File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Longfellow) Greenleaf, 2 May 1856 (9df6c34c-e759-4934-802a-fafadc81cd68).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-026#004

Cambridge. May 2d 1856.
Dear Mary,
I have not had a moment’s time to write you or you should not have been left in ignorance of all the particulars of Charlie's sad accident. His father was obliged to watch with him all night, for more than a week, & I was needed all day, whenever baby could spare me, so that have been much absorbed since it happened. It has been a sore trial to us, completely unnerving us for the [p. 2] time, & the thought of our boy's maimed hand has been before our eyes & hearts through all the sleepless nights & anxious days. But all has gone on as well as possible, & we begin to feel more resigned, & to be grateful it was not his face, nor right hand, that suffered. He has helped us by the astonishing bravery with which he has borne all the horror & suffering, walking home more than a mile, ‘without crying once,’ as his companion said (who had the presence of mind to bind up his hand with a handkerchief & tie it tight with the [p. 3] cord of the powder-flask) and as soon as his hand was dressed, with the blessed help of ether, he begged us not to worry, saying – “Ah, Doctor, ether is better than gunpowder” – on which text, you know, I could preach a sermon. The doctor is in daily admiration of his courage, for this daily dressing gets to be very trying to the nerves, as well as painful, but he is cheerful & hardly winces, & is now allowed to go out freely to recover his strength. It will be a fresh blow to me when his hand is well enough to be uncovered, [p. 4] but ‘sufficient for the day’ &c. I trust he will never feel it as we do, & that it may have a lasting, beneficial effect on his character. The gun burst, either from being overloaded, or from being worthless, we do not know which. We feel very grateful to the older boy, who brought him so well home, without allowing him to yield to faintness &c. Think what a walk for the poor fellow! He was at Fresh Pond. He bought the gun with money he had saved up, but Henry had told him only to use percussion-caps with it, but the temptation was too great – he yielded and was severely punished. We have green grass & leaves fast budding, - a rapid change after our icy winter. The cars go sliding by, but are a nuisance in driving. Tom [p. 1 cross] is trying to tempt us abroad by we shall probably go to Newport tho’ I have no desire for one place more than another & am not half ready for summer. I have been so put back by the bad winter & this trouble. Alice is going to school in a few days to a Miss Brewer, near Mrs Greenleaf, a little school of 6. which I think she will enjoy. Love to James
ever affly yrs
Fanny E.L.
Charlie’s thumb is irrecoverably gone, & tho’ his fingers were also wounded they are well again.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; education; family life; health and illness; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1856 (1011/002.001-026); (LONG-FileUnitName)