Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson

[38] down and disperse below to give us good weather; but the only rule of this rainy month is that the sun always comes out when you don't expect it, and the rain when you expect the sun; so my fingers at this moment cast a shadow on the paper. .... Under these circumstances we thought it best to take all the moisture together and so we had a party of Hydropaths. Some came in tubs, others paddled in punts, and the most desperate invalids came in douches through the ceiling. We had large pails of water for supper. There was Miss Gibbs and Mrs. Greene and the very Reverend Mr. Berteau with a sharp nose, and Lieutenant Greene, of the navy, and Lieutenant Ehninger (think of that ) of the army, who was in the Mexican War (think of that!) and was wounded and left on the field for dead and afterwards made Lieutenant instead (think of that 11), and is a commonplace and uninteresting mortal, after all. .. . Hydropaths keep early hours, and even this broke up soon after ten. Thus we find resources indoors and sometimes run out between the drops. In the evening Louisa plays us songs without words and spirit waltzes and Erlkings and other things tender and terrible.