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and Jansen as Mary is cleaning house. What a care a house full of children must be and I wonder how I would get along with it. The cherry trees are in bloom and looking over toward my house made me think of the spring days when Gertrude and I were living there and how busy and happy we were about our little home which we enjoyed for so few years and which then seemed to us would last forever.

Saturday Apl. 26" 1890. A dark cold day with rain towards evening. I went down town and found a letter from Downing to Sara saying that he and an assistant would be up this morning to do some work over at Mr. Luckleys near Mr. Mathers place which would occupy them several days, that they would want early breakfast &c &c which made us wish that we could be consulted a little on such matters. Girard told me Ettinger Anderson had been through the Crane house and he was disappointed in it and would not give for it what he would have. He talked to him about our place. He said that was out of the question as he wanted a modern house but Girard said he was ready to consider the purchase of a couple of lots. I am getting discontented with myself because I am idle and yet there seems nothing for me to do just now. I wish some one would buy this place so that we could be settling ourselves over at my house. Downing and his assistant a young Swede, named Evers, and Sedgwick came in the afternoon. They had been over to Mr. Luckleys since morning and were driven away by the rain

Sunday 27" Still raining at intervals all day. I talked with Sedgwick about what he wants to do and what he thinks about coming back to Mr. Morses School next year. He seems to think he is not pursuing studies which will be of much help to him unless he goes to college and I think feels that unless he goes to college or to West Point he ought to begin at some business or occupation. I promised to write his mother after I had talked with him. I have been reading Helen Hunts "Ramona" and found it very interesting. I finished it today. I have also read for the second time the Conquest of Mexico" I am beginning again to be unquiet and anxious about our affairs. I foresee I shall soon have to pay nearly a thousand dollars tax on our side hill property, which is entirely unproductive, for the paving of Holmes St. and unless we sell something in the mean time I will not have the money to do it. But I will try to be patient. I have done altogether too much worrying in my life and am suffering for it now. Sedgwick went back to N.Y. by the 8.25 evening train. He is a very fine boy and I think will make a good, reliable man.

Monday 28" We were all up an hour too early caused by a bell ringing at 5 which usually rings at 6 and breakfast was ready at 6. Downing and his assistant got off in ample time. Now he has made arrangements to have his breakfast so as to get off by the 6.20 boat but our woman Lucy who has been washing today and busy every moment all day gives signs of not coming to him. Downing did not think of that aspect of the case. It has been a beautiful day with a tender, delicate atmosphere and yet cool enough for a little fire in the house. I went down town and ordered the dinner but it did not come and caused us a good deal of annoyance as we had to send for meat and meanwhile the first ordered came, making double expense with all the trouble. I saw by the Freeman this evening that Ettinger Anderson has brought the Crane place in spite of what he told Girard. These sharp men never say what they mean, or rather mean what they say.- This morning early

[[newspaper clipping]]
THE EARLY DEAD.
No process slow of dull decay,
The fire of life abated.
With garlands fresh and dewy they
Its banquet left unsated.
They vanished in the mists of death,
E'r o'er them fell a shadow,
And now they draw immortal breath
In happy isle or meadow.

More blest than we, who mourned their fate,
These guests, who early hasted,
They lingered not, like us, too late,
But left the lees untasted.
They quaffed the bubbles on the brim
From beakers full and flowing,
Our mirth was hushed, our eyes were dim
With tears at their outgoing.

But soon we wiped our tears away,
Again the viol sounding,
Bade joy resume its festal sway,
And kept our bosoms bounding.
Long since the hoise of revel died,
Our pulses lost their madness,
And in the calm of eventide
We feel the touch of sadness.

From that boon country in the South,
To which they sped before us,
Oft come those long-lost mates of youth
In dreams, and hover o'er us.
Our locks are grey, our hearts are worn,
Care e'en our sleep invadeth.
They come from bowers of youth and morn,
Where leaf nor blossom fadeth.

They come with airs and scents of May,
These guests from vales Elysian,
They shun the din and glare of day,
But haunt the nightly vision.
Oh, well for us that Dreamland opes
At times its mystic portal,
Through which rekindling, fading hopes
Glide visitants immortal.
B. W. BALL.
[[/newspaper clipping]]

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