fir-grove.

Charles and I have just received your letter and the Major's, informing us of your safety and the birth of another son. Accept our united congratulations, and be assured we rejoice in two events so pleasing to you both. May every addition to your family be a large addition to your happiness! This agreeable intelligence arrived very opportunely, since it affords some degree of compensation for the losses/ we have sustained. Mr. and Mrs. Clements left us three days ago, and some letters from London occasioned my father to depart thither yesterday morning. He talks of returning again in a very few weeks which removes the pain I should otherwise feel at the separation. He kindly assures me, too, that he will never be long absent from us. – Conversing upon this subject, he said,

‘I look to you, my children, for the comfort of my remaining days; your society will enliven my spirits, and help to alleviate those infirmities of nature which I must expect to approach as I advance farther in years.’

We then entered into an agreement with him to spend our winters in Chatham-place; and he will devote the greatest part of the summers to us in either of our country residences. Upon this plan you see, my dear madam, we are not likely to be much separate. The evening before his departure, this dear, this excellent parent, took my beloved Montgomery and me into the library; where, taking a hand of each, he seated himself between us, and exclaimed, with joy,/

‘What an enviable state has Almighty goodness seen fit to place me in! my most ardent wish accomplished, and my declining years crowned with delight! Thus situated, my beloved children, my happiness surpasses my powers of expression. – Heaven has not only given me peculiar success in my commercial concerns, but has, likewise, blessed me with a daughter, who has been hitherto the pride of my life, the delight of my heart.