by a new adoption, and be a
real blessing and comfort to her in this lonely, dark time. Eddy Hopkins
calls my baby _his_. How children want to use the possessive case in
regard to every object of interest!

I find the blanket that Mrs. Gibbs knit for me so infinitely preferable,
from its elasticity, to common flannel, that I could not help knitting
one for you. If I say that I have thought as many affectionate thoughts
to you, while knitting it, as it contains stitches, I fancy I speak
nothing but truth and soberness--for I love you now with the love I have
returned on my heart from Abby, who no longer is in want of earthly
friends. Dear little baby thought I was knitting for her special
pleasure, for her bright eyes would always follow the needles as she lay
upon my lap, and she would smile now and then as if thanking me for my
trouble. The ladies have given her an elegant cloak, and Miss Arnold has
just sent her a little white satin bonnet that was made in England, and
is quite unlike anything I ever saw. Only to think, I walked down to
church last Sunday and heard George preach once more!

_March 3d._--We could with difficulty, and by taking turns, get through
reading your letter--not only because you so accurately describe our own
feelings in regard to dear Abby, but because we feel so keenly for you.
I often detect myself thinking, "Now I will sit down and write Abby a
nice long letter"; or imagining how she will act when we go home with
our baby; and as you say, I dream about her almost every night. I used
always to dream of her as suffering and dying, but now I see her just as
she was when well, and hear her advising this and suggesting that, just
as I did when she was here last summer. Life seems so different now from
what it did! It seems to me that my _youth_ has been touched by Abby's
death, and that I can never be so cheerful and light-hearted as I have
been. But, dear Anna, though I doubt not this is still more the case
with you, and that you see far deeper into the realities of life than I
do, we have both the consolations that are to be found in Christ--and
these will remain to us when the buoyancy and the youthful spirit have
gone from our hearts.

_March 12th._ ... I had been reading a marriage sermon to George from
"Martyria," and we were having a nice _conjugal_ talk just as your
little stranger was coming into the world. G. is so hurried and driven
that he can not get a moment in which to write. He