LETTER XI.
St. Louis,
Easter Sunday, 1863.
Dear Mother,—I am thinking of you to-day, our
Communion Day. I wish I was with you. I know
you are thinking of me. Yesterday morning Mr.
Yeatman sent me a basket filled with the loveliest
spring flowers, wet with dew; I have them beautifully
arranged, placed on a chair by me, while I write: they
fill the room with their perfume. I am invited with
the Chauvenets to his house to-morrow evening to meet
General and Mrs. McDowell. I am not yet well enough
to go out in the evening,—I am sorry. On my bureau
stands a sweet little bouquet of heart's-ease, sent
up to me the other day. The St. Louis gentlemen
have the prettiest way of doing things. I am much
better than I was; can go out into the garden, and
am allowed to extend my diet slightly; for instance,
I was permitted a baked potato for dinner, beef tea, and
a morsel of roast beef; after which latter enormity I am
actually alive. Dr. Eliot is at the head of most of the
improvements going on here in the educational point of
view; attached to his church is a mission school for poor
and forlorn children; I do not know that I should say
attached to his church, but it is taught by the young
ladies and gentlemen of his church; his son Thomas
Eliot, is the principal of the school. You may imagine
how much good such a school must do. Dr. Eliot is also
working for other schools and for the University, heart
and soul; he has the most wonderful persistence, never
giving up. He has done a great deal here for education.
I feel quite impatient to be at my work again. I hope
this work is for me. My cough has gone; that is a relief.
Those violets you sent were lovely. What a woman
you are! I keep them in the letter. I hope to have
another letter to-morrow. You speak of feeling afraid
you repeat yourself in your letters. No matter if you
do; I read them over and over, so it amounts to the same
thing. I feel very quiet and contented now. I have
learnt a great deal during my sickness, and I think I
can feel willing, or try to feel so, to let the Lord do
what he pleases with me. Give my love to all.
