation of joy, as mortal mind can hardly conceive of.The world I live in now is a new world; a world full of suffering that leads to unutterable felicity.Oh, this precious, precious baby! How can I thank God enough for giving him to me!
