p.

The [underline]rumors[/underline] of the past ten days have
filled the nation's heart with untold
anguish - but the facts as they came to
us yesterday seem altogether different
yet it is all, oh so sad, so agonising.

I reached home last 4th day - having
been absent 5 weeks & a day - was fa-
voured all the time without accident
or detention & met very many more
kind recognitions & attentions than
I had ever anticipated - it would
have been a great comfort & pleasure
to me to have had thy company -
I had thy likeness & that was some
satisfaction - 2nd. day I had a very pleasant
visit & met many old acquaintances &
friends & kinsmen that remembered
me much better than I expected &
treated me with great kindness & hos-
pitality - I left Providence on 2nd day
the first of the month & came to Brat-
tleboro' - Ann met me at the depot - I
staid two nights at the school and was
very much pleased with the place & with the
inmates - & with the order & neatness &
general happy appearance of the whole
establishment - Ann seemed to me a little

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anxious & tired - examination comes on
next week - she expects to come home on
6th day the 18th - Levi Persons went to the
village with Thomas this morning
& told him he had a letter from Charley
P. who said that thee & Charley T. went
to Alexandria the day after he left - so
it is since that thee has been worse
again - I do desire as soon as thee gets
this, if thy reason is spared, thee will
get Charles or some one to write to
me & give the particulars of thy present
condition - & will thee not, my dear
boy, if thee again gets able to travail,
come home to us - the weather here
for a few days has been extremely
warm - though the season has been gen-
erally cool & dry here - it was quite
wet in R.I. & cool - there having been
there & here a frost every month -
It nipped the vines & beans in the
garden so that with the depredations
of hens, there is not much that looks
well or promising except the sage
but the hens are now shut up