took me again in September, but did not confine me so long. Thus much with regard to my troublesome companion.
My sister came to reside with us in the beginning of last October, but we had no long enjoyment of her company, for she departed this life the last day of December, after a five days' illness, which though very sharp, she bore with a truly Christian patience and resignation to the Divine will, spending her last breath in prayers for all her relations and acquaintances, and in blessing me and my little family, one by one, as we stood in tears around her. The first thing she said to me when she came to my house was: "Brother I am come to die with you." Her countenance was cheerful, and I was in hopes that her words would not be so soon accomplished. During the little time she was with us, she did me and my family much good by her pious exhortations, and she instructed my little ones in commendable works they were unacquainted with before, which she was very capable to teach them. She had, after her duty to God, taken the excellent daughter, Proverbs 31st chapter, the 18th verse to the end, for her pattern; and she kept all about her employed, and would often wish she had strength to do more herself, and not be the only lazy person in the family; and yet in that short time, besides her daily task in the Bible, four chapters and the Psalms for the day, she had read the best part of "The Persecutions of the Vaudois of Piedmont," a pretty large folio by John Liger, a minister of that country. She concluded her labors here in the sixty-sixth year of her age, and by the truly Christian manner of her death gave us great comfort, who were eye-witnesses of it. This being the last scene she acted on this troublesome stage of life, I have transmitted it to you faithfully, and I hope we may all imitate her faith and constancy.
