File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Longfellow) Greenleaf, 13 April 1859 (02f594ec-687f-4705-9ae7-b2ab30926d63).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-029#009

Cambridge. April 13th 1859.
Dear Mary,
Your letter arrived just in time for Annie, who had not heard so lately, & was glad, with us, to get news of you, tho’ you do not cheer us with any promises of an earlier return, nor does your new house draw you, as I hoped it might, like a magnet. But I suppose it can not be ready very early, from present appearances, & I was going to propose that you & James should make yourselves at home here, so that you can overlook its getting habitable, without the discomfort of being in the midst of the confusion.
[p. 2] We should be delighted to receive you, if it would give you any pleasure or convenience, to come to us. I cannot imagine how you can go at once to your house, unless you have fairies in your service, for I find it hard work enough to get any thing put to rights when I am away, unless standing by all the while. There is a nice bull for you! but you can perhaps guess my meaning.
Annie has been passing a few days with us, & a week with Mrs Nichols, having been brought here at this time by anxiety about Harry, who came very near being sent away & may be yet if he is not more careful. We have all felt very troubled about him, he seems so reckless of his future, so indolent [p. 3] & so much in danger of wrecking himself altogether. We fear Annie Wadsworth is one disturbing influence in his atmosphere, & it is really a pity she is here during his College life, but perhaps that without her he would be equally indifferent to rise. He wants to get away to join his uncle Alex this summer, but Annie thinks that an unwise project for his undisciplined nature, & will not take him from College to gratify such a whim. I feel much for her anxiety, & it is very sad to see a boy so blind to his own best interests. Her presence & words seem to have done some good already, (helped by Mr Huntington’s kind advice) & I hope things have reached their worst & he will do his duty more faithfully. Mr H. preached a sermon [p. 4] while she was here which we felt to be of great help, & it is really a blessing to the College that there is here so fervent & lofty a soul, with such influence upon the young, at that sensitive age when the two paths are so open before them. Two or three young people join the Communion ever month, & yet there is no unhealthy excitement in his preaching, but most persuading tenderness & truth.
I felt very much my dear aunts death – the older one I had not seen for many years, but remembered perfectly the respect her strong, yet kindly, character excited in me as a child. My dear aunt Dorothy had always been so overflowing with love & kindness to us, that it seems indeed like losing a very near friend, & her recent visit, for which I am very grateful, made the shock greater. Poor Maria, must have been cruelly shaken by it, and, [p. 5, marked 2] as I have not her address in New Orleans, I take the liberty of enclosing a note for her, which I should have sent long ago, & wish that James would kindly get it conveyed to her.
My brother has seen much of your friend Miss Colburn this winter, & has had her at various little parties, especially when entertaining Mr Darley the artist, who seemed so pleased with her that I should not be surprised if something came of it. He is a fine-looking & apparently refined & amiable man & certainly a charming artist. She is a little too prononcée for my taste, but would no doubt make him a very useful wife.
Mrs Nichols has had Louisa Higginson a long time with her, & she seems as cheerful as is possible, & like her old self, but, of course, has times of great depression. She is now interested in looking over her husband’s papers, & thinks of a book of [p. 6] selections of choise [sic] passages from different sermons as more likely to interest the public than whole sermons. Annie has been helping her with some of her written sentences, & I have been able to contribute one or two written down after hearing the Dr in Portland. I have been much struck by the constant duration of his spirit, by on reading some letters to different people Annie has collected, he seemed perpetually living in an upper atmosphere & every fact had its spiritual significance to his creative mind.
I have been reading a very interesting book lately, Charles Auchester, about music & rather high-flown but very sympathetic to me. The children continue well & joyous, except poor Charlie, who has been kept in the house by rheumatism, & we have had such cold March winds that he could not get over it. At last we have got back our old study & rejoice therein. Alice takes me twice a week [p. 1 cross] to dancing school, in Lyceum Hall, where she is learning very fast under Mr Papanti’s faithful & patient teaching, & enjoys it much, with so many little girls, but it is rather a bore to me. I was glad to hear from Caroline thro’ you.
With much love to James, ever
Yr affte sister
Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; document; social life; death; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1859 (1011/002.001-029); (LONG-FileUnitName)