File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 26 July 1840 (73f02f93-aefb-42bf-8cf4-d3ec041c5210).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-010#018

Newport Sunday P.M. July 1840.
My dear little Em,
I have been waiting patiently to hear thro’ what post-offices a letter from hence would find its way to your Wood’s Hole which I opine to be somewhere out of ‘humanity’s reach,’ at least beyond the ‘electric chain’ of Amos Kendall’s administration but as you have found the Ticknors too agreeable to enlighten me on this point I risk writing having just been reading of the discovery of the north-west passage so even a Wood’s Hole is not to be despaired of. My dear little thing, with what eloquence can I entice you away from your good friend Mrs T? her maternal counsels, instructive acquaintance with men & things & devoted kindness to you rise up to warn me that I am acting a very selfish part in beseeching you with most petitionary vehemence’ to come as soon as you possibly can to cheer & bless me who can offer you only a whole heart & half a bed, not to mention other inferior attractions but judge you if these balance the advantages of your present position. All the arms of my soul (as Jewett would say) are stretching forth in impatient longing for you (what a poly pus-like ‘many sidedness’) and if there were any truth in animal-magnetism the energy of my will would have hauled you ‘willy-nilly’ hitherward. The very nightly growth of the moon vexes me for I fear it will begin to [p. 2] wane before it is reflected from your eyes. so hasten, hasten I pray you. The instant you receive this summons devise a civil leave-taking; remember I considered you promised, bound, made over to my keeping from the 1st of August - & I demand my pounds of flesh with more than Shylock justice. Martha Derby returns to Boston with Papa, on Tuesday or Wednesday & Elizabeth Welles I suppose will only remain through the week. Cant you be here by Thursday, sweet? They are both very nice girls & they enliven our solitude very agreeably but it must be confessed I shall enjoy your society more all to myself – my “ownty donty” as the children say. Miss Sedgwick in her letter to me says “pray give my love to your friend Emmeline Austin, I remember her pleasing me more than any-thing I saw in Newport” – come & be the crowning blessing of my Newport & let me see the eloquent blood mantling at such a pretty ‘tell’ as that. Did you see Fanny Wright before she or you left? I hope so as she has a real affection for you (who do you not cast a glamour over you bewitching little artful syrin?) & was very anxious to carry off a kind word from you as manna for her future wanderings – she welcomes all such with such a thankful undemanding spirit that it is a pleasure to bestow. She goes where they are rare too poor child. Did she acquaint you or are you yet ignorant of our great loss? Tom is not more inconsolable than [p. 3] we all are – poor little Picky with his graceful ways, honest affection was to perfect a creature to die unhonoured & unmourned – few human beings fulfill their vocation so triumphantly – and then the manner of his death so touching. I wonder what reasoning worked in that little brain or feeling troubled in his heart (for that was beyond instinct) to guide him over such a distance, knowing his death-hour near, to reach his home & then to expire so very near the threshold he vainly struggled to attain. Poor little beast – no human-being’s death can be so sad a spectacle as this sudden quenching of a gleesome, happy, animal life – for that is but a change but this is the loss of their all – a perfect creation completely blotted out - & yet if this is so (as nothing but man’s vanity teaches) how strange that our attachment lives on & we recognize in an intelligent dog always something beyond machinery worked by the finger of Necessity.
Dr Lieber paid us a flying visit & roused me up to a spirited defence of Mrs Butler, between all his friends his prejudice (or judgement as you would say) will be worried to death. Yesterday we had all the Amories, Grants, Mrs Lyman &c here, quite a formidable tea-drinking – the damsels expressed themselves highly delighted with their experiments in archery We walked the piazza by moonlight & finally 9 bundled into a stage leaving poor Schroeder to walk home alone tho’ he tried every argument to draw forth a companion – declaring how differently [symbol] kind would have settled such a difficulty &c. This is our first attempt at doing the civil thing & we now feel our consciences at rest for the season. I was amused at your [p. 4 bottom] jealous hints about pony-driving &c – nothing could be further from the gentleman’s thoughts but my own interest in them -! remember, my dear, Father has been married since he fancied he fancied me & he is just now too much occupied with that nice little widow Mrs Harper to extend his walks beyond their cottage. No. I am sharp-sighted enough (alas that I should say so without more shame!) toward every suspicious circumstance – but I cant commit to the mischances of your present locale such [p. 4 top] interesting – topics. I had the other day a private letter from Mary by a packet, so not so late as I have heard, - which I long to make you laugh over – such amusing descriptions of her present appearance &c. I am thankful she keeps up good spirits while ‘bearing about this mockery of woe’ to quote her. I am oppressed by too much after-dinner drowsiness, as you see [p. 4 cross] by the nodding of my letters to inflict my sleepy self longer upon you [crossed out: as] I only wrote to hasten your coming & close our correspondence God willing, for many many months – “Come as the winds come: faster, come faster” &c to your longing loving F –
[p. 1 cross] Remember me kindly to Mr & Mrs T- & tell them I ask but mine own. All the household are impatient to welcome you.
ADDRESSED: MISS AUSTIN. / CARE OF GEO. TICKNOR ESQ. / WOOD’S HOLE
POSTMARK: NEW PORT / R.I. / AUG 10

• Keywords: correspondence; frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); long archives; people; document; united states; newport; ri; travel; subject; places; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1840 (1011/002.001-010); (LONG-FileUnitName)