Name/Title
AU Harris, Joseph Hastings - 1897-08-11 letter to Bertha Elizabeth LambertEntry/Object ID
1990.1.150Context
[Box 219, Athens, OH, to Miss Bertha Lambert, Westerville, Ohio, “Franklin Co.;” stationery from Cameron House.]
Athens, Ohio, Aug. 11, 1897
Darling Bertha: Once more this privilege comes which to one seems like a hallowed hr. I am well but, bricklayer fashion, am very weary.
During a storm last Wed. lightning struck a house here, tearing the chimney top off so I was repairing that today and will go back to the hall tomorrow.
I am reading “Ethics” of evenings so if I don't get into school there will be no time lost. I think we will finish work on the hall by the middle of next wk. Leonard and I are rooming together, so we have a chat every evening.
Your letter made me feel that I truly have something to live for. I have believed for a long time that you truly loved me, but somehow a deeper vein has been revealed to me. I can heartily agree with you as to a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. I have sometimes thought that it would be impossible for you to think more of me than you do of your own brothers, but I know you do.
Perhaps our separation will cause us to think more deeply than we otherwise would do and may bind us more closely together, but I am willing now to try it the other way {ie} be together. I think if I were to continue laying brick very long, that is on a steady job, I would have to have you with me. Perhaps I become too anxious, since the nature of our work in view requires patience. I see that C. B. [Melyill] and Miss Dodd were married recently. Your letter brought the thought that it is nice you can be at home this summer as it may be the last summer you will get to spend at home.
Of course you do not know yet about entering school. I wish I might be able to make those dear eyes well. They are loving and tender as they are and on my own account I could not ask them changed but I know they pain and hinder you so and that part of course makes one sad.
The fact that I can do nothing to help you now sometimes bothers me, but it will all come right in some way, because I feel that we are trying to do the best we can. I know you will excuse me for not writing more tonight. May the dear Lord keep and protect us while we are thus separated.
Your True Lover,
J. H. Harris.
