Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-026#002

Cambridge Jan 8th
Dear Annie,
Your welcome box of New Year sweets arrived safely, & should have been acknowledged more promptly, but I have, in truth, been waiting & hoping to get into town to pick up something to send in return, in lieu of empty thanks, but the storm & my [p. 2] inability to leave the baby just as her old nurse departed have prevented me, & the state of the roads is such I know not when I can.
I suppose Mary has told you what a nice little girl I have, & how well I have got through what some one calls the “august martyrdom of maternity”! I trust we shall both continue to thrive. Are you [p. 3] snowed up to the eaves in Portland? The boys are digging trenches as laboriously as if at Sebastopol, & have already established two opposing forts, from which they send snow-balls with deadly execution.
My brother has been out with us for some days, making the stormy time pleasant.
Mary, when last seen, was the bearer of the little roll of sugar-plums for Janice. She has had all our best (or worst) win [p. 4] ter experiences. The ice-glory of last week was worth a northern winter to see. Such jewels – such a world of splendor – the humblest weed being as resplendent as the loftiest tree – a kind of Christmas sermon he that ran might read.
Give my love to Annie Wadsworth. The boys were greatly pleased to find, in a book I gave them, called “The Romance of the Revolution” a history of Gen Wadsworths capture & escape.
With Henry’s love
Yrs affly
with all best wishes Fanny E.L.

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