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Show 100 February 10th I arose early, studied my usual lessons, wrote to the girls, congratulating Mary upon the anniversary of her wedding day. Mary, the ever kind and faithful. Who would not desire to emulate her nobility of soul? February 11th Nature has donned her robes of white, her mantle is ample and flowing, encompassing hill and dale, valley and mountain. I wonder where Milford is this wintry morning. I hope they have reached a more congenial clime ere this, that they are safely harbored in the sunny part of Dixie. I hope I will get a letter today from them.14 Her health declining again, Ellis receives a "long-looked-for" letter from Milford and is cheered at the prospect of his return in "a few weeks," for on this business trip "they have concluded to go no further than Beaver." It would be interesting to tabulate her husband's time away from Ellis in the first decade of their marriage. Already, in eight years, there have been Indian War service, several missions-including an extended one in England, and countless business trips. Rather than becoming inured to these separations, Ellis reacts to them not unlike the way one might feel in having an old wound opened and reopened. "How thankful I shall be when we are all homeward-bound. But I desire, before that day arrives, to possess better control over my passions." (The word passion in the nineteenth century did not have the strong sexual overtones with which it has been popularly invested in the latter part of the twentieth century.) On February 24th Ellis notes "little Bard's seventh birthday." A week later Milford has one in absentia. A sister-in-law has |
