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learned a lesson of wisdom during her suspenson - she seems disposed to be kind & do the best she can. Ann thinks - "all things considered" we can not do better she says "you know just what [it?] is her very crutch I believe feels an interest in the family & the [book?] & she knows all the "ins & outs" - what you like & how you like it". Ann has a valuable acquisition to her kitchen in another German woman whom she likes - the poor child needed more help as she had to work quite too hard whileI was there.
I hope to hear from thee ere long. We are not in immediate want of the sugar & syrup but shall wish to have them when it is best & convenient to you to send or bring them.
Farewell dear cousin, our [united?] love to thee & all. thy affectionate cousin
Row. T. Robinson
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Ferrisburgh [?] 10th 1864
My dearest cousin [Rachel B. Stevens]
We have [recd?] thy letter giving the sad news of your great loss. I need not tell thee we deeply sympathise with you in your great affliction; but how inadequate I feel to offer any word of consolation! indeed such a bereavement is, I well know, beyong the reach of [underline]human[/underline] skill to mitigate, & I rejoice in the assurance that thou knowest the way to the only source of consolation in this time of sore need.
You cannot fail to derive great comfort from the reflection that the dear object of your affection & of your grief was removed when in the faithful discharge of what he honestly & conscientiously believed to be his duty, and however widely he may have differed from his precious mother & other dear & esteemed
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friends as to what his duty was, he & all of us are only amenable to Him whose Standard is Let [us?] in every individual soul & by [underline]that[/underline] Standard alone can be tried & not by the opinion or judgment of another. What a comfort to us all, that we are judged not by our [underline]belief[/underline] of doctrines or of what our duty is, but by our lives & by our faithful discharge or otherwise of what we really feel required of us.
Viewed in the light of these great truths you, my beloved cousins must all feel greatly comforted in contemplating the last three years of dear Williams' life, its end & his future existence.
I acknowledge my remissness in answering thy welcome letter and at [Waterloo?]- It is a fault which is chronic with me & I fear I shall never overcome it. I had a very pleasant visit with dear Ann & the children of over two & a half months, staid much longer than I epected by reason of Lloyd's unexpected detention in New York
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I left them all well, but a letter from Ann dated 3d inst informed us that Rowley was taken with miesles while at home at vacation, had it [fully?] hard - "was one blotch from head to foot", was better when she wrote the [?] from [?] - By childish [impudence?] he [ran?] [?] severe sickness if not worse just before he left school, & when the miesles were evidently upon him - as he noticed blotches on his body, he went in swimming three times in one day. The [?] tion disappeared for the time & his [lungs?] were considerably affected but coming home [?] then by timely nursing he escaped.
Ann is in hopes the others will [have?] it. Aggy says if he does he expects to [rest?] out of doors as much as ever & "take no notice of the miesles". A. adds "He will feel differently when the time comes."
We have had another revolution in our Kitchen cabinet as [Maud?] Bluckler calls it - Mary [Farrow?] - the french girl has left & Naomi is reinstated in power. I trust she has
