Adams Family Correspondence, volume 8
d1788—
I am almost affraid you do not love me so well as I hoped you did— If you had have known how much you dissappointed me, & my Friends here, in not making us a visit, your benevolence would have induced my Brother, & you, to have surmountd every Obstacle—
If I had not felt too great a tenderness for the Parent, I
would have told you that your Son was here very Sick, & had alarming Complaints— And
indeed I could have told you so with truth— But I did not want to decoy you here in this
way, & make you travel the road with an akeing heart, I know too well the distress
of it—
I suppose Mr Adams is with you before this time— He would
go to Newbury a Tuesday contrary to my advice—& I have been very uneasy about him
ever since— I think it is highly necessary for him to be exceeding careful as to Diet,
Exercise, &cc— As to Study that must certainly be laid aside for the present— We
wished him to have tarried longer here, He knows that I felt a pleasure in attending
upon One, who I thought so worthy of our Love, & esteem— I hope he is with you now
& much better— My Love to him I will not say to him that I hope Morpheus nightly
sheds his Poppies o'er his head, but in a more Christian stile, pray that the good
Shepherd of Isreal, who himself never slumbers nor sleeps, would encircle him in the
arms of his Love, & remove every disorder,—that his Blood may flow on in a regular
& healthful Course, & he perfectly restored—that the rose may again return to
his Cheek, & the glow of health smile & brighten in his Face—
I hope to see you next week, if our chaise wheels are done, & nothing happens we expect to come— Mr Allen has been sick with weak Eyes ever since he returned— They were here a Lecture day this week, & gave some account of the dreadful trial she had with her child—1 I believe she does not want to go another Journey with one—
302Please to give my love to my Sister Cranch & Cousins— cousin Betsy Smith begs to be remembered by her Aunts, as well my Son & Daughter.
Ever, & unalterably your affectionate sister
RC (Adams Papers); docketed: “1788 E Shaw.”
The Allens' only child,
Betsey, who had been born in Aug. 1787, survived to adulthood, marrying Rev. Thomas A.
Merrill of Middlebury, Vt., in 1812 (
Sibley's Harvard Graduates
, 18:364, note
17).
The final line and signature were written sideways in the margin.