Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[122] bound in their successive stages in the most orderly manner, have now been transferred to a fire-proof building for greater security. The ‘old clock on the stairs,’ which he himself placed there, still ticks and strikes the hour; and one can see cracks in the stairway through which the mysterious letters dropped morning after morning, as told in the story of ‘Esther Wynne's Love Letters,’ by the accomplished author known as Saxe Holm. The actual letters were more commonplace, but they were apparently written by a schoolgirl under Mr. Craigie's care; and there was a tradition, not very well authenticated, that Longfellow himself had planned to make them the subject of a poem before Saxe Holm or Helen Hunt—as the case may be—had anticipated him in prose.

Such was the house where Longfellow resided for the rest of his life; seven years of which passed before his second wedded life began. The following letter, taken from the Harvard College papers, will show the interest he took in the estate.