[Letter
written by John E. Earle to his wife in New York
City - transcribed by E. E. Beske]
Letter from Norfolk, December 11, 1842
(Sunday):
My dear Mary,
On my arrival at this place last evening
I had the pleasure to learn that
although you and Edward had been unwell
yet you were both better and that all
the rest of the family were well, and I
humbly trust that you and all may be
entirely well on my return, which
providence permitting will be on
Thursday next. What a thrill of delight
it gives me to be enabled to name the
day when I expect to hold to my bosom
again the object of my heart's dearest
affections. And oh may it afford her an
equal pleasure, that it will I have no
doubts or at least it will take a good
deal to make me doubt. My anxiety
increases just in proportion as the
distance diminishes. A restless
eagerness seems to take entire
possession of me and even the steam
boats and railroad cars seem to mock me
by their slow motion although moving at
the rate of 20 miles an hour and when I
go to bed at night, I long for the
morning's dawn.
You my Mary are ever present to my mind,
imagination picturing you to me now
doing this now that, now thinking of me
and now forgetting me, now wishing me
home and then being reconciled to my
absence. Oh what a selfish thing is
love. To love is misery. To be beloved
happiness, to love and be beloved by the
object you love is Bliss. Such my dear
Mary as I fervently hope we both may be
in the possession of. This depends on a
great degree on ourselves. This being
so let us strive to live so as to render
each other happy. This is the last
letter I expect to write home as you
will receive it but one day in advance
of my return, and it is written in
compliance with my Mary's request and an
expectation on my part that it will
afford you pleasure to know what day I
expect to return. Thursday next at 4 or
5 OC P.M. you may expect your fatherful
and devoted husband.
Keep my dear children for me and tell
them Pa hopes to see them at the time
named above and hopes they have been
good children. Tell Ella Pa can't bring
a dog or cat what can bite, as they
might bite Pa and then Ella would be
sorry. And tell Mary Sophia Pa can't
get any sister baby's here but that Ma
must get her one. My love to Mother.
