'DEAR SAM,
I thank you for your long letter. I am glad you have written
to me at last; for I began to think you never would. You need
not have waited till you could write a better hand; for I am
not obliged to show the letters I receive, unless I choose. I
did show yours, because it was written so well. Mr. Reed said,
that it did you great credit and also your instructor; so I
thought I would tell him that it was mother who had taught you.
He said he wished he could have another of mother's pupils in
his school; and I wish to my heart you _could_ come. There
are many clever boys here. I like some of them very much; but
they think differently from you and I in many respects. They
get into scrapes and get out of them wonderfully. They used to
lead me into them, when I first came; but they don't invite me
now, for they know I will not join them, if I think it wrong.
They are good boys on the whole; and William Gardiner and
Albert Lawrence are so brave and droll, and kind, that I can't
help liking them; and so do all the boys. Thomas Blanchard is
an excellent fellow, though rather serious; he is three years
older than I am. He helped me very much about my latin, when
I first came, or I am sure, I never should have got along;
for it is harder than any thing I ever learned; and you must
not suppose that it is as easy to learn a thing at school, as
with mother; for you know how much patience she has, and how
clear she makes it before she has done. I am glad you continue
your studies with mother, for I know you are very desirous of
learning, and it must be a great amusement to her.
As Tom Blanchard was so kind in helping me to get my latin
lessons, I have taught him to draw. You will wonder how I could
do this, since I know so little myself. I remembered mother's
instructions and repeated them to him, and lent him my pencils
and all my patterns; he is such a genius, that he has got on
far before me, and draws very prettily. He has taken a view of
Mr. Reed's house and garden for me. As I know you would like to
see what a pleasant place I live in, I am going to send it to
you. Tom says, he shall not be affronted. Will you shew it to
mother? and tell sister Ann, that if she can write as well as
you tell of, I wish she would write me a letter. I should be
proud to shew one from a little sister, six years old.
I had no chance to send this letter the day I wrote; therefore
I will fill the sheet.
We had a grand time, the day before yesterday. It was the
fourth of July; we wished very much to celebrate it, and asked
Mr. Reed a month before it came, to let us have some music,
and invite the young ladies of this village, and some from
Boston, and have a dance. Mrs. Reed begged him to consent, and
so he did. My cousins came, and a great many more; and William
Gardiner thought my cousin Emily was the prettiest girl in the
room. I had a share in planning a very pleasant part of the
entertainment. I proposed to Gardiner, Lawrence, and some of
our best fellows, that after we had danced some time, we should
take the musicians out among the trees in the garden; and that
while the company were sitting down to rest, they should strike
up some fine tunes, which would attract them to the door, and
into the garden; and then we would have a number of sky rockets
sent up, all at once, from the bottom of the garden. We boys
were to club and pay for the rockets, and no one else was to
know a lisp of the plan. I insisted on asking Mr. Reed's leave;
but we wanted to surprise Mrs. Reed, so she was not told of it.
Mr. Reed consented on condition that we would take our
allowance of spending money, and not incur any further expense,
to which we agreed. And then we thought of another thing, which
made it very pretty. We formed an arbour of evergreen branches
and flowers and hung in it some coloured lamps, which William
Gardiner procured in town; for he is a capital fellow to do any
thing that he sets about. Tom Blanchard made a transparency,
and wrote on it, 'In honor of Mrs. Reed,' which was to be put
over the entrance of the arbour. But Albert Lawrence and some
others said this was not appropriate; as it was the fourth of
July, we ought to have something about independence. I thought
they were right, though I was sadly disappointed, that we could
not pay the compliment to Mrs. Reed. Tom altered the motto, and
put the word independence on it.
The sky rockets went off grandly, and the arbour looked
beautifully when it was lighted. Mrs. Reed and some of
the ladies sat in it, and we handed them some fruit and
flowers, of both which we had a great variety and abundance
from the garden. If you do not know what coloured lamps or
transparencies are, I will tell you when I come home, or you
can ask mother. I shall have enough to tell you; we are always
having some pleasant thing on foot; but we are obliged to study
very hard, to procure these indulgences; for they are all given
as rewards. I found this studying very tiresome when I first
came: yet now I am used to it, I can do more in an hour, than I
could in a forenoon at home.
Please to give my respects to your father and mother and
brothers. Your affectionate friend,