occasion and john went down to him immediately attended by james whose object in going was to be the means of bringing back the earliest intelligence to mr and mrs whose anxious sufferings particularly those of the latter have of course been dreadful they went down on tuesday and james came back the next day bringing such favorable accounts as greatly to lessen the distress of the family at though it will probably be a long while before mrs can be quite at ease one most material comfort however they have � the assurance of its being really an accidental wound which is not only positively declared by but is likewise by the particular direction of the bullet such a wound could not have been received in a at present he is going on very well but the surgeon will not declare him to be in no danger mr met with a genteel little accident the other day in hunting he got o� e to lead his horse over a james the writer s eldest brother the limb wan a of jane hedge or a house or something and his horse in his haste trod upon his leg or rather ankle i and it is not certain whether the small bone is not broke has accepted mary s invitation for lord s ball he has not yet sent out his own invitations but that does not signify comes and a ball there is to be i think it will be too early in her mother s absence for me to return with her sunday evening � we have had a dreadful storm of wind in the fore part of this day which has done a great deal of mischief among our trees i was sitting alone in the dining room when an odd kind of crash startled me in a moment afterwards it was repeated i then went to the window which i reached just in time to see the last of our two highly valued elms descend into the sweep i the other which had fallen i suppose in the first crash and which was the nearest to the pond taking a more direction sunk among our screen of and knocking down one fir beating the head of another and the two corner of several branches in its fall this is not all one large elm out of the two on the left hand side as you enter what i call the elm walk was likewise blown down the bearing the was broke in two and what i regret more than all the rest is that all the three elms which grew in hall s meadow and gave such ornament to it are gone two were blown down and the other so much injured that it cannot stand i am happy to add however that no greater evil than the a of jane loss of trees has been the consequence of the storm in this place or in our immediate neighborhood we grieve therefore in some comfort i am yours ever j a the next letter written four days later than the former was addressed to miss an intimate friend whose sister my mother was married to jane s eldest brother � wednesday th my � i did not receive your note yesterday till after had left or i would have sent my answer by her instead of being the means as i now must be of the elegance of your new dress for the ball by the value of d you are very good in wishing to see me at so soon and i am equally good in wishing to come to you i believe our merit in that respect is much upon a par our self denial strong having paid this tribute of praise to the virtue of both i shall here have done with and proceed to plain matter of fact in about a fortnight s time i hope to be with you i have two reasons for not being able to come before i wish so to arrange my visit as to spend some days with you after your mother s return in the st place that i may have the pleasure of seeing her and in the nd that i may have a better chance of bringing you back with me your promise in my favor was not quite absolute but if your will is not perverse you and i will do all in our power to overcome your scruples of con a of jane science i hope we shall meet next week to talk all this over till we have tired ourselves with the very idea of my visit before my visit begins our invitations for the th are arrived and very curiously are they mary to you yesterday s unfortunate accident i dare say he does not seem to be going on very well the two or three last posts have brought less and less favorable accounts of him john has gone to again to day we have two families of friends now who are in a most anxious state for though by a note from this morning there seems now to be a revival of hope at its continuance may be too reasonably doubted mr however who has broken the small bone of his leg is so good as to be going on very well it would be really too much to have three people to care for you distress me cruelly by your request about books i cannot think of any to bring with me nor have i any idea of our wanting them i come to you to be talked to not to read or hear reading i can do that at home and indeed i am now laying in a stock of intelligence to pour out on you as the invitation the ball dress and some other things in this and the preceding letter refer to a ball 