Not a harsh word or hasty
expression is ever heard. It is a beautiful pattern of a Christian
family, a beautiful exemplification of religion. . . ."
The events of the first summer in Brunswick are graphically described
by Mrs. Stowe in a letter written to her sister-in-law, Mrs. George
Beecher, December 17, 1850.
MY DEAR SISTER,--Is it really true that snow is on the ground and
Christmas coming, and I have not written unto thee, most dear sister?
No, I don't believe it! I haven't been so naughty--it's all a mistake--
yes, written I must have--and written I have, too--in the night-
watches as I lay on my bed--such beautiful letters--I wish you had
only gotten them; but by day it has been hurry, hurry, hurry, and
drive, drive, drive! or else the calm of a sick-room, ever since last
spring.
I put off writing when your letter first came because I meant to write
you a long letter--a full and complete one, and so days slid by,--and
became weeks,--and my little Charlie came . . . etc. and etc.!!!
Sarah, when I look back, I wonder at myself, not that I forget any one
thing that I should remember, but that I have remembered anything.
From the time that I left Cincinnati with my children to come forth to
a country that I knew not of almost to the present time, it has seemed
as if I could scarcely breathe, I was so pressed with care. My head
dizzy with the whirl of railroads and steamboats; then ten days'
sojourn in Boston, and a constant toil and hurry in buying my
furniture and equipments; and then landing in Brunswick in the midst
of a drizzly, inexorable northeast storm, and beginning the work of
getting in order a deserted, dreary, damp old house.
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