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too severe upon thee; but I found life so irksome
for want of some regular business and earthly
responsibility, in my late home, that I should dread
for thee an entire cessation from employment &
care; it might prove worse than a little too much.

The day before yesterday brought me two long ex-
pected letters from M. W. [Mann?] and J. A. Leyyard, both
cheerful ones tho dear Mary as well as Jane has had
to part with a dear one her only son not quite 18
gone with a company to swell the army ranks;
a serious thing to her when I last saw her, be-
cause she did not, like her husband see it a du-
ty in him; but she now feels it a duty in her to
let him follow the course of his own choice under
a hopeful and improving change which has been
wrought in him, and says that if he will only
do his duty [underline]as he sees it[/underline], be brave, and truthful,
and obedient, she will wait for him to see different
duties before she urges him to perform them.

I told thee Mary's Mother had been very
ill, and think thou know'st that one of my orphan
Nieces, the single one [deleted[who[/deleted] has lived with her un-
cle John and Aunt Hannah a good deal. She is now
her Aunt is convalescent gone back to school the had
in hand, at Portville an adjoining town; and I think
make the smile, by giving thee one of Mary's pecu-
liarities in an extract from her letter.

"We are under immeasurable obligations to
Maria; for I could not feel easy at all were it not
for her care of my parents. x x x x x But I cannot
say any thing, since I did not stay there myself.
Perhaps it is just as important to Maria to teach
school as to me to be married."

She thus blamed herself for not being with her
only sister when ill and dying it would have been