since the year 1834: of late, under her own signature. Her thoughts and sketches, though hasty, have endeared her to many friends. She has also contributed two small volumes towards the Sunday School Library. But the labours of love, and the duties of domestic life, have not as yet permitted that concentration of her powers upon any extended work, which some who know her, anticipate, when an appropriate occasion shall come.
COUSIN HELEN’S BABY.
Your letter, dear cousin, is before me, for I am resolved to do, what is somewhat unusual among our sex, answer it; that is, give a reply to all the questions contained therein, and, if possible, attend to the most important before I come to the postscript. You begin as follows:—
“How in the world am I to write this letter with my baby?” Well, it seems from your own statement at the close, as well as from sundry other unmistakeable signs, such as a few blots, paper a little “crumpled,” and a few extra flourishes, that you did actually accomplish the thing, and that, too, with the baby in the room, and part of the time in your arms.
“Impossible!” said Napoleon; “let that word be struck out of my dictionary.” Alas! we poor mothers often find in our pathway rugged Alps to climb, but, almost always, ingenuity and patience will work a way around the jagged rocks, or through the narrow defiles.
“Oh, this baby tending!” you next exclaim; and, from the heavy tread of the pen and the big admiration point, it seems to come from a spot deeper than the German gutturals; I conclude, even from the bottom of your heart, for you go on to say, “Oh! if these husbands, who can commence and finish their business at stated hours, and do everything by the clock, could know how tedious is the tread-mill path of one who has a troublesome, crying baby to manage, they would certainly try to initiate themselves into the mystery of baby tending, and aid us more.”
Really, Ann, I had supposed you possessed of different ideas of woman’s cares and man’s duties; or have you become an ultra woman’s rights partizan, or are you so clear-sighted as to understand
