We were most kindly received by the people at Gardiner. Mr. Dodge was ordained December sixth, 1860. The sermon was preached by Dr. Chickering of Portland, and the ordaining prayer was offered by the venerable David Thurston. We found a pleasant home for ourselves, and my father and mother and Mother Dodge came to assist in our going to housekeeping. Our outfit would seem simple indeed to the young people of this day, but love and content abode with us, and we were happy. Our first great sorrow and disappointment came in the loss of a little one to whose coming we had looked forward with joy. This was followed by months of weakness and ill-health for me. My husband's health also gave way in the spring, making necessary a long summer vacation. Six months of this were spent in tenting on Salisbury beach, which resulted in great gain to us both. Our three years' pastorate in Gardiner was pleasant and successful, but a second break in health, in the fall of 1863, made a resignation necessary, and we came to Newburyport to spend the winter with Mother Dodge. In December, through the kindness of his friend, Captain Robert Bayley, my husband was offered a voyage in one of his vessels to the West Indies. He sailed for Porto Rico in the _Edward Lameyer_, commanded by Captain Charles Bayley, and received much benefit and enjoyment from the six weeks' trip. After coming home he supplied for some time at Northboro, Massachusetts, and in the autumn he received a call to Gardner, Massachusetts, which he did not accept. Later, however, he went to Yarmouth, Massachusetts, where he supplied for six months for Rev. J. B. Clark, who was with the Christian Commission in the Army of Virginia. We found a pleasant home with Mr. Clark's mother in the parsonage, and greatly enjoyed this experience, and as it proved it prepared the way for our chief life work. On the return of Mr. Clark, in July, 1865, we went to Hampton, New Hampshire, where my husband was immediately called to the vacant pulpit of the Congregational church. A pleasant pastorate of three years there was followed in 1868 by a call to succeed Mr. Clark, who had resigned as pastor of the Yarmouth church. During our second year in Hampton we had adopted a little girl, whom we called Mary Webster. She was at this time nearly three years old.