From Boston, October
3d, she writes: "Have had a most successful but fatiguing week. Read
in Cambridgeport to-night, and Newburyport to-morrow night." Two weeks
later, upon receipt of a letter from her husband, in which he fears he
has not long to live, she writes from Westfield, Mass:--
"I have never had a greater trial than being forced to stay away from
you now. I would not, but that my engagements have involved others in
heavy expense, and should I fail to fulfill them, it would be doing a
wrong.
"God has given me strength as I needed it, and I never read more to my
own satisfaction than last night.
"Now, my dear husband, please do _want_, and try, to remain with
us yet a while longer, and let us have a little quiet evening together
before either of us crosses the river. My heart cries out for a home
with you; our home together in Florida. Oh, may we see it again! Your
ever loving wife."
From Fitchburg, Mass., under date of October 29th, she writes:--
"In the cars, near Palmer, who should I discover but Mr. and Mrs. J.
T. Fields, returning from a Western trip, as gay as a troubadour. I
took an empty seat next to them, and we had a jolly ride to Boston. I
drove to Mr. Williams's house, where I met the Chelsea agent, who
informed me that there was no hotel in Chelsea, but that they were
expecting to send over for me. So I turned at once toward 148 Charles
Street, where I tumbled in on the Fields before they had got their
things off.
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