2

Still the sad reality begins to force itself upon
me in various ways: but in name, perhaps more than in
the settled and calm grief of his wife. His children
do not seem to know that they have lost their father
They are probably unable by reason of their tender age
to form any just conceptions of death, as they can
not certainly estimate its temporal consequences.
A day or two since in riding from town with little
Sarah alone, I conversed with her about her Father
-how much he loved his children-how often he
gave them good advice & wished & prayed that they
might be useful, good & happy; & I asked her what
she thought about her Father's going away from
them all, never to be seen again. She said, it seemed
to her, that her pa had gone to visit some town
or place, as he used to go to Columbia or New
York-and would come back again-"I keep think
=ing" said she, "as if I was just going to see him
coming back!" How natural! But this absence of
expressed or manifested sorrow on the part of the
children, seems to add to Henrietta's grief-as