‘Many thanks for your last sweet note to me, and kind consent to fill my place.... I do hope that you may not find teaching the wearisome task which I sometimes do. Perhaps Aunt Laura may succeed better in fixing the attention of her little pupils. At all events, _I_ am grateful to you for undertaking the trouble. You are dear to a sister’s heart, sweet Laura, and I hope that you are one of the blessings for which I am _not_ unthankful....