"What a cordial to my dejected spirits were the few lines last night received! And does your heart forebode that we shall again be happy? My hopes and fears rise alternately. I cannot resign more than I do, unless life itself were called for. My dear sons, I cannot think of them without a tear. Little do they know the feelings of a mother's heart. May they be good and useful as their father! Then they will in some measure reward the anxiety of a mother. My tenderest love to them. Remember me also to Mr. Thaxter, whose civilities and kindness I shall miss. "God Almighty bless and protect my dearest friend, and, in his own time, restore him to the affectionate bosom of "PORTIA." It was all the more lonely for Mrs. Adams that the winter was a severe one: "the sublimest winter" she ever saw. In December and January there fell the highest snow known in forty years; all through January and February, the Bay was frozen over, so that no vessel could pass through for a month. "We had neither snow, rain, nor the least thaw. It has been remarkably healthy, and we have lived along very comfortably, though many people have suffered greatly for food." In the long winter days, how eagerly Mrs. Adams must have watched for the incoming mails! I do not know what were the postal arrangements of Braintree; very likely there were none. In Boston, the Post Office was opened every Monday morning from the middle of March to the middle of September, "at 7 of the clock, to deliver out all letters that do come by the post till twelve o'clock; from twelve to two o'clock, being dinner-time, no office kept; and from two o'clock in the afternoon to six o'clock the office will be open to take in all letters to go by the Southern and Western post." A single letter cost one shilling to send; this rate held to the middle of the nineteenth century. Beside letters, the faithful Portia sent to her John all the papers and news-letters she could lay hands on. Boston by this time had several newspapers. The first of these, appearing as early as 1704, was the _Boston News-Letter_, "Published by Authority." For some time this little sheet held the field alone; but in 1721 appeared the _Boston Gazette_, and the _New England Courant_. In both these, James Franklin, Benjamin's elder brother, had a hand; indeed, the _Courant_ was his own paper, started when he was discharged from the staff of the _Gazette_. He seems to have been a quarrelsome fellow, was twice arraigned for contempt, and once imprisoned. Benjamin, then a boy of sixteen, astute from his cradle, contributed by stealth to the _Courant_ more or less; but slipped away to Philadelphia without getting into trouble. These papers, doubtless, Portia sent regularly to her John, who received them as often as Fate or the enemy allowed.