and all the papers except one which covers the printed sheet; this is rubbed with a smooth piece of box-wood, and the business is done.
   On the 6th of this month we engaged Nancy Prow as a servant, at 12/ per month.
   16th. I got another quire of large paper for printing, and made great preparations for the business.—Struck off a few Skeletons.
   21st. Busy at finishing off my books and printing Skeletons, as well as waiting on living skeletons.—I have been considering the means of lessening my expenses. In order to remove one considerable source, I took an opportunity at bed-time to mention to my wife the impropriety of her sister Helen’s further stay with us, and insisted peremptorily that she should leave us.—The subject had been canvass’d in my mind for some time. I had been press’d for want of money, and a sort of desperation drove me to this resolution, however disagreeable it might be to wound the feelings of one so dear to me. I had reason to repent my rashness; her tender nature could not ear so rude a shock. After some expostulations with me she fell into a state of the most pitiful distraction, and exhibited such a deplorable picture of misery as would defy all attempts at description.