To Mrs. E. C. Pierce.
New York, May 27, 1841.
Your last letter was all filled with accounts of your outward life.
What do I care whether you have one room or six, provided you are happy?
I want to know what your spirit is doing?
What are you thinking, feeling, and reading?
As for feeling, you cannot, I know, reveal to me or any one the world of sweet emotions that are now opening in your heart; but you can give me a glimpse.
And see that you do it, instead of telling me how many gowns the baby has, and whether he sleeps in a swing cradle.
You need not tell me about working all the time.
You shall not do it. There is no sense in burying your soul under butter and cheese, any more than under laces and ruffles.
Your husband, be he ever so plain a Friend, must mind me, and observe stated seasons.
On every anniversary of your wedding day, he must give you a book ..
My task here is irksome to me. Your father will tell you that it was not zeal for the cause, but love for my husband, which brought me hither.
But since it was necessary for me to leave home to be learning somewhat, I am thankful that my work is for the anti-slavery cause.
I have agreed to stay one year.
I hope I shall then be able to return to my husband and rural home, which is humble enough,
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yet very satisfactory to me. Should the “Standard” be continued, and my editing generally desired, perhaps I could make an arrangement to send articles from Northampton.
At all events, I trust this weary separation from my husband is not to last more than a year.
If I must be away from him, I could not be more happily situated than in Friend Hopper's family.
They treat me the same as a daughter and a sister.
P. S. Only think of it!
New York has repealed her nine months law, and every slave brought here is now immediately free. 