t of doors and use my
muscles. But you stay in the house all the time and so did grandmother,
so I don't believe there's a word of truth in what he says. Anyway, I go
out every day now with the baby.

Thank you so much for the little bands. They are just what I wanted.

With dearest love,
Your devoted
VIRGINIA.

* * * * *

MATOACA CITY. June 10, 1886.
DEAREST MOTHER:

Daisy left a week ago and we couldn't find another servant until to-day.
I must say that I prefer coloured servants. They are so much more
dependable. I didn't know until the evening before Daisy left that she
was going, and I had to send Oliver straight out to see if he could find
somebody to come in and help me. There wasn't a soul to be had until
to-day, however, so for a week I was obliged to make Oliver get his
dinner at the boarding-house. It doesn't make any difference what I have
because I haven't a particle of appetite, and I'd just as soon eat tea
and toast as anything else. Of course, but for the baby I could have
managed perfectly well--but she has been so fretful of late that she
doesn't let me put her down a minute. The doctor says her teeth are
beginning to hurt her, and that I must expect to have trouble the first
summer. She has been so well until now that he thinks it has been really
remarkable. He tells me he never knew a healthier baby, but of course I
am terribly anxious about her teething in the hot weather. If she grows
much more fretful I'm afraid I shall have to take her to the country
for July and August. It seems dreadful to leave Oliver all alone, but I
don't see how I can help it if the doctor advises me to go. Oliver has
gone to some musical comedy at the Academy to-night, and I am so tired
that I am going to bed just as soon as I finish this letter. I hope and
pray that the baby will have a quiet night. Don't you think that Daisy
treated me very badly considering how kind I had been to her? Only a
week ago when she was taken with pain in the night, I got up and made
her a mustard plaster and sat by her bed until she felt easier. The next
day I did all of her work, and yet she has so little gratitude that she
could leave me this way when she knows perfectly well that I am worried
to death about the baby's first summer. I'd give anything if I could go
home in July as you suggest, but it is such a long trip, and the heat
will probably be quite as bad in Dinwiddie as here.