from "Patience McGuire" (1795)
Cousin Bridget came to see me as soon as she heard I was with child, in November, my fourth month, as the baby was beginning to stir a little. She fussed over me every moment and tried to prescribe various medicinal herbs for my condition, until she came to realize that my knowledge of herblore far exceeded hers. Then she said, "Oh, Patty! Do, I beg of you, come stay on our Petersburg farm to bear your child. There we are better placed to care for both of you. Come there with me soon, while you are still fit for travel, and before the winter sets in."
I replied, "The child is not expected until May. It would be such a long stay away from home, and my work is needed here most of all. Besides, as a midwife I must attend to women around here under frontier conditions, and we do all right. Why should I enjoy the luxury of giving birth down in civilization, while my fellow mothers are bravely living up here through the winters? Let me talk this over with Mama and Michael."
It also seemed to me that part of her motivation may have been to get her son back home for a while. Having lost her husband the year before, she had no man on her premises except her son-in-law Dick Dowling, with whom she did not get along well. As a consequence, he stayed away from the homestead as often as his money and his friends' forbearance permitted. Jane did not seem much put out by the frequent spells of tending to matters other than her husband. She had taken up embroidery, and was becoming so accomplished in that art that she sold her work at the Huntingdon County fair. She was also her old mother's mainstay.
To have Michael there to keep her company would be a comfort for my mother-in-law. Well she knew that the only way to get him there would be to bring me there, for he would not leave my side.
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I replied, "The child is not expected until May. It would be such a long stay away from home, and my work is needed here most of all. Besides, as a midwife I must attend to women around here under frontier conditions, and we do all right. Why should I enjoy the luxury of giving birth down in civilization, while my fellow mothers are bravely living up here through the winters? Let me talk this over with Mama and Michael."
It also seemed to me that part of her motivation may have been to get her son back home for a while. Having lost her husband the year before, she had no man on her premises except her son-in-law Dick Dowling, with whom she did not get along well. As a consequence, he stayed away from the homestead as often as his money and his friends' forbearance permitted. Jane did not seem much put out by the frequent spells of tending to matters other than her husband. She had taken up embroidery, and was becoming so accomplished in that art that she sold her work at the Huntingdon County fair. She was also her old mother's mainstay.
To have Michael there to keep her company would be a comfort for my mother-in-law. Well she knew that the only way to get him there would be to bring me there, for he would not leave my side.
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