Mr Stone paid my wife a visit… At home all day and thank God pretty busy, but my wife very ill. Oh, how melancholy a time it is, [when I], quite destitute of father or mother, am in all probability like to lose my wife, the only friend I believe I have now in this world, and the lone center of my worldly happiness! When I indulge the serious thought, what imagery can paint the gloomy scene that seems just ready to open itself as it were for a theater for my future troubles to be acted upon.