OCR Text |
Show 102 weather being so stormy and the roads almost impassable. We arrived home on Tuesday the 17th, in one of the worst storms I ever witnessed-much fatigued with our travels, but delighted to see home again.16 To the careful eye it will seem that Ellis has written these entries some time after the events she describes, else why-on March 13-is she able to say they arrived home on the 17th? Two weeks after their return, everyone having been sick, Ellis moping again about her physical limitations, Milford admonishes her not to worry about the work (my emphasis for a later reference) but to make herself "contented" that she may sooner regain her strength, telling her that she will never get well unless she does so. "This morning," Ellis reports, "I had one of the most beneficial and encouraging conversations with Milford that I have had for a long time. May Heaven help me to remember his words." His words, as Ellis summarizes them, are: Become engrossed in my studies and those of my boys. Live to do good, to be a light and blessing in our home. Seek the spirit of God. Let it ever abide in my heart as a fountain of living water of which I can partake and rejoice continually. Cultivate charity without which we are nothing.17 And her conclusions: Milford has prided himself in his united family. May I from this day date a nobler life, and never, never think, say, or d_o aught to cause discord or strife in his family, tHat he may never have to admit the humiliating truth as many good faithful elders do, that there is no peace, no love, no union in his home.18 It is always she_ who must improve. "If I wish to reap the rewards of a pure and noble womanhood, I must be a true and noble woman." How is today's woman impelled toward truth and nobility in the |