I sieze the earliest opportunity of answering your very kind letter of the 9th which I did not recieve untill friday evening owing to a violent of Storm of Thunder and Lightning and the heaviest Rain ever known in this part of the Country by which the roads have been so much injured that the mail was delayed one day1 I never witness any thing like it Mrs. Hellen who continues in a very weak state was so entirely overcome that she had repeated faintings which she did not recover for two days She is still confined to her Room and John Hellen is confined to his bed with a bad fever he is however much better to day—

Mr. Hellen begins to be convinced that this situation is unhealthy I have not found it so for I never was so well in my life I understand he is about Mr. Stodarts place in George Town they have not yet come to a final agreement—2

George is very angry with you he says you are very naughty to go away and leave him he does teaze me so when I write I scarcely know what I am doing he is now standing at the table sometimes repeating his fable taking my pens to write to you and crying because he dont have a letter as well as me he is very well John has got over his 378 weaning entirely and grows quite fat again I wish I could get over it as well but I find it much more difficult than I did last time I believe my journey did more for me than any thing else can do—

Adieu my best and nost loved friend I have written you so fully upon part of your last letter that I will only say I am ready to do any thing you please for the future remember me affectionately to your father Mother and Brother tell Mrs. Adams I have no news to write that I never go out of course see no company and that I thought as you heard from and the children so frequently my writing would only have been tedious and uninteresting I shall however address my next to her—

Some complain of time passing too fast I now think it He has leaden wings I live upon the anticipation of our meeting and yet hope that something will arise to induce you to shorten the period of your absence that we may at least enjoy a fews weeks before Congress takes you from me Adieu once more and remember that there is no being in existence who loves you half so tenderly as your / Affectionate Wife

Altho I have not written to you Since the return of Your Husband to Quincy, I have had the pleasure of hearing weekly from you through him; and of learning that You, and the Children are well. I want to see the Dear Boys, and regreet that they are like to be so long Seperated from me. George will forget us and John cannot know us. I have a great opinion of childrens being early attached to their Grandparents. perhaps it may arise from the early Bias I formed for mine, and the respect and Veneration instilld into my infant mind towards them: so that more of their precepts and Maxims remain with me, to this hour, than those of my excellent Parents, who were 379 not however deficient in theirs but the superiour weight of Years, added to the best examples imprest them more powerfully at the early period when I resided with them. the respect which my parents paid to them, had also its due influence, and I revered them as I do at this Day their memorys, with respect and Veneration, and I knew little difference of affection between them, and my Parents.

Mr Adams has picked up his flesh some Since his return. I was quite allarmed to see how he had fallen off. he cannot engage in any service but with his whole mind attention, and the labours, and anxiety of the mind are a weariness to the flesh. his countanance looks healthy, and the air and sun of the country will give him a brown hue—

I Sympathize with Your Family in the late event, which has call’d forth from some branches of it, tears of sorrow and regreet. may the wounded heart find relief, from the consideration that no event takes place, but by the permission of an over ruling Providence who knows what is best, and who can cause that which for the present is grievious to us, to terminate for our good, and to promote our best interest. this ought to be the use we should make of our troubles and afflictions in this Life. Yet the swollen Heart must have Vent, or the Grief which cannot find it will burst it—

How is your Mamma? Mr & Mrs Hellen and my Dear Caroline? for whose health I am not a little anxious and the more so from the account which Mrs Cranch wrote her Mamma since she saw her. I fear that climate, or Situation is not so salubrious to her as Boston, or is it the coroding weight of care and anxiety which oppresses her Spirits, and preys upon her Health, from what ever source it Springs, I regreet the cause— my Love to her. tell her that a cheerfull Heart doth good like a medicine— She is an excellent Woman— I wish she was happily connected

Let me hear from you, and present my best regards to Your Whole Family. with a kiss to my dear Boys from their affectionate / Grandmother