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Sunday May 23. 1886. It has been a beautiful, warm day. My father came down and sat on the porch most of the day, but he seemed very feeble and helpless. I think however he had seemed lighter for the little change and exercise and seeing us all about him, Mary, Sara, Janette Marion and me and the children who always come around where Marion is. I am oppressed with a sad and anxious forboding consequent upon the uncertainties of the future and life has seemed full of complex problems which we are always trying to solve and get getting no nearer to. I am comparatively happy and contented when I can see my way clear to paying our daily expenses and when this is not the case all our affairs seem ready to go to ruin and there seems no relying on the continuance of the regular, simple mode of life we have so far been accustomed to, and I dread all changes and have no heart to contemplate them.

Monday 24. Set out some cucumber and melon vines from the hot bed and afterwards went over to the cemetery and cut the grass and dug about the plants on dear Gertrude's and my mothers and Maurice's graves.  Flowers do not grow well there and I think I will plant morning glories on all the graves as they grow well. I felt sad and unhappy when I went there and felt that they at least had escaped from the sorrows which follow us who remain. Though I know that what was dearest in those who sleep there is really not there, the place is sacred for their dust alone. I asked Port to mow the grass and will do what I can to make the place look as though it is not forgotten or neglected. After dinner Mary, Janette and I went to Kingston and then out to Storrs nursery where I got tomato and cabbage plants. We drove round to the Roa-tina and when we got home Tom and I set out the plants. It was too cool this evening to sit out on the porch.

Tuesday 25.  It has been a cool day with rain last night and this evening a fire on the hearth was very comfortable. I worked in the garden all forenoon planting flower seeds and replacing the melons and cucumbers eaten by the cut worms. I commenced to read [[?]] this afternoon but my thoughts are too much on our affairs to get into a quiet mood, so different from the comparative freedom from anxiety of last year. I wrote to Annie Lee. The kitchen girl Katie shows signs of discontent and I should not be surprised if she leaves.

Wednesday 26.  Cold and windy with rich, fine skies.  We have had a fire in the setting noon all day and I built a coal fire in my fathers room.  I went over to the cemetery this morning and dug over the ground on the graves and set out morning glories on all except my mother's and Gertrude's on which the Phlox seems to be promising. I worked all forenoon and in the afternoon read.  I sprinkled the rose bushes and the Guelder rose with a decoction of Hellebore for the aphis which infest them. 

Thursday 27. A grey day with indications of a storm and very undecided about going to N.Y. for our excursion to Highlands tomorrow. We sat by a fire all day. However towards evening the matter seemed a little more promising and I went down to N.Y. by the evening train. At Haverstraw Edith Cook Miss Pychowska and Miss Thompson got on the train having been on an excursion to West Point. Arrived in N.Y. I went directly to the Cemetery where I saw Calvert and also met Fitch who invited me to breakfast with him next day.

Friday 28. The morning broke splendidly with every promise for a fair day. Fitch and I breakfasted at the Union Square hotel very sumptuously after which I went to the Studio Buildings where I met Saul with his lunch basket about to start for the foot of Rector St. where the boat for Sandy Hook was to leave at 10.10.  We went down together by the L.  Whittredge, Guy, Brown, Nicoll and Champney came. We had a charming sail down the bay and noted that they were putting the skeleton of the Statue of Liberty on the pedestal which impressed me more favorably than I supposed it would from descriptions of it. At Sandy Hook we walked

Transcription Notes:
not complete as of 5/4 Hellebore is made from the dried rhizomes of several species of lily plants, many of which occur in the United States. It controls several species of insects, and it does not have a great amount of insecticidal activity. The Statue of Liberty's SKELETON!!! EEK!