Mary Henry Diary, 1864-1868

[[underlined]] Jan. [[underlined]] [[underlined]] 1864[[underlined]] us to see Mrs Douglass. The pretty came down looking very handsome. The mingling of deference & playfulness in her manner to the Prof was very pleasing. She asked his advice in reference to her boys. She lived for them & taught them to be proud of the name they bore. We gave her the love she said she preferred to admiration. M Fallon asked us to take tea with her at the Hospital The party consisted of Prof & Mrs. A___ Prof Pierce. Admiral Davis & wife Dr & Mrs. Bliss Miss [[Lacock?]] Miss Lowe & Mary & myself. We found a table spread for us in the kitchen with a drummer boy for a waiter. We were as merry as possible and the Prof.s declared they would not have lost such an entertainment for the greatest dinner in Wash. I told Prof Pierce we had left him in the morning in dispair he was so hopelessly deep. We wondered if might not grow to wise for himself some day & fail to understand his own problems. He laughed as he answered that "know thyself" was the most difficult problem given to man. But grew earnest and grave when we asked if there was no danger of his finding himself some day beyond the sympathy of his fellow men. "I can never be beyond the sympathy of God. I can[[end page]] [[underlined]] Jan [[underlined]] [[underlined]] 1864[[underlined]] never be lonely in the study of the great works of the Creator. If Jesus Christ were on earth would we care for the sympathy of man would we not find in him an all sufficiency. It was pleasant to hear a man of his caliber mention that name with so much reverence & love. [[underlined]]7th Thurs.[[underlined]] Judge & Mrs. [[Searing?]]. Miss Bates Mr. & Mrs. Sprague called. A party at Sewards. [[underlined]]8th Fri.[[underlined]] We had quite a merry scene after breakfast this morning Miss Soney & Miss Jackson have been teasing Prof. Hall with the pretense that they had some serious cause of complaint against him. This morning they promised to tell him what it was. As they had realy nothing we were curious to see how they would get out of the scrape. [[Jane?]] commenced by advising him to take something to make him sleep better at night divulge important secrets if he were not more careful. A habit of talking in sleep was certainly very dangerous. The poor Prof. looked completely puzzled and declared that if he had been so unfortunate as to talk in his sleep he certainly had said [[?]] that could give offense to the ladies. He [[?]] would call in Dr. Strong as witness to that effect. The good old Dr. was greatly astonished when Jane asked him if he remembered what he had said to her the morning before concerning the remarks made