Your mother,
C. THOREAU.
(H. D. T. was the scribe.)
Cats were always an important branch of the Thoreaus' domestic
economy, and Henry was more tolerant of them than men are wont to be.
Flowers were the specialty of Sophia, who, when I knew her, from 1855
to 1876, usually had a small conservatory in a recess of the
dining-room. At this time (1840) she seems to have been aiding Helen
in her school. The next letter, to Helen, is of a graver tone:--