ifferent beds. I have not been well, and did not go to church
to-day; but Prof. Robinson of Rochester, N. Y., preached a very superior
sermon, George says. They have gone to our woods together. We took tea a
few nights ago at the Pratts, being invited to meet him and Mrs. R. They
asked many questions about you and your husband. We find the Pratts
charming neighbors in their way, modest, kind, and good. They take the
Advance, read Katy, and like it.

_Aug. 21st_--As we have only had sixteen in our family of late, I have
not had much to do. Yesterday we made up a party to the quarry and had
just got seated, twenty-nine in all, to eat a very nice dinner, when it
began to rain in floods. Each grabbed his plate, if he could, and rushed
to a blacksmith's shop not far off; twenty or thirty workmen rushed
there too, and there we were, cooped up in the dirt, to finish our meal
as we best could. It soon stopped pouring and we had a delightful drive
home. Mr. B. F. B., with two of his boys, was with us. He is charmed
with our house and its views. Katy has made her last appearance in the
Advance, but I keep getting letters about her from all quarters, and the
editors say they have had hundreds. [4] H. has caught up with Hal and
they are exactly of a height, and I feel as if I had a dear little pair
of twins. Last Sunday evening the three boys laid their heads in my lap
together, all alike content.

* * * * *

IV.

Return to Town. Domestic Changes. Letters. "My Heart sides with God in
everything." Visiting among the Poor. "Conflict isn't Sin." Publication
of _Stepping Heavenward_. Her Misgivings about it. How it was received.
Reminiscences by Miss Eliza A. Warner. Letters. The Rev. Wheelock Craig.

Early in October she returned to town and began to make ready for the
departure of her eldest daughter to Europe, where she was to pass the
next year with the family of Prof. Smith. The younger children had thus
far been taught by their sister, and her leaving home was fraught with
no little trial both to them and to the mother.

_To Mrs. Smith, New York, October 12._

I can fully sympathise with the sad toss you are in about staying abroad
another year, but we feel that there is no doubt you have decided wisely
and well. But the bare mention of your settling down at Vevay has driven
us all wild. What hallucination could you have been laboring under?
Why, your husband would go off the handle in a we