But the summer was not an idyll of strawberries and cream. The disturbance with the Websters had clouded the atmosphere, bringing Mrs. Glover a return of old symptoms, and money worries were again pressing. Sarah Bagley was unable to keep her indefinitely on the little she was able to pay. Mrs. Gale lavishly promised her financial aid in renting a simple cottage where she could have the quiet she needed, but was shocked when Mrs. Glover took her promises too literally and was further disturbed by her spiritual mentor’s frequent change of plan as circumstances altered.

At one point Mrs. Glover was determined to make her way out West to be with her son. But after a final distressing scene with Mrs. Gale over money matters, she made a sudden decision to accept instead an urgent invitation to return to Stoughton to stay with the Wentworths, whom she had met the year before when she was teaching Hiram Crafts. Sarah Bagley apparently did not even know where she had gone until an explanatory letter arrived, sent from Stoughton on September 10.

“O I am tired! tired!” the letter ended, “When will my rest come[?]” But four days later Mrs. Glover wrote: “God is with me and I can wait on Him. I see more clearly than ever before I am to be lifted up higher for this.”¹¹²

Alanson C. Wentworth of Stoughton ran a small farm and a part-time shoemaking shop. A Universalist and a lifelong Bible student, he “loved to argue about religion, and baited all the ministers that came into the neighborhood, especially the Methodist ones that [his daughter-in-law] Susie revered.” The Bible “was always kept handy to him in its niche above the fireplace, before which he used to sit evenings,” although he also enjoyed an occasional evening of cards, which further shocked the Methodist Susie.¹¹³