Tuesday afternoon,
My dear Sister,
I have your letter this morning
and hoped to be able to write in time
for the mail which I fear I cannot–
Willie is sick and all my leisuretime to day I have been reading for him.
He had a chill yesterday morning which
was succeeded by fever pain in his teeth
and head– his face is badly swollen
to day – this pain and fever continue
though mitigated– he has kept his
bed all day, which will show you
how sick he is– Henry left yesterday
morning– after dinner I was obliged
to make some purchases for the child
& spent the afternoon shopping– came
home very tired– Mrs Hotchkiss
was here most of the evening– she
came to repeat to me the observations a I

had made about her and Mrs Burr
th Watrous the day I visited Mrs
Burr– it is too long a story to tell
now and as I have an aversion to
such things I will defer until I
see you– However I plead guilty and
we parted as people usually do when
there is a maintenance of ones own
opinion on each side, without either
being convinced that the other is right–
there is or has been no feeling of unkindness
on my part toward Caroline, though I
cannot think she did right to circulate
the Valentine– I feel satisfied by
this affair that it is unwise for
me to express any opinion of my
neighbor out of my own family–
Caroline felt hurt– what I did say
was of course a little exaggerated–
The company at Mrs Burr’s consisted of
Mrs Miller Mrs Yates and her daughter–

Mrs Burr was exonerated from
making the comments but I think
it not improbable that Nate

x

Nathan Burr

Birth: 1795-03-04 Death: 1863-01-22

was
engaged in it– it is of very little im-
portance except to show that my
intercourse with such a community
is not enviable– I have been
making sponge cake to day from the
nice receipt and preserving rasp-
berries– both warm work– I am
thankful it is not quite as warm as it
was last week– Henry and I called
on Mr and Mrs Mellen, Dr & Mrs
Hicox– the Conklings we me[ t ] on our
way there– so we drove to the lake
and Henry took a bath– We found
Aunt Clara & Clara Miller here when
we came home– Clara and Henry went
home the next day Henry Seward
went to Church with Caroline– I stayed
at home with Aunt Clara who

spent the morning with me while
the others went to Church– As I like
Mr Mellen so much I advised Henry &
Clara to go and hear him, the preaching
at our Church being so uncertain–
They went but were not very well
pleased with Mr Mellen so I concluded
not to advise again– I sent with
Clara’s concurrence a part of Grandpa’s
clothes to Uncle Ezra. Fanny is very
much pleased with Amanda– I am glad
she is here– she is much less troublesome
than children who are indulged at
home– she studies with Fanny– reads
and spells very well and evinces quickness
of apprehension– Fanny begins already
to wonder how she can part with her
next winter– they play steadily from
morning to night and so far have not
had the least difference– Fanny seems
as much pleased to dress Amanda up
in her clothes as to wear them herself–
she superintends the bathing dressing &tc
very much to my relief– We are all
sorry poor Trippy had so much trouble with
the cars– I suppose a slip from the Uni–
e