File:Janie (Porter) Barrett to Alice Mary Longfellow, 24 January 1884 (3d35e738-1e59-4f30-b07b-df9e99cdbb7e).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1007.001/002.003-001#006

[printed letterhead: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute]
Hampton, Va., Jan 24, 1884
Miss Alice Longfellow
Dear Friend:
As I write this letter I feel like some one saying goodbye to one that is very dear to them whom they never expect to see again. Every [sic] since I was a Junior I have the privilege and pleasure of writing to you and it does seem so hard that this is to be my last time. Don’t think I am selfish. It is true l have been here, it will be, four years when I graduate, and I ought to be willing to give my place to some one else, but I can't help wanting to stay with my teachers and school mates who have been so kind to me, and if I didn't have a pleasant home I don't think I could go away.
I spent my vacation here last summer and had a very pleasant [p. 2] time Two weeks before school opened I went out to the school farm, which is about seven miles from here, so as to get a good rest before school opened. The farm is called Hemenway farm after the lady who gave it to the school. It is indeed a beautiful place. The farm house is one of these oldfashioned [sic] brick houses, with large and airy rooms, that was built in the time of Washington, and he is said to have staid [sic] all night there when he passed through Virginia. It has a little porch on the front covered with running rose bushes, and about a hundred yards from the house stretches a beautiful arm of the Chesapeake Bay The front yard is a lawn which extends to the waters [sic] edge and is dotted here and there with pretty rosebushes and a few other flowers. In the back yard every thing is just [p. 3] sweet and clean the nice white chicken coops the barns and stables are just as clean as can be and all around the yard there are chickens, ducks, turkeys, and every other fowel [sic] that you find in a farm yard. Both the gentleman and his wife who have charge of the farm are graduates from here. I never spent two weeks pleasanter in my life than I did those I spent there. Besides enjoying the beauties of nature that surrounded me, which seemed to grow more beautiful every time I looked at them. I read Bryant’s translation of “Homer’s Iliad" and “Homer's Odyssey" which l also enjoyed very much. When school opened I felt perfectly rested and ready to go to studying again.
I have so often heard people say that your school days were your happiest, and I think shall always look upon mine as the sunshine of my life.
[p. 4] I can't realize that I am to graduate this term, it seem [sic] to me that I have just found out how little I know. One thing I am thankful for that I am fond of reading and if I never get a chance to go to school again I can learn a great deal from reading.
Dear Miss Longfellow I do wish so much that you could know how thankful I am for your kindness in helping me through school. It seems to me like a dream when I think that you are the same one that your father spoke of in that beautiful poem he wrote about his children, as “Grave Alice" Little did I dream when I was a little girl and use [sic] to hear that poem read that one of those little girls would ever do so much for me It is indeed true that we never know what is in store for us. I truly feel that I have been fortunate.
Respectfully Janie A. Porter

• Keywords: long archives; document; alice m. longfellow papers (long 16173); hampton institute; organizations; education; correspondence; Manuscripts (1007.001); (LONG-Subcollection); Correspondence (1007.001/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003); (LONG-SubseriesName); Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001); (LONG-FileUnitName)