File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Anne Longfellow Pierce, 29 February 1848 (8643d849-4cf3-412a-b114-09b2e1d06209).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#003

Cambridge Feb 29th 1848 –
Dear Annie,
Henry intended to be with you Thursday ev’g of last week, but, from keeping too long quiet in the house, felt too ill to go without a little doctoring first – and to his great disappointment was obliged to give it up.
I hope you were not anxious on account of his non-appearance.
Little Erny has been well since I wrote you, but I have to manage his diet [p. 2] with great care to keep him so. I had a nice long letter from Mary last week, who gives tempting accounts of roses & June airs, which must make her mother sigh to take wings, like the birds, & follow after the summer.
But what a mild winter this has been – Our bushes budded in December & have kept so ever since, - & the sun beats so warmly on the front beds that I hope soon to see the snow-drops peeping above ground,
[p. 3] On the 22nd I had a present from Professor Horsford of a little cross made of Washington’s outer coffin. An interesting but melancholy relic.
Henry bids me say his visit is only postponed, tho yesterday his labors recommenced, he can slip away some mild day after his classes –
I have not heard from Sam since the ordination letter.
Love to all,
Yrs ever
Fanny –
Charley has a fine sled given him by Emmeline Wadsworth & he is enchanted to pull & be pul [p. 4] led on it over the snow He says – “Oh how beautiful this sled is – I laugh on my sled, I like it very much” The other day he burst out to Henry “I wish I was a man” – Why? “Because I never was”!!

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; health and illness; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1848 (1011/002.001-018); (LONG-FileUnitName)