nce you of
it, by becoming happier.

* * * *

* * * * *

LETTER V.

Sunday Night.

I HAVE just received your letter, and feel as if I could not go to bed
tranquilly without saying a few words in reply--merely to tell you, that
my mind is serene, and my heart affectionate.

Ever since you last saw me inclined to faint, I have felt some gentle
twitches, which make me begin to think, that I am nourishing a creature
who will soon be sensible of my care.--This thought has not only produced
an overflowing of tenderness to you, but made me very attentive to calm
my mind and take exercise, lest I should destroy an object, in whom we
are to have a mutual interest, you know. Yesterday--do not
smile!--finding that I had hurt myself by lifting precipitately a large
log of wood, I sat down in an agony, till I felt those said twitches
again.

Are you very busy?
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
So you may reckon on its being finished soon, though not before you come
home, unless you are detained longer than I now allow myself to believe
you will.--

Be that as it may, write to me, my best love, and bid me be
patient--kindly--and the expressions of kindness will again beguile the
time, as sweetly as they have done to-night.--Tell me also over and over
again, that your happiness (and you deserve to be happy!) is closely
connected with mine, and I will try to dissipate, as they rise, the fumes
of former discontent, that have too often clouded the sunshine, which you
have endeavoured to diffuse through my mind. God bless you! Take care of
yourself, and remember with tenderness your affectionate

* * * *

I am going to rest very happy, and you have made me so.--This is the
kindest good-night I can utter.

* * * * *

LETTER VI.

Friday Morning.

I AM glad to find that other people can be unreasonable, as well as
myself--for be it known to thee, that I answered thy _first_ letter, the
very night it reached me (Sunday), though thou couldst not receive it
before Wednesday, because it was not sent off till the next day.--There
is a full, true, and particular account.--

Yet I am not angry with thee, my love, for I think that it is a proof of
stupidity, and likewise of a milk-and-water affection, whic