ruptions I have and how many days
I have to lie by. I can't imagine why I break down so, for I don't know
when I've been so well as during this spring; but Mr. P. and A. say I
work like a tiger, and I s'pose I do without knowing it. I am so glad
you had a pleasant Sunday. No doubt you had more bodily strength with
which to enjoy spiritual things. A weak body hinders prayer and praise
when the heart would sing, if it were not in fetters that cramp and
exhaust it.

_Monday_--To-day I have been enacting the tiger again, and worked
furiously. A. half scolds and half entreats, but I can't help it; if I
work I work, and so there it is. I have bought a dinner-set, and had a
long visit from my old Mary, who wept over and kissed me, and am going
out to call on Mrs. Woolsey this evening. To-morrow A.'s scholars are to
come and make an address to her and give her a picture. She is not to
know it till they arrive. It is really cold after the very hot weather,
and some are freezing and some have internal pains. I wish you could
have seen me this forenoon at work in the attic--a mass of dust,
feathers, and perplexity. I got hold of one of my John's innumerable
trunks of papers, and found among them the MSS. of several of my books
laid up in lavender, which I pitched into the ash-barrel. I suppose he
thinks I may distinguish myself some time, and that the discerning world
will be after a scratch of my gifted pen! Have you read "Gates Off the
Hinges"? The next thing will be, "There Aint no Gates."

* * * * *

III.

The new Home in Dorset. What it became to her. Letters from there.

A notable incident of this year was the entering upon housekeeping at
Dorset under her own roof. As is usual in such cases, the process was
somewhat wearisome and trying, but the result was most happy. All the
bright anticipations, with which the event had been so long looked
forward to, were more than realised. For the next ten summers the Dorset
home was to her a sweet haven of rest from the agitations, cares, and
turmoil of New York life. It seemed at the time a venturesome, almost a
rash thing, to build it; but when she left it for her home above, the
building of the house seemed to have been an inspiration of Providence.
While contributing greatly to her happiness, it probably added several
years to her life. The four months which she passed each season at
Dorset were spent largely in the open air, and in such varie