Again, in 1767, he writes her concerning the marriage of their daughter:  “London, June 22....  It seems now as if I should stay here another Winter, and therefore I must leave it to your Judgment to act in the Affair of your Daughter’s Match, as shall seem best.  If you think it a suitable one, I suppose the sooner it is compleated the better....  I know very little of the Gentleman [Richard Bache] or his Character, nor can I at this Distance.  I hope his expectations are not great of any Fortune to be had with our Daughter before our Death.  I can only say, that if he proves a good Husband to her, and a good Son to me, he shall find me as good a Father as I can be:—­but at present I suppose you would agree with me, that we cannot do mere than fit her out handsomely in deaths and Furniture, not exceeding the whole Five Hundred Pounds of Value.  For the rest, they must depend as you and I did, on their own Industry and Care:  as what remains in our Hands will be barely sufficient for our Support, and not enough for them when it comes to be divided at our Decease...."[126]

Much has been written of the shrewdness, carefulness, industry, as well as general womanliness of Abigail Adams.  For years she was deprived of her husband’s presence and help; but under circumstances that at times must have been appalling, she not only kept her family in comfort, but by her practical judgment laid the foundation for that easy condition of life in which she and her husband spent their later years.  But there were days when she evidently knew not which way to turn for relief from real financial distress.  In 1779 she wrote to her husband:  “The safest way, you tell me, of supplying my wants is by drafts; but I cannot get hard money for bills.  You had as good tell me to procure diamonds for them; and, when bills will fetch but five for one, hard money will exchange ten, which I think is very provoking; and I must give at the rate of ten and sometimes twenty for one, for every article I purchase.  I blush while I give you a price current;—­all butcher’s meat from a dollar to eight shillings per pound:  corn is twenty-five dollars; rye thirty per bushel; flour fifty pounds per hundred; potatoes ten dollars per bushel; butter twelve shillings a pound; sugar twelve shillings a pound; molasses twelve dollars per gallon; ...  I have studied and do study every method of economy in my power; otherwise a mint of money would not support a family."[127]

Thus we have had a rather varied group of views of home life in colonial days.  In public there may have been a certain primness or aloofness in the relations of man and woman, but it would seem that in the home there was at least as much tender affection and mutual confidence as in the modern family.  In all probability, wives and mothers gave much closer heed to the needs and tastes of husbands and children than is their case to-day; for woman’s only sphere in that period was her home, and her whole heart and soul were in