WEDNESDAY APRIL 10, 1872

which she deserved and would have got from one more thoughtful than I have been. I have acknowledged it before & do so again with bitterness of heart – at my own want of feeling. Tender and kind she has ever been to me, and my love for her has ever been of the truest since our marriage. And even now when I look into her care worn face, I can discover no difference from the pleasing countenance which first attracted my regard. We have both faded since that, but married love fails to recognize these changes in each other which Thursday 10th 1872 Cool but thawing, snow gone from the fields and now nearly all in the roads and along fences, still crossing the ice on foot– We have as yet had no warm days- Capt of "Nancy Pratt" has arrived and taken charge -

youth so readily discerns. We are both wearing spectacles now and sometimes there is an interchange, which may account for this mutual forbearance. One thing I do know, almost the entire burden of raising the family devolved on her. For 16 years I was only in the house to eat and sleep. She has done her best to train them in the path of truth and virtue and now when I am at home and might assist in advice and education of the two younger, I feel like a passenger standing by the railway while the train is passing and anxious to be taken on board, but the train does not slow or come to a stand and while I am waiting it passes on – Such have been my feelings for years back. Even last harvest Hugh, John and the girls had it all