I have been gratified by receiving two kind letters from you.1 No circumstance of joy or sorrow that affects my Sisters, can be uninterresting to me; not from an idle curiosity, but a wish. to heighten the pleasures of life by participation, & lessen the misfortunes by sympathy & sincere affection. The same kind Parents nurtured our Infant Days, & taught us “all the Charities” of social life. In us, with the ties of relationship are interwoven similarity of Temper, & mental Taste, “A generous Friendship, which no cold medium knows, Burns with one love, with one resentment glows”—2 And upon the arms of our family, should be inscribed, One in many I find that my fears were not groundless, that my Sister Cranch’s long silence was occasioned by some afflictive occurrence in her family, for she is always so ready, & so good to write her absent friends, that if any length of time intervene, I conclude they are sick— She has indeed had distressing scenes— To perceive the harbingers of Death rapidly approaching, & to behold the last struggles of expiring nature even in a stranger are solemn, painful realities.—at which humanity shudders! I rejoice in the recovery of the faithful Partner of her life—she has still to sing of mercy—few have their affections more united, or lived happier than our Brother— May their lives be protracted an honourable example of connubial Love—

I was glad you hinted to Mr Peabody your opinion relative to the late donation of our Uncle. It might be received better from you, than from me— The good Dr. likewise has expressed his sentiments very freely, respecting my Son, & wishes it might be put in trust for him— I presume Mr Peabody will not hesitate to consent to a thing, we think really a peice of justice, & indispensable— If my Son only proves a useful good man, I can wish for no greater joy on earth— may angels guard him—

I have indeed been in a dissagreeable, dangerous situation, & a very humiliating one— I thought if I could only walk one step, & bear my weight, & not quiver, I should rejoice but if I only walked to the window it would agitate my whole frame, bring on cold sweats distress for breath, & seem sometimes as if I were dying— Several of those dismal stormy nights I feared I should not see another day— I should sleep a little while, & then wake in universal distress— The Drs. say it is owing to a failure of the nervous fluid— But thanks to a kind providence I am greatly restored; my strength is in some measure recovered, & I can walk from room to room, almost as well as before my fall—

While I was so feeble, it was a comfort to me to have my dear Abby so well but within a fortnight has the bad cold, & she cannot throw of a disorder like stronger constitutions— I hope it will not leave her, as she was last summer— Any check upon the pores, brings on a febrile heat— The measels is in every family in Ha[ver]hill, but have not reached here yet— Abbys lu[ngs] are so weak, that I should be very fearful of [her] taking it now—but I hope not to be very anxious our portion is alloted— If my ancle was as well as it was last Fall, I would take Abby in the Chaise, & make the exhange you proposed with all my heart, but I dare not venture at present—

I should admire to have Cousin Susan, she reads well, & is so sensible, that I hope she would behave finely in the Academy—3 She will have nobody to tell her she is clumsy now—&ca— If you could let my son bring her, & take his Sister, I would endeavour to carry her back, & bring Abby if I am well enough— I should like to know, your opinion, on account of fixing her cloath David Dexter was at Mrs Fosters, but heard nothing of the box of grafts— I hope we shall not lose them—

With sincere affection, I am your Sister

Since the receipt of your favor of the 18th: ult: I have been absent from the City, a few days, attending a County Court, and tomorrow I expect to set out for another excursion of a similar nature. There is but little immediate benefit, derived from riding the circuit in order to attend the Courts in this vicinity; for the business is principally engrossed by those who reside in the shire towns, and if a City lawyer obtain any, it is chiefly accidental. The exercise however is healthful, and opportunities now & then occur of taking a volunteer part in some of the criminal trials, which afford at least a chance of displaying professional talents, where they exist. I was lately concerned, at the instance of the deputy Atty General, in one of these trials, and it proved to be an important one.1 The prisoner was ably defended, & all the affectation of zeal, which lawyers so well know how to assume on such occasions, was displayed in this instance; but ineffectually as to the acquittal on the merits of the case, for the jury found the prisoner guilty of the charge; an exception was taken to the indictment, however, which proved fatal, and the business must begin again, at the next term. This detail cannot be very amusing to you, but my apology for it is, that I so seldom have an opportunity of mentioning professional business, wherein I had a share. I have an excellent friend in one of the associate judges, of the County, where I am going next week— He lately married one of Mrs: Rutter’s Sisters, and lives within a few miles of the County town.2 I have passed several Sundays at his farm & never was more hospitably entertained in my life. He is a warm federal, and often talks of my father, though he did not know him personally. Your father, said he, is a plain farmer, like myself— Yes— “Well, I like him the better for that— How much wheat or corn does he raise in a year?” I said, no wheat, for it will not grow so near the sea as his farm lays, but he raises corn enough for his own consumption. “Does he send 203 anything to market, as I do,?” I believe not. “Has he got a large barn?” Not more than half so large an one, as you have. The fact is, that the judges barn is one of the largest & best finished I ever saw— It is upwards of an hundred feet in front, by 45, or 6, deep, built of Stone, like the houses at German town.

I will send you by the first opportunity, a copy of the speeches on the bill for repealing the judiciary, delivered in Senate.3 Those of the house are not yet published— Also a book for my father; “Barton on free Commerce,” I have no personal knowledge of its contents, except from the review of it in the Aurora.4 Its doctrines are entirely of the new school; or the modern law of Nations, as advocated by France—

Please inform my father, that the Harleian miscellany, though a single quarto volume, costs fourteen dollars, and I am afraid to venture on the purchase of it, without his direction.

The Books my brother sent me, came safe to hand—

With best love to all friends, I am, dear Mother / Your son