[139]
of July and my little Charley.
I was really glad for an excuse to lie in bed, for I was full tired, I can assure you. Well, I was what folks call very comfortable for two weeks, when my nurse had to leave me ....
During this time I have employed my leisure hours in making up my engagements with newspaper editors.
I have written more than anybody, or I myself, would have thought.
I have taught an hour a day in our school, and I have read two hours every evening to the children.
The children study English history in school, and I am reading Scott's historic novels in their order.
To-night I finish the “Abbot;” shall begin “Kenilworth” next week; yet I am constantly pursued and haunted by the idea that I don't do anything.
Since I began this note I have been called off at least a dozen times; once for the fish-man, to buy a codfish; once to see a man who had brought me some barrels of apples; once to see a book-man; then to Mrs. Upham, to see about a drawing I promised to make for her; then to nurse the baby; then into the kitchen to make a chowder for dinner; and now I am at it again, for nothing but deadly determination enables me ever to write; it is rowing against wind and tide.
I suppose you think now I have begun, I am never going to stop, and in truth it looks like it; but the spirit moves now and I must obey.
Christmas is coming, and our little household is all alive with preparations; every one collecting their little gifts with wonderful mystery and secrecy. . ..
To tell the truth, dear, I am getting tired; my neck and back ache, and I must come to a close.
Your ready kindness to me in the spring I felt very
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Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1889.
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