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berries are very abundant all around, from within a rod or two of the door to the edge of the woods but alas! the mosquitoes & black flies are plenty too I cannot step out of doors but they swarm & rush about me thirsting for my hearts blood, my chin & neck look some as if I had been attempting to cut my throat as the penalty of picking strawberries: the men put cloths sprinkled with turpentine over their heads & necks under their hats, to protect them while at work. They are famous workers here, Jamie has to come to it more than ever before. Mr. Rider says he worked in the field all day with his father when but eight years old & his sons seem to have followed in the same track. I think they work too hard: there is no doubt that the health of the sons has been injured by labor too constant & severe. Two are dead & the three more alive have each been laid aside by sickness from one to three years. Mr. Rider himself says his wife might have lived longer but for her work, which seems to have been the main purpose of her life. Industry is no doubt one of the cardinal virtues but it has its limits I think it is actually wrong not to give some time in each day to the immortal & nobler part. I fear you are spending these years - the best of your life - too much driven, hurried, bossed about & absorbed by externals not enough cultivating, improving & enjoying that which is within: that that is really yourself. Cannot you have men to help efficiently in what devolves on you so as to secure more of a quiet peaceful & leisure life. Of what use to have