File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Anne (Longfellow) Pierce, 18 March 1846 (bbf8bdba-f2fd-4fcd-9fa3-8d952a2b96fb).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-016#020

Beacon St. Wednesday.
Dear Annie,
I send you the sachet & morocco case you desired & hope you will successfully imitate them. Weddings are at all times so rife in Portland that the former will prove perhaps worth the trouble of the nice labour expended upon it, for I think it a particularly pretty gift for such an occasion.
You will be surprised to see me dating from Beacon St. We were so sorry to lose our visit here that after giv- [p. 2]-ing the contagion of the scarletina abundant time to disappear, as we thought, we ventured in, - but whether it still lingered in the house, or the atmosphere of the town was full of it poor little Charlie was seized a week ago today, but thanks to the wet sheet, & a little homeopathy, it was so speedily driven out of him that today he is playing about the house entirely well, & the fever has left him for some days. I was thought by my friends a very courageous mamma to try this very simple, though [p. 3] apparently very alarming cure, but I had such full faith in it that I had serious thoughts of it before the physician arrived. Of course [crossed out: he] Charlie cried out at first, but in 3 minutes was warm & comfortable & immediately fell into a delightful sleep, which assisted the perspiration, so that after being unwrapped & sponged, his skin was quite cool & free from fever. He had only one feverish night after this, when the imitation of the eruption of course made him restless. You can imagine the relief to our minds to have this dreadful disease so well over. I confess a great hor- [p. 4] ror came over me when the physician proclaimed what it was, it may so easily become scarlet fever, & I thought of my dear little baby too, but I had too much to do to droop under it, & felt firmer & calmer than I should have supposed possible. The baby is too young I believe to be in any danger, & is, thus far, as well & merry & cunning as baby can be. I never saw so good a baby, & his good nature was pretty well tested the last few days, but he lies & talks to himself by the hour together, & is ever ready to greet one with a sweet smile & a wonderful kindling of his little countenance. I did not see till now what a shabby piece of paper I had chosen in my haste excuse it pray. Poor little Charlie [p. 5] is so happy to escape from the durance vile of one apartment, & return to his sports with the children, which after his hermit life in Cambridge, are very enchanting to him. I enjoy also seeing a little society again, & weaving again into my life the broken threads of so many old friendships. But various destinies have scattered nearly all the girls of my own age, so that I find myself almost a stranger among the charming troop of their successors.
My friend Emmeline has not yet arrived here, but I hope to see something of her [p. 6] before we return to Cambridge. What a sad destiny has been reserved for her whose life has throughout been disciplined by singular trial. She lost her mother very early, &, without sisters, has lived with only one brother & her aged father for the most part – She lost two brothers by pirates, her lover by consumption, & now has the divided care of a paralytic father & a paralytic husband, for Mr Wadsworth’s complaint is nothing less than this, &, though now comparatively recovering, yet what a future of anxiety [p. 7] and uncertainty is before her, what a shadow thrown across the very threshold of her happiness & married life! He is ordered to sail for Havana, & she is obliged to leave him, & come here to watch over her father, whose third & fatal attack Is ever expected by her. And she has, withal, the most loving & sensitive heart in the world, but fortunately bears up under this accumulated pressure as only a Christian woman can.
We have seen Sam once since his return. We were sorry to desert just as he [p. 8] arrived, but hope he fills the vacancies in Craigie Castle with some of his many friends. Charlie’s illness has kept me so confined since I have been in town that I have not been able to look about to see anything you could copy for your Fair. Write me what you would like me to do to aid you. We shall probably be here into next week, as it will not be safe to expose Charlie too soon to the outer air. Hoping you all continue well, with much love from this household to yours, ever thy
loving Fanny.
My best love to Eliza & thanks for her note.
[p. 1 cross] I hope the worsteds will suit – they were the best we could find, the stock for the season running rather low.
A pretty & easy thing to make is a bag of black silk-canvass worked with steel beads, with a steel fringe at the bottom –
Childrens clothes are always welcome – aprons nice [p. 2 cross] ly made or gowns of white jacon, worked in colored worsted braids – but I have so little frequented Fairs, of late that I hardly know what to advise; the thousand ingenious fancy articles are indescribable moreover.

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