Miriam Berry Whitcher Speaks Her Mind [ 53 ] tion of her father and a boarder debating the Mexican War in 1847, and, once, election results. We hear nothing of the Westward migration or the Gold Rush except when she mentions acquaintances who have gone West or just returned. But through her letters and literary writings, we learn the dollar value of life in her community and the importance of sewing, housework, church, and personal affairs of health. We see her setting up a home, dealing with new friends, learning about motherhood, and commenting on every facet of domestic life. Her illness and her return to Whitesboro limited Miriam's correspondence in her last years. We feel cheated of the intimacy of her life that we shared with her husband and family reading her letters. The perceptive and witty spirit that created the Widow Bedott and Aunt Maguire infuses her personal correspondence, and we discover a little- known and rare spirit. In her last letter on August 11,1851, when quite enfeebled, separated from her child, resting in Saratoga Springs, Miriam retained a touch of her old, sardonic outlook and could not resist a poke at an evangelical minister who had come to town. I went to Church in the afternoon yesterday. Mr Home the minister of the evangelical congregation assisted in the service. He is a short, cross-eyed man, with long dangling yellow hair, & his wristbands turned up over his coat sleeves ever so far.83 Miriam Berry Whitcher spoke her mind through the Widow Bedott and Aunt Maguire and, in even greater detail, through her letters home. She showed us in intimate and absorbing detail a world that is no more. 63 M. Whitcher to sister, August 11,1851.