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Jan. 18-24
We are all in better spirits for we think the invalids are better. Nannie has dyptheria but is not very sick ....Monday evening dear little Maggie begins to sink. She is very low all night. About 3 o'clock in the night we all gather around her bed to see her die. She tells us she is perfectly willing to go and she knows God will take her. A short time before she breathed her last, she told Sue she saw some Angels waiting for her; with her last breath repeated hymns and expressed her perfect trust in her Saviour. Just before 4 o'clock AM her spirit took its flight for that "schooless shore." It is a hard trial giving up my pet, for I did love her best. Ma feels it so much for Mag was her favorite too. She said to me, "We have both lossed our darling, Lou." But we sorrow only for ourselves, for Maggie is far better off than she was with us.
But gone into that school
Where she no longer needs our poor protection,
And Christ himself doth rule."
Oh, that her death may be sanctified to each and all of us. May we consider it a warning sent by our Heavenly Father to remind us that we too must die. Oh! That we may live so that in death we may find Him! She is "put away" in the little grave yard on Thursday, 22nd, a cold damp day. Mr. Meade is with us, also Mr. Nelson. They sing the hymn she was so fond of repeating, "I would not live all way." Some few friends were with us and their sympathy was sweet but Oh, what a void in our home and hearts. "A shadow on the household rests and memory and sorrow come." Mary Lewis and Nanny are both getting on very well. Ellen does not improve as we hoped she would ....John tells us Jabe's business to Richmond was to appear as a witness at a Court Martial and that he expected to go back South. I'm so troubled not to hear from him; believe he has written but the mails are so uncertain there is no saying what has become of it. I write a long letter to little Sis on the 16th. Had a letter from Jabe on Friday from Raleigh, N.C. at which place he has been sent to examine conscripts. He expects to go back to Mississippi as soon as he gets through this work. He expected to have spent a week with me but was hurried off from Richmond at two hours notice ....Mammy Eliza and Ellen quite poorly with dyptheria. Mary Lewis and Nan getting quite smart.
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