Still, in the eye of the world, she was much better situated than
she could possibly be with us. The heart of the parent could alone
understand the change.
So sensible was her father of this alteration, that the first time
he paid us a visit he went and brought home his child.
"If she remain so long away from us, at her tender years," he said,
"she will cease to love us. All the wealth in the world would not
compensate me for the love of my child."
The removal of my sister rendered my separation from my husband
doubly lonely and irksome. Sometimes the desire to see and converse
with him would press so painfully on my heart that I would get up in
the night, strike a light, and sit down and write him a long letter,
and tell him all that was in my mind; and when I had thus unburdened
my spirit, the letter was committed to the flames, and after
fervently commending him to the care of the Great Father of mankind,
I would lay down my throbbing head on my pillow beside our
first-born son, and sleep tranquilly.
It is a strange fact that many of my husband's letters to me were
written at the very time when I felt those irresistible impulses to
hold communion with him.
