● ● ● you have succeeded with him and if he has been a good boy (some naughty things of course). There is no child whom we expect mature in any respect, but take Georgy with the aggregate, is he not a pretty good and very dear boy? You can speak to the conductor to take care of him and his little baggage and Mr. Tilton is always at the depot so he will see to him there. Will dear little Sully be sorry to have him leave? . . . Kiss the little one for me and tell him aunty remembers those roguish eyes.
In much haste Yours—
Affectionately,
Mary90
In her notebook is a poem “Written on the 9th day of May on parting with my babe,” which gives us another glimpse into her feelings:
Go little voyager, o’er life’s rough sea—
Born in a tempest! choose thy pilot God,
The Bible, let thy chart forever be—
Anchor and helm its promises afford.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A father’s love! my heart, be still or break,
Not to thy infant hours in joy made known,
And thou mayest live to learn thy hapless cheerless fate,
Reft of thy parent stock frail [scion], and lone.
Then wilt thou share thy mother’s voiceless woe
Too keen for utterance, too deep for tears!
Yet God forbid, thy guileless heart should know
The early blight of unprotected years.91
The first result of George’s removal appears to have been a marked decline in Mrs. Glover’s health. By August Martha Pilsbury was reporting in a letter that “dear Mary” was in a much worse state of health ● ● ●
90 Mary Baker Glover to Andrew J. Glover, 22 April [Peel’s estimate: 1851], 1925.032.0001, LMC.
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