My Dear Sister,

I have delayed writing to thee for a week, thinking daily that we should have a letter from thee or the children, but none has arrived as yet, and it is now nearly four weeks, since we received any, we do not however feel anxious about you, because W Bettle has received several letters from brother Samuel, and from them we know you are all well; but we think your letters to us must have miscarried, which is very provoking; it takes some time and trouble to write them, and deprives us of the pleasure of reading them; they are all very satisfactory and very interesting; thy description of Mont Blanc, was beautiful; oh how I often wish, I could see the objects

of interest that you are visiting, but this, I fear, will never be my portion certainly, the next thing to seeing them myself, is to have you see them and tell me about your travels; this is one of the pleasures I looked forward to, when we shall meet again, which seems to be drawing near now; I have commenced to make arrangements for leaving this delightful home of yours, which we shall do in the course of a few weeks; I think it will be best to allow 3 weeks to fix the house for your return; when I last wrote, the tide of war seemed so against us, I hardly knew where we should be, before the week was ended; but now all danger of the rebels invading our state is over, and the drafting is postponed, so that, we have come to the conclusion that you will keep to your intention of retuning

in the 11th month; I need not say to thee that we shall all leave here with regret, for I think we have fully enjoyed being here, and have used your property, as we are enjoined to use the world without abusing it, and I believe the only return I can make is to have all things in order, when you return, and good people in the kitchen, these are really as scarce as gold; nothing desirable in the cook line has come along yet, so I have partly engaged old Charlotte; then if Sarah does not come back, and I cannot get a waiter girl, I will keep Lavinia until thee comes; I shall not engage her permanently on account of her child, as thee might not like to have him about the house; but as I shall have to leave things very much to their care, when we go home, I feel anxious to have those in whom I can

place entire confidence.
     I think Phebe mentioned in her last letter that her father had been sick well he is now much better, but thee will be surprised, when I tell thee that he had not been at his store for four weeks; D^r John Meigs, who has attended him said his liver was out of order and his whole system prostrated, and he must take rest; this he has given up to do, and I think it has been of great benefit to him, mentally and physically; I am sure, if we had been in 9th st he would not have stayed about the house as happy as he is here; he can walk in the garden and sit on the porch, and when he is tired of that he can look out of the office window; then in the afternoon we ride in the cars; and now that he is used to pottering round he likes it right well. D^r J Meigs being out the city for a few days, the old gentleman called to see him, and it really did me good to

him looking so well; he says the country is the place for people to live to old age; he enquired very particularly after you all, and wished me when I wrote to give his love to you and say that he hoped you would get safely home; we took him out to see the garden; now, said he, I think Mrs. Bettle would rather see this home than all the foreign parts she is visiting;" I thought he was pretty nearly right He said he had [...] place cart loads of peaches, pears and every thing that was good, and he only comes to town whe[...] has to come on business; I think he was smart to abdicate before old age overtook him; he is an elegant doctor yet and has not left many in the city like him.
     Give my love to dear Molly and tell her, I shall not be able to write her a letter at present but I often think of her and long to see her dear

fac again; her first day and 7th day schols are getting on very well, under Phebe's care, and the little girls often ask for her and send their love.
     My love also to dear Samuel and the boys; tell the latter I am going to send them a paper, in which they will find an interesting account of the late battles on the Potomac and especially at Harpers Ferry, it was an awful week of battles and we all hoped twould bring the war to a speedy termination; but this has not been the case and the two armies are now standing still and looking at each other before another onset; it seems as if this frightful bloodshed would never cease.
     Benjamin and the children send their love to you all.
     With love to thee, my dear sister I remain thine

Elizabeth Williams