Harold Sothern.
A Father, who has lately lost his Wife, to his Daughter at School.
Woburn, July 20th.
My darling Child,
I was very pleased and comforted by your last affectionate letter. Bitterly indeed do I miss you! Had I given way to my own selfish wishes, I think I should not have allowed you to return to school. Your dear aunt, however, who is now looking carefully after my domestic affairs, showed me so plainly that by keeping you at home I should be depriving you of the advantages of education, that I sacrificed my feelings for your sake. On reflection, also, I hoped that you would find some little consolation and comfort from association with young ladies of your own age, for here all is cheerless and dreary. The void caused by your dear mother's death can never be refilled; my home is truly desolate. It would have been wrong to keep you at home to share my grief, and thus uselessly add bitterness to your younger years. Do not grieve too long and bitterly, my child, for your dearly loved mother; imitate her in every action of her life; and when Time has slightly moderated your poor father's sorrow, and you are in charge of his home and your own, things may be brighter and more cheerful again.
Pray write to me soon, and
Believe me,
Your ever affectionate father,