When I go past your home, it looks so natural it seems as if I must step in & see you all, & when I do go in it looks so lonesome I can’t bear to stay. Mr. Hickok improves every day, & we hope the church is beginning to awake. Give my love to all the young ladies, & to all the children, & to Lucy if she has not gone on to Boston. May the best of heavens blessings rest upon you & yours, & may we all meet together in heaven, when the toilsome day of life is past. S. PIERCE. LITCHFIELD. May 13. 1834 MY DEAR NEPHEW ... I should think Mary would prefer being at home, as both her parents are there, and the money she would have spent in going to Newark, will nearly bear her mother’s expenses to Boston, & as Mary is young & healthy, & does not need a jaunt to set her up for the summer, & her mother does, I hope she will rejoice to stay at home for the present, & urge her mother to spend all the spare cash upon herself.... [Illustration: PL. LXI.—PATHWAY IN FRONT OF THE SCHOOL ] I am sorry that you have got that whim into your head, that you do not appear well to strangers. When you take the trouble to please strangers, they are always pleased with you, but as you are no beauty, you must like a plain woman seek to please by your conversational talents. I am afraid you have again remitted your exertions to please acquaintances, & are sinking down into your old taciturn habits. You don’t know how much the exertion you made last year to please, raised you in the estimation of all who saw you, Miss L. Miner among the rest came home from H— full of your praises. I don’t think it absolutely necessary for you to take a journey every vacation, but I do think it necessary for you to gain a great many acquaintances.... S. PIERCE. June 1834. MY DEAR NEPHEW. ... I think Mr. Strong has charged very high for the binding of my book, I never gave but 17 cts, per vol—for binding the first & second vols together—& he has charged me 3 Dol. for the dozen, which is the price I set them at—as he has had the binding of so many, I think he ought not to ask as much as the book is worth for the binding, I asked to have a cheap binding, because I cannot sell them for much. I wish you would see him, & ask him to reduce his price. I had a letter from H R— last week, she is still employed in doing good, her sister instructs a Sabbath school of black children & those who belong to them are educated in the knowledge of the Bible. Love to Lucy & the children. S. PIERCE LITCHFIELD, July 29. 1834. DEAR JOHN.