William S. Jackson Papers, Part 1, Ms 0235, Box 1, Folder 9, letters from HHJ to WSJ and WSJ to HHJ, 1880.
Transcribed by Nancy Knipe, 2008.

Parker House
Friday Night,
May 28, 1880

Well dear - this is my last night on dry land! - not so dry as it ought to be either, for we have had a splendid shower - such a relief as it was - The whole city seemed to have a different expression after it. There has really been great suffering from the heat & drought.

--Today I have done all the last things - this afternoon Col. Higginson called & I talked the book all over with him, & explained as far as was possible a chance of mistake. He is very glad to read the proof for me - and it is an unspeakable load off my mind. He looked much better than when we saw him last fall; better [dressed?] & in better health. -

Miles is pretty sorry about the book I think -- & a good deal nonplussed by the Harpers [offer-crossed out} giving me a royalty in advance. "I would nave given you as much as they did" he said. (I did not tell him how much.) -

"But you didn't offer anything" I replied.

"No, I know I didn't" he said.
--[words crossed out] I said "Well you lost your chance at it. I should have accepted an offer of $1000 for it, at once -- & now I am mightily glad you didn't take it, for I expect to make two or three." - which I really do.-

Mrs. Walter Cabot was here last night -- & the Goddards - Mr. Goddard is going over to see me off - so is Mr. Fiske & Mr. Niles said he should -Mr. Houghton also! -- quite a galaxy of publishing! -

I called today at that Youth's Companion office -- & saw one of the Editors Mr. Butterworth - Mr. [Marin?] was away. - They would like some half dozen papers from me, about any specially interesting thing I see abroad -- & will pay me $30 a letter - So if I can only pick up material enough - there is $180 more! -
Scribner $300

Atlantic 600
Adventure 180
Youths Companion 180

1260! - If only I can write all that worth, won't I be pleased, pretty nearly pay for the trip - perhaps quite pay for it. -

Tonight I have been out to the Horsfords - they are all well & in good spirits - "Trudy" the one you saw with her baby last fall, has another baby born today - a son! - at this rate she will be the mother of a big family before she knows it. -

Your last letter to me [before-crossed out] came tonight - I have just a lingering hope of one more - but don't look for it much. - I am wondering what you wrote to Prof. H. He said tonight that he thought you could come out & join us. Oh! My Will! What a joy that would be. -- Then I'll let the Col. do all the bringing out of my book, & we'd go to [Gastein?]& spend the whole of September. How you will enjoy climbing over those hills & watching all those Russians & Austrians -- & talking with old Dr. Pr?ell. - A month in [Gastein?] with you, my darling - all to my self, -- it makes my cheeks grow hot to think of it. - Goodbye my precious husband. - Write regularly twice a week - Monday & Thursday - to
Your own Peggy,
Baring Bros. London
Will be our standing address, -- we shall keep them advised of all our movements.-

P.S. You didn't send the shoe bag -- & had to buy one today. -

I wonder if you know this little wild flower - the Arethusa Dr Nichols gave it to me today. It is most exquisite. Boys are selling great bunches of [Solomon's?] Seal on the street here. I think I'll take one to sea with me. -

P.S. I shall give to Mr. Fiske tomorrow, my contract with Harper's to mail to you. I have no envelope big enough - also a copy of the form of the petition that Phila. Woman is sending out to be signed. - it is capitally worded - just right I think. -
I enclose to you one of the four letters I found waiting for me here. The other three were all from publishers of reading books asking permission to include some of my articles in their collections! -

Col. Springs May 30th, 1880
My sweet Peggy:

This is the first word I have written you since last Tuesday from Denver, except that I telegraphed you goodby & read your goodby reply. I was so rejoiced that you had a good day for embarking - embarking-what a big word. After writing you, I went to the Convention spent the day there. Everything went for Grant as I predicted. While at the Convention, I met Judge Tourgee, the author of "Fools Errand by one of the Fools" - He lives in Denver & was at one time Editor of the Denver Times, but has now given up newspaper work - confining himself to writing books. He tells me his book has had a very large sale south & that he receives complimentary notices from the south - showing that what we consider a terrable [sic] arrangement of the Southern people they consider complimentary & fair. The Judge says, the book is almost entirely photographs - I hear outside that he has been offered $6000 for the copyright of his next work, which I learn is nearly completed. His political novels are destined to make him money besides doing good themselves. - How much more certainly you can reach a people by this kind of presentation, than by any direct statement of fact however accurately & graphically put - But never mind, my Peggy is going to make her fortune & reputation writing plays - There is no better way of doing great good & who knows but what Peggy Jackson is going to work through that means - Peggy the Playwright-After the convention I spent an hour with Doctor Avery. She sends worlds of love to you - Had heard among other things that we were not going to live in Colorado any more - that I was only trying to close out to join you abroad &c. This I would like ever so much to do, but see no possible chance of doing it. It looks to me as if I was fast here for some time to come & perhaps it is all for the best. I am persuaded my health is stronger & better here than in the East & I am not sure but what your's will be also for the greater part of the time. (Say leaving out the very hot months) - Charley Cavender who was at the convention from Leadville took dinner with me night before last & we had a game of whist. Mr. Goodrich & Mr. Sharock being the other two. Last night I carried out my plan of having the Bosses to dinner. Bettie gave us a nice dinner. Soup, tomatoe, Fish-Boiled Lake Trout-Meat Fried Chicken, Lettece [sic] Salad, Strawberries & Ice Cream, Coffee toothpicks-

Mr. Boss did not seem very well to me. Coughed quite a good [solo?] -- Mrs. Metcalf & Mrs. Boss are well. We drank your health, wishing you a pleasant [voyage: crossed out] trip & speedy return. Mr. Steel came in after dinner or I should have had a big contract to "Make talk for the party." Mrs. Metcalf is not much of a talker. She expressed great regret at not meeting you in your own home. To-day, Sunday, I drove over to Manitou. This is the first drive I have taken on my own account since I came from New York. I had along talk with Mrs. Bibber, who showed all the new purchases by way of carpets, furniture, &c. &c. & she is full enough of interest & expectation - Dr. Bell is certainly expending a pile of money at Manitou. I lunched with the Bells. I do not think Mrs. Bell looks at all well, but she seemed sweet & cordial. I learn that Genl Palmer arrives in New Orleans to-day on his return from Mexico. It is reported that he has been successful in securing a concession from the Mexican Government. How valuable or what its nature has not yet been made known. This evening I called over to see the Risley's. Found them very cosey & comfortable looking. The weather's always a proper subject of comment, but not always of abuse, has been (at least to-day) damnable -

This morning, woed (sic) by the warm growing morning, I put on my summery suit. The one you brot [sic] me (& now for it thanks, ever so many) & my straw hat. Decked out with my full Summer toggery I started for Manitou before I reached the old town a cold wind from the north set in & by noon it was simply as cold as winter. I have seldom suffered so more with cold than in driving over from Manitou to the Springs this evening. While you have been broiled in New York we have not as yet had one whole day of spring-like growing weather.

The Doctor Cate letter is certainly a very annoying one to you. To me I shall simply put it on a business basis & say that it is inconvenient for me advance the money. You see Peggy, turn which way you will you find poverty & dependence. Because Doctor Cate has spent his life with his books & failed to provide himself with means by attention to business is but a poor reason for an application to outsiders. -

Now just look over the list of needy & struggling ones among our [written over: your] friends & relatives
1st Annie whom you are under obligation to help as far as you safely can
2nd My mother & sister who are infinitely poorer than any of the others
3rd Oliver & Jenny whom we cannot undertake to help
4th Bertie who was planning to shift a loan onto my shoulders
5th Doctor Cate, who has no claim on you under the sun except under a contract which contract you propose to fill to the letter
My Dear Peggy: I know we are going to need all, every dollar, of income for ourselves. We have our living planned in a very expensive way & I see no way to changing it readily. We may be forced to change it & when that time comes we must meet the emergency with courage. We have been very unwise in planting so much money in a home here. It is destined to be a very great loss to us in the end. We have done at Col. Springs what Col. Landon did at Pueblo. We will let this all pass now, for when you make your $20,000 out of Playwrighting [sic] you can afford to be independent, but I fear me you will have it all spent & pledged before you earn it. -- The pictures came to hand. The one with the hat on will do. The other one is very care worn indeed in looks. I have put them with yours in the Mrs. Hunt little desk.

Now my sweet one, about writing certain kind of letters & those only - I have repeatedly written you that I cannot write, cannot even talk much & you know these things full well. You must accept me as I am - quiet & reticent but none the less affectionate at heart. You can't expect to change my whole plan of life anymore than I can change you. We are what we are & no requests, no urging can change us. Then the wise plan is to accept the inevitable & fit our natures together as best we can.-

Enclosed I send the first rose bud of the season that has shown color. It is a wild one & has had courage to come out even in face of all our Colo. snow, & windy weather. I wonder what the poor little delayed things think of a Providence that seems to have gone back on them this season, but they still keep alive & will in the end, I have no doubt, bide their time to bloom as fully & fragrantly as is given to rose life to do.

My dear Peggy: If you only stand the journey well & come home with renewed health & courage I shall have been fully, nay more than fully, more than richly, more than words can measure, -- repaid for the lonely life I shall have to lead this summer. -- & now Peggy dear Goodby [sic] until say next Thursday when I will write you again. Love to the Horsfords & lots for yourself
Love you Will XXX
You never wrote me the name of the Steamer you were going in, at least I have not got it as yet. It may come in one of your letters from Boston. I have neither of the Boston letters as yet.

I am finishing this letter on Monday morning & and am now going to the Bank
Goddby, Goodby, --

June 4th 1880

My Sweet Peggy:

I will begin by complaining - For a week back I have had the tooth ache & yesterday I had the uncomfortable member pulled & today am suffering from swelled gums & perhaps cold in the side of the face. Neuralgic in character. Nothing serious. Hope it will last only a day or so more. Still it is dry, dry, we have had one or two warm - nay, almost hot days for this section, but as yet no rain of any amount. - This morning it is blowing that dry uncomfortable shiprock wind that makes even the strongest nerves cry out don't, but never mind, it is only through [the little: crossed out] annoyances that we grow stronger & better everything works together for good if we only think so -

I wonder what you are doing today. I fear sick - Sea sick. Perhaps not. You may be a good sailor & sail the seas over, without the uncomfortable experience of the ordinary! (tenderfoot - I was going to say) --- Why can't I have a vision of your party! I feel like quarreling with the order of things - that we are allowed to see & know so much & yet are so limited. Cut off just when we are most anxious to see & know. - My Peggy, I anticipate great things from your trip. You will see & learn & be so full of impressions & ideas that you will have no room for any thought of the occupant of the wooden cottage opposite the Presbiterian [sic] Church ----
For Myself, my life goes on from day to day without excitement & without much worry. Business at the Bank is going slowly - not much demand for money where we are willing to lend. Some of the loans already made will give no trouble & in perhaps some instances loss must be sustained. The very great, almost unprecedented dryness, is damaging our sheep interests fearfully & we are sure to have some failures. How extensive we cannot now foresee. One never knows from what quarter danger is coming. Otherwise we could [avoid?] it -

Socially, I am not going out much if any. I believe I wrote you I had been over to Manitou &c. on Sunday last. On tuesday [sic] night I took dinner with Mrs. Parrish & Charlie Cavender on Wednesday eat all alone & last night I had Mr. & Mrs. Risley & Mrs. Risley's brother to dinner - Had a moderately nice dinner - Soup (Tomattoe.[sic])
Meat (Boiled Leg of Mutton) Vegatables [sic] Green peas & potatoes (Lettuse salad) Ice Cream & Cake coffee. - Mr. Risley was not very well. The old man seems to me to be failing. He thinks he is very happy, but I can't help but feel that he is hampered and annoyed sometimes - We played a few games of whist. They went home early & I went down to Gazette office to hear the dispatches from Chicago. All is excitement & interest as to the result of the Chicago convention. Grant is (if signs count) beaten & (Blain seems to be coming to the front) I sincerely hope he may be shelved also -

O Peggy, why O. why did you not let me know the name of the steamer you went in. Either you did not, or one of your letters is yet to come to me. Now was this not a great oversight for my girl to neglect such a thing. I will find out, "all the same." Go in for having a good time, seeing all you can see & generally filling yourself with impressions & ideas that you may grow mentally fat & strong on. Physically my dear you don't need any further building up being just about right now.

Kind regards to the Horsfords. Your loving Will.

Sunday June 6th 1880

My Dearest Peggy:

I have just come in from watering the roses. I have thus far kept no man this summer. Have only hired to do the mowing twice - It is growing very warm & I am not sure but I will fail in my resolution to take care of the grounds myself. So far they are doing well under my management. I have the little monthly roses in good plight. I counted this morning 72 buds on them. That means very soon plenty of roses. My June roses are full of buds (no blossoms yet). Do you see Peggy, if I can't have the "wit of beauty," I can have the beauty without the wit. I will wait for the wit until next fall. - Nothing of any moment has taken place in our little town since I last wrote you except perhaps an afternoon musical given by Mrs. Reed. It was a fairly pleasant affair. I went in late say half past 5 oclk. Heard some of the music & saw the good people gathered there. There is stopping with Mrs. Genl Palmer a young Frenchman who plays very very finely indeed. Mrs. Palmer & Mrs. Lows & Mrs. Boss however were not at the musical. I learn Mrs. Palmer & Lows dinned with the Bosses' [tonight: crossed out] on that evening. Mrs. King complimented me on the looks of the grounds, but said she could not fear to think of the home without you in it. In short that it is lonesome for her without you in the town even if she never sees you. A mental lonesomeness. - I would not wonder if there was such a thing. I have played whist twice this past week - once at home with young Mr. Dodd & Mr. Rogers, & Charlie Cavender & once at the club. Dr. Reynolds gave a blow out in his big tent the other night & I went with Mr. Barnes. We had a lively time. Music dancing & cards - But the great excitement continues to be the Chicago Convention. It still lingers& I sincerely hope the delay means that good sense will prevail & that neither Grant nor Blain will get the nomination, though I much fear Blain is so aggressive & earnest that he will force himself into the nomination. To secure an election afterwards will be a very difficult thing. - If Edmunds or Washburn or Garfield should succeed it would be real cause for congratulations.

I recd you second note without date yesterday. You good sweet Peggy. You ask how I would feel if you made $10,000 out of a play &c. Well Peggy I should feel that you could make the living better than I could. - but hold, don't spend the $10,000 yet - don't "count the chickens &c -" I have however great faith in your ability to make a telling play if you can only get the short pithy pointed dialogues & the dramatic positions into the play. In short if you get all the elements of a good play into it properly distributed, you will make a good play. - Don't have the play too long. I think the majority of plays are too long - Two hours in a theater is long enough, we are usually kept 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Within a few days I have a letter from Annie saying she saw you safely off & one also from Mollie offering to go over to meet you in the fall if I could or was going. I fear me Prof. Horsford has looked wise & said nothing but I am sure he did not hold out the idea that I was coming over in the fall to meet you. I only wish, O! how I wish I could. Wouldn't we have a good time?

Now my Dear Peggy: I am awfully afraid you are sick enough just now but fortunately it is a sickness that does no serious damage, leaves no lingering troubles like measles or Whooping Cough &c. Usually a few days on land sets you all right again. My good Girl I still have a complaint myself. My face is still pain-ful & swelled. I don't see why it doesn't go down & go away - disagreeable tings are awful hard to get rid of -

Give my kindest regards to Prof. Horsford & his Daughters & then take a goodby, a goodby, & love for yourself from
Your Will.
I will write you again on not later than Thursday. -

Col. Spgs. June 13, 1880
Sunday morning.

My Dearest Peggy:

Good morning Peggy! This is a good morning from weeks off, or nearly so. Still I say good morning, for it is a glorious morning - bright, clear & with just air enough to make it comfortable. I have been out in the grounds looking over the roses &c. I find one new plant has blossomed in the night, when no one could see it. It is the bush just by the back gate - a beautiful red rose. The lot of plants we got of Mrs. Gaines are going to be great comfort to me this year. They are as full of buds as it is possible for plants to be. They are just now being covered with cotton from the cottonwoods. The rosebushes being of a funny & sticky nature, the cotton clings to them, giving them the appearance of having a coat of tar & cotton. The cotton is getting worse each year as the cotton wood trees get older. It will become very annoying after a few years more.

The Spider [werts?] [in the back yard: crossed out] seem to have appropriated the ditch in the back yard and are blooming just as luxuriantly & beautifully as if every one could see them, -- leading their full natural healthy life without regard to what the rest of the world may or may not say. I left my hoe leaning against the porch last night near the wild hop vine. This morning I found one branch of the vine had appropriated the handle & had made two coils around it. This hop vine is a very selfish grasping coarse fellow. He invariable [sic] pushes all the more delicate plants to one side & occupies the ground himself, finally killing crushing out the more worthy & better & finer & esteemed plants, very like the aggressive politician such as Conkling & followers. -

The grounds are covered with a carpet of white clover in full bloom. It never looked prettier than just now, but tomorrow is the day for the mower & mear looks must give way for the health of the sod. If allowed to go on with its fullest display now we would find it exausted [sic] to some extent for its next effort - draw your lesson & don't attempt to do it all in one day - go as far as you can without exausting [sic] the sod & then recuperate for the next effort - so much for my horticultural lessons. -

Since writing you on Wednesday I have not been from home. I did not go to Glen Eyrie to the omnivorous tea, not having yet recovered from the neuralgia. I did not go with the Bosses & Rogers to the Grand Ca?on, preferring to stay at home. Mrs. Steel took dinner with me one night & Mr. Dodd last night. Have had two games of whist. So you see I am leading a very quiet life. Mr. Strettell stopped the door last night & asked permission to stay with me Tuesday night, which I will be very glad to have him do. I did not ask him what was up but have no doubt he has some "fandango" in hand with Mrs. Palmer & Mrs. Lows. Mrs. Parrish has been [away: crossed out] over with Mrs. Palmer for a week returned last night so I learned from Mrs. Hamp last evening. Mrs. Hamp has rented her house & goes off for the summer with her daughter. Capt. DeCoursey takes the Ader house & the Aders go to their ranch for the summer. So the little town goes changing round & round. For all the changes it is still growing. The Crowell & Howbert party are going to put up an opera house & two stories, so the Robert & Lea mine is going to do something for our town. -

I wonder if my dear Peggy will care anything about the foregoing giving my own doings & doings of the little town. Keep yourself well & strong & just have a good a time as you possible [sic] can. I have a notion, born perhaps of some things I have heard, that you will have a roughish time as to living in Norway & Sweden, but have no doubt of you having novel experiences & of your meeting "new types" & interesting characters.

Give my kindest regards to Prof. Horsford & his daughters & accept my true love now as ever for yourself
Your affectionate Will
I forgot to tell you that Miss Risley arrived last night. This I learn by hearsay - Have not seen her. Will call today. Goodby-goodby, Lovingly W.
I will write Mollie & Annie both to-day I think. -

Col Springs Col.
June 18, 1880

My Dearest Peggy, Well, Peggy this is Friday morning. I have lost a day this week somehow. I was positive it was Thursday but Bettie assures me it is Friday & as she is a good Catholic she is very likely to know & besides Mrs. Parrish just stopped in & [again?] forces Bettie in her statement. So I must cave & say I have somehow dropped a day clear out. I very much fear my loosing a day may put this letter one steamer behind what it should be & what you will expect. Since I wrote you things have been going very quietly with me. Have not been from home once, not even out to dinner. O yes, I did call on Mrs. Risley & Miss Seward. Miss Seward is now here & is loud in her lamintation [sic] that you are not here, says you have no right to go away & leave so nice a place. I furnished her with some roses as my offering of welcome. Mr.[Strettell has been with me for the past two nights & has occupied my time during the mornings & evenings, hence my not getting your letter off as usual.

He seems very happy & contented & I have enjoyed having him in the house. He may remain with me to-night. That is provided he does not go to Mrs. Parrish for a day or two. -

My neuralgia is better, almost well. Have been to the Dentists & had two fillings put in with some more yet to go in. - You see I am beginning to go to pieces. Am getting old. On Wednesday night I sat up all night so as to get water for my grounds. We only get water once a week now so that it requires the utmost vigilance to secure anything like a supply. There has been but little or no rain since Septr 1st last & the streams are all drying up. The sheep raisers are beginning to drive the [heards?] out of the County towards Kansas. The plains (usually so green at this season of the year) are as brown as a [berry?]; as brown as they are in mid-winter. Without rain soon, this section must know something of the Condition as pictured by good old fashioned Orthodox for the lower regions. Best it will rain, even now the clouds are gathering & the air is moist. If we only have faith (& use carefully what water comes to the town) we will come out all right. "Pray but keep your powder dry" -

Mrs. Parrish has just invited me to dinner to-night to meet Mrs. [Ballow] & her mother. Giving of dinners & lunches seems to be the order now. Mrs. Parrish gave a ladies mid day lunch yesterday so Mrs. Parrish told me this morning. The Solly's gave quite a dinner night before last. I am entirely opposed to so much big dinners. I enjoy one or two friends in a kind of informal way, but this thing of making so much labor of life is all wrong. It don't pay no way - neither for the [porters: crossed out] the Host & Hostess nor for the guests. Simplicity & quiet (following your own specialty if you have any) is the only healthy life. If have no specialty get one. Just now, mine is growing roses for which I am acquiring quite a reputation in our little town. Yesterday morning Mr. & Miss Boss stopped & got quite a bunch for the lunch party, it now turns out. - In the afternoon poor good looking Mrs. Gorstein came along & she was so entertaining in our talk over the fence that I paid her off for the time given me & enjoyment furnished by a few nice roses. - Then later in the evening came along Harry [Green?] and Miss Tupper. They looked so happy & so bright that I just gave them all the white rose buds I had. This fall they will need orange blossoms. -- & then I keep Mr. Strettell's button hole full morning & evening, ministering to his esthetic side, while Bettie feeds the other side of his nature. - At the Bank all goes quietly but apparently well. Plenty of deposits, but no place to use them profitable. -

Peggy, my Peggy, I get your little notes dated no-where & no times. They are sweet loving notes, but I long for the real fresh living letters, that I know come as straight from you as they can come, that have not been put away to be mailed on a certain day, but that are penned & come to me as a direct & living message from my dear Peggy - It will be about seven days yet before I receive your first letter from the other side - I often wonder what you are doing, where you are How you are getting on. By this time Scotland is done up, Ireland (the land of my ancesters [sic]) looked over perhaps & now you are on your way to that old wierd [sic] land of Norway & Sweden. I have a strange notion of Norway & Sweden. I cannot but feel as if every thing was old in those countries. That you would find old fashioned people, old fashioned ways in everything & that the face of the Country would have an old look. Doubtless I am all wrong, for there is marrying & giving in marriage there as elsewhere & the spring rejuvenates the Country, even as in our own Southern climes.

Goodby my dear Peggy. Write your loving -- Will

Give my kindest regards to Prof. Horsford & his daughter. I think I might send my love to the ladies. I would surely (if they were not from Cambridge.

Home June 25 1880

My Dearest Peggy:

Your letter from Queenstown of June 5th reached me on the 23rd, two days before I had expected to hear from you. It enclosed the little bit of silvered brown hair & the daisy with the kiss. Now my precious Peggy don't you know that I have no hair to spare & can't make fair exchanges on that basis even with you who have no great surplus -
I note the fact stated, "that you will never come back." Now Peggy if you can't stand it to come back, what about my sufferings, an untried sailor. Think you it is fair to ask me to go through the watery furnace, when it may kill me outright. You have tried it & lived through. No Peggy I guess you had better come back.

It is very hard indeed that you have to suffer so much to get to Europe. There should be great compensations over there to pay for any such a condition as you portray and that too even in the very best of weather. I learned that you had gone out in a very slow boat. It is a peculiarity of Boston, while she is ahead in many things she is behind in steamers.
Judging from your description you must have had a delightful company out with you; here is one of the advantages of shipping from Boston. That the Cambridge ladies should be improving their minds is the natural cause of things even on board of a steamer, but that they should be seeing Green hills all the time they are crossing the ocean is something quite [out: crossed out] unusual. I hope you won't worry Prof. H. with that active mind of yours, as to your plans directions &c. For once in your life let things take their course a little. Only keep in view the Pashon Play [sic]. I don't see that anything else need worry you.

Since writing you last I have been very closely at at [sic] home. [Only: crossed out] Only out to drive once. Have had more trouble with my face, but am better almost well again - night before last I dined at the Risley's. Miss Seward Miss Rogers Mr & Mrs. Risley [Weittse?] & myself the company -- We had a very pleasant time. Mrs. Risley & Miss Seward smoked cigarettes with us after dinner & then joined in a game of whist. I cannot escape the notion that Mr. Risley is not very comfortable in his matrimonial yoke. - Elisabeth is too set & precise; brings him up with a [round term?] too often to suit the old man. In short too much Boston. - Their little house is very pretty & it is the biggest little house I ever knew. Yesterday afternoon Mrs. R & Miss Seward gave a little party to the children some twenty of them. The party held so late that Miss Seward did not come to dine with me as she promised. To night I go to dine at the Sollys & will meet the Risley's there. Mrs. Parrish is at Gleneyrie again for another week. I called at her house intending to read her a part of your funny letter, but she had already gone. I enjoyed your letter very very much. Some portions of it are too personal to show round.

Our street is quite deserted. Mrs. Hamp gone, rented her house to new people, Mrs. Adler gone rented to DeCoursey's. Mrs. Parrish gone most of the time.

I am writing with a little kitten sitting on my shoulder. We have two of them, one black & one black & white. The black & white one runs to meet me whenever I go out into the grounds & is not content until she gets recognition by being taken up. The black one is sufficient unto herself & does not seem to care for other society.

Dearest Peggy: by the time this reaches you will be up towards the North Pole, where the twilights are long. You can dream away there, and you will be rested & well & have forgotten your horrid journey across. The Miss Horsfords will be seeing Green hills all the time on land as well as on the water. Just now Mr. Strettell called to say he would like to stay with me tonight as he is invited to the Sollys dinner, so I infer it is to be quite a company. Goodby Dear Peggy until I write again Sunday when I will recount the doings of our little town for the next three days. Lovingly your Will

[no date - may be out of chronological order in this folder]

My Dear Peggy,

I cannot tell you anything about Publishing your Indian Book. My idea would be that you would not find much sale for it in Europe & I want much to prepare you for a disappointment in it's sale in America also, though I may be mistaken. - Consult Prof. Horsford & take his advice as to what is best. As for Patriotism, that don't cut much figure one way or the other. You have told nothing but the truth & that you have a perfect right to publish anywhere & indeed, its publication in England may be a means of awakening our public men to some sense of the degradation that we as a nation should feel in the true history of our dealings with a comparatively defencless [sic] race. I see no serious objection to the Pubn. If by it you can make any money, if not I would not bother with it.

Goodby Peggy Lovingly

Will.
I have not seen the Bosses since they were here to dinner last week. Nor have I seen the Palmers for a week.

I called at the Palmers yesterday but they were out driving. They go to Manitou Park in a few days for the summer. The mail closes very soon once again Goodby my dear girl

York. July
Wed. Morning

Dearest Will-

Where do you think I am writing? in the old Cathedral of York - one of the famous Cathedrals of the world. - I am sitting in a chair in the nave - two old gray headed men are moving the benches & chairs & piling them up against the wall - no more services in the nave till next Christmas -

In the choir -(a big chapel) - the morning service is going on -- & the sound of the music - as it swells & echoes among these high arches is something beyond all description beautiful - the whole stone cathedral itself seems to vibrate with sound as a glass does when you strike it with a knife. Cornelia is in at the service -- & I am waiting for her here - The Prof. & Kate have gone on this morning to Hull. C. & I. go this afternoon at 4, -- I have staid over to hear the Bishops Convocation discuss the Burials Bill - this morning. - We had the good luck to hit the time of a great Ecclesiastical Convocation here - eight bishops - there have not been eight here before. In 300 years! - You ought to see them in their scarlet & white robes - they are almost as gay as Cardinals in Rome. - Then there are hundreds of clergy here - black gowns with purple hoods - scarlet -lavender - blue - all indicating I believe the Colleges at which they graduated (but I am not sure). - Have you noticed anything about the Burials Bill now before Parliament? - It is to do away with the law forbidding the burial in consecrated ground of any more Episcopalian member. - It is a point of great interest this action of the Episcopal Church on the point -- & I anticipate some most interesting discussions - I heard the Bishop of Manchester a few minutes yesterday - a fine manly speaker on the side of liberality. - It will be $30 in my pocket if they make a good lively discussion this morning! - I had a good time at Dumfries - saw the two houses Burns lived in - the room he died in - and the frightful monument over his grave - in a churchyard crowded with monuments like a forest with trees 2600 in a small place! -

I left Dumfries at 7 Am. Yesterday - went to Carlisle - where the Horsfords had planned to sleep Monday night & take the train for York Tuesday morning. I waited past two trains at the station. No Horsfords! -- Then I concluded to go on by myself to York -- & what do you think - got into the same train with them after all! - They having changed their plans & gone from Glasgow to Edinboro [sic] to sleep instead of to Carlisle! - It is never safe to count on peoples doing what they say they'll do! If I had not been a tolerably independent person, I might be still waiting at Carlisle on the Hs to arrive! However I knew they had to be at Hull tomorrow -- & I should have gone straight through without them. - We shall find letters there -- & oh, how I am looking for them! - Nobody knows who has not been the other side of an ocean from loved ones what the longing is. - What I wish most for is the first letter from you after you get my first one to you! -- then the intercourse will seem to be established. -
--Oh Will - if you were but here to hear this music - I never heard anything so solemnly beautiful - ho human being in sight - ( the doors to the choir are shut) - but the wall shutting it off only reaches up quarter the height of the cathedral walls - so the sounds float up, and out in all directions -- & fill the air - It is far more solemn here, than inside -- -- when the voices die down in the recitation or reading, it is like the dying away of a wind in the forest - almost to silence - then a great burst of melody swells up again - there are only boys voices - some little fellows not two years old - all in white robes - made like the ministers. They look very jolly & mischievous however & not in the least solemn, when you come near them. - It doesn't mean much to them evidently. -
--Thursday morning. Hull.
The discussion proved so interesting that I let Cornelia go by herself to Hull & I staid over at York - getting up at 5 this Am. to take the 6.45 train. - so as to be here in [?] season for any contingencies - got here at 8.30 -- & found the H's just at breakfast -- & our boat does not sail till afternoon - so all is right. - And I have your two letters of the 18th & 21st sweeter letters than the last two -- & correspondingly dearer - more like that dear first letter which I lugged about & reread till it got ragged. - I wonder what you would think if you knew how many times I read your letters - studying & studying --: dearest Will - it is very hard to be away from you.
--I am glad you had Strettell with you - a great deal better than nobody - you do not say a word of Betty - Is she doing less well - and Oh, my dear dear boy, who is filling your teeth! There is nobody in that town, unless some new man has come, who can be trusted. Bad filling may give you no end of trouble.

I quite agree with you about all this dinner giving &c. - It was fast becoming a very burdensome thing before I left -- & of course it will continually increase as the town grows larger & richer. - The whole atmosphere of that little town is like a city atmosphere as far as it can be -- & it is for that reason - and others that I have felt, much as I love Colorado Springs in some amounts - scenery &c. - that we might be much happier, quieter, more content & more to each other, in some other place, -- so that I should be perfectly content to make any change which you saw fit to make. -

I fear there is no hope of your getting out & coming abroad. - Molly speaks of it in her letter -- & is evidently hoping for it a little. - -- I think ever if you did, it might be better not to come till next spring. - I will return in Oct - [conclude?] my Indian book - write my play -- & get any new Bits of Travel written this winter -- & earn some money! --& by spring we could set off for a leisurely year of travel. Oh how much good it would do you Will - make a great break -- -- & a new departure -- & do you good in every way. - We could spend a year abroad, by being careful, -- for $7000, I am perfectly sure. - I know lots more than I did about it. - And I'll furnish $2000 of it. Come darling!-

Goodbye -- Now I must go out, & Alas - draw some money & buy a rug for the steamer -No - for my knees! On the steamer - I kiss you - kiss you - kiss you - you never said a word about my lock of hair - nor sent me one of yours. Clip it off & send it in the next letter. -

Don't be afraid I do not care for the news in your letters. You can't write enough! -- And I hear from no one else now, in the Springs. - (Don't speak of this, please dear one.-I am not to blame & I have done all that any human being could -- If after all the proofs of almost preternatural affection I have given her, she is still capable of resentment & antagonism towards me, I cannot help it. - There is a [radical?] defect in her heart. - I have written her three times, fully & friendly & lovingly. - It may be because she is so absorbed in the flirtation you spoke of - but I do not think it is.

I am very very sorry. It gives me great pain - but I must accept it like all the rest. - Everything comes to end, if one waits long enough. - either in this world or some other. - Goodbye, I did not mean to tell you this, but it slipped out as if I were talking - But promise me love, not to speak of it! - that is the one thing I cannot bear: to be discussed, or even mentioned. I will write the day we land in Norway - probably Sunday morning.
Your own loving Peggy

[Note on first page in pencil: Envelope marked "Private"]
Thurs. Eve. -July 1st
[Trosachs?] Hotel
Loch Katrine

My Will-- I sent you a letter this morning that I would give much to get back again Oh when shall I ever learn not to write when I am sad! The only thing I can do now is to send this word closely after it, & hope it will reach the same mail. Dear one - I hope they will come together so that you will know how sorry I am to have sent any words which will seem to you cold or reveal to you that I was unhappy; -- I have been very very unhappy yesterday and today - I will tell you in part why - I had not been ill since I left you in St. Louis -- & a great hope had grown up in my heart. - I had never before been so long past the time - but yesterday the illness came - and that was a [great: crossed out] blow as great as the hope had been; -- then your letter contained some things that troubled me - and did not contain some things that I longed for -- & altogether I was very wretched - and instead of bearing it all silently and not speaking till I was myself again, or at any rate could seem so, I wrote as I felt - and you will feel the sadness in my letter. -

Now I send you my tenderest love again - and I put in some messages to say more to you than words - here is the grass which [conveys?] all the secrets that the wind has ever told or swept away - and the tiny red heather which bravely blooms on bare rocks where it can but just cling - and the wild rose which is bright in the wilderness, along to the day of her death - and a bit of the fine white Saxifrage, -- that is humility - and a tiny leaf of the ferns which are so big and high and branching here, that they make a cover in which quail can hide - and on which deer make their beds; -- I have kissed them all for you dear ? Will you kiss them? and tell me you have taken the kiss I send? I keep asking you this - and you do not reply. Why have this false shame my beloved one? All the great men of the world have been great lovers -- passion is as great as action - there never was a strong great man or woman born who did not love with fire and ardor, and glory in loving! --Oh what you lose in your silence! -- no other world can make it up to you! -- How shall I win you to come into the true land of true loving, my one precious darling -- ! - I sometimes think if I could only have you all to myself in some beautiful land like this, where no sound or thought of turmoil and din, and commerce could come - that you would be more my own, in one short month, than ever before. - But that cannot be yet - and the years are well nigh spent in which we can have joy together. - But I will not say more of this now - listen to the wild rose & the fern, & the whispering grass; let them tell you of me - and will you to [words crossed out??] love - would you wear the little brush in your pocket book --? & [let-crossed out] it will help you perhaps t be mine, even in word & look, though I am far away, & there may be those who [would-crossed out] are trying to tempt you to do and say things which would wound me to the heart if I knew. - Your loving lonely Peggy. -

your letters! There is a list of names besides all the others I asked for in my last. - Peggy

ColSpgs. Col. July 9th 80

My Dearest Peggy

Your long & interesting letter from Penwith & the lakes came to hand night before last & I read the most of it to Mrs. Parrish who was taking dinner with me. (She is the only lady I have had to dine with me all by myself since you left) Your description of the large parlor & fire in the grate at the Gown Inn sounds very comfortable in comparison with the terrible & disastrous heat as reported from New York & the east. -- Your writing up to ten oclock by the twilight seems very odd to me. When you get up to Norway you can do even better; perhaps can see until twelve oclock - Dorothy's steps has a very romantic history but you failed to put in the bit of geranium for Mrs. Bell. The Heath, Fox Glove, Rhododendron, & London Bride all came through in good order, also the maps & Photos. -- Your visit at those lakes must have been really enchanting. That quiet finished scenery, so full of history & so full of finish & so full of vegitation [sic] & so silently beautiful must be in great contrast to the bold, unfinished, rugged, massive & broad scenery of Colorado. Some day perhaps we may look at the English lakes together. Though when? But why bother about when? The worries are the straining after the things we don't have & worries are very bad, damaging things. So we won't worry & when you have seen enough to settle down quietly on a small quiet income, we can take a little house & live in the primitive way. Put all the labor & worry of life behind us. Mrs. Lamborn was saying tonight that some of the ladies were saying yesterday, that they had a great [d]eal better time in the old days, [when: crossed out] of Colorado Springs when they wore [delain?] & flannel dresses & had no set dinners, when they felt at liberty to run in to a neighbors without being fixed up. Then she described a dinner at Doctor Bell's when after dinner, the whole evening was spend in discussing the wardrobes Mrs. Palmer was gorgeously dressed & Mrs. Bell had on a cream colored silk with point lace & Mrs. Lows was very richly dressed Mrs. Solley, who was there, (was dressed simply,) said very naively I suppose I am not dressed so as to be a part of this discussion. O yes, they replied that they had noticed she had a beautiful piece of lace on her neck. Now Peggy you are credited I fear with instituting a good [d]eal of cerimony [sic] at dinners &c. but if the Lord forgives me for what I have done in that direction I will do so no more & you must help me back to simplicity. The thought of the waste & wickedness that is going on among women in the matter of dress & show is sickening to me & that women, who want to be called sensible, should be parties to it is unaccountable to me. I hope most sincerely that your day of laces ribbons & furbelows & gew gaws generally is over & that you will adopt the dress of an earnest worker rather than a walking advertisement of some modiste-

I suppose women will be fools so long as men encourage them in it. I am one man at least who is going to say frankly to his wife, don't waste your strength & usefulness in dress & show. It is mear [sic] parade. Mrs. Parrishe's simple gown looks to me infinitely more sensible & appropriate than the rich gowns of Mrs. Palmer & Mrs. Bell & Mrs. Lows. They look like -- well finish this sentence. My finish would be uncomplimentary to say the least. If discussion of dress & effect of gowns is the one thing to be considered Mrs. Lamborn says we can adjourn to Geddings Store & try the effect of gowns on his form for showing off dresses. Last evening I was out to dine with Mr. & Mrs. Taylor who are living in the Hollowell house. Mrs. Hallowell & her family went east, about two weeks ago, to stay the summer. Dr. & Mrs. Solly & Miss Solly & myself were the guests. The Tailors [sic] are Orthodox Quakers. So you see we were nearly all Quakers at the table. I wrote you I was going to Manitou on Thursday with Mrs. Parrish. Poor Mrs. Parrish has been sick for some days with a bad headache so we put our trip off until, Sunday, tomorrow. The Risley's have all gone to the Park.

Peggy I sent Dr. Kate $200 a few days ago. I had a second imploring letter, but I wrote him fully that if I had no money to spare; there were others who had by every claim of blood & neediness the first claim on me, but that I knew you felt under an obligation to him (which however you had arranged to pay as per your agreement [but: crossed out] that I had no doubt were you able to discharge the obligation now you would gladly do it. - I told him he must look to others for any further help. I think Doctor Kate is a good bit of an old granny & some of an old fool. He had no manner or shaddow [sic] of claim on me. A man that has lived to his time of life without making any ties that enables him to raise $500, there must be something wrong with & then to apply to an almost entire stranger is to me a very strange proceeding. He won't do when measured by business standards. I rather think he is an old sentimentalist, but I have dismissed him from my mind. If he presses me for more money I will give him an awakening in my next letter, though I don't think he will write me again. Just here Mr. Barlow came in & took me off to the Bank so I did not get the letter finished. Yesterday, and last night Mr. Bass came home to Dinner with me & staid until 12.o.c. so I got nothing done last night. This morning (Sunday) the morning Mrs. Parrish & I were going to Manitou Park, I find Thom. Parrish came home last night, so naturally his wife don't want to go to the Park, thus I have time to write my little letter to my Dear Peggy.

Thom. Parrish stuck his head out of the window this morning at 9.o.c. (Not up yet) as if he thought he was the only fellow that had a girl all his own, but he is much mistaken as we will let him know about next October. I shall go over to Manitou today, being the second time I have been at Manitou this year. I would not go to-day except that I have announced to Bettie I would be from home all day & doubtless she has arranged her day counting on it. Well Peggy what in thunder do you care about these little matters? but I keep on writing because you ask for them.

Yesterday afternoon I was out to view & assess some damages made by the building of the Railway to Manitou. The road will be finished in about twenty days. I don't think it will improve Manitou much. It seems to make it like other places of resort, brot. in to close relations with the outside world by rail. The Hotels at Manitou are not yet full & it looks as if there would not be the big rush anticipated this year. -

My regards to the Horsfords, ever lovingly Your Will.
XXX three of them. Goodby

Sunday July 11, 1880
Bergen, Norway!

Dearest Will - Its' no use to begin. I can never tell you the half of the last three days - We left Hull, (the nastiest, worst smelling hole I ever was in) - on Thursday eve. At 7 o'clock -- The North Sea was said to have been "as smooth as a millpond", all the way - I'd like to have anybody show me such a mill pond! -- that's all I've got to say about that! -- -- Oh, how wretched I was, all day Friday, Kate & I spent the day flat on the deck, on a pile of sail cloth - my only comforts were 1st the thought that we had only two days of it - 2d the contemplation of my beautiful new rug, which I bought in Hull for $10, -- & which is one of the loveliest things of the kind you ever saw - just the colors you will delight in, -- soft gray on one side; --on the other, stripes of soft crimson & black & gray all mixed together - a broad stripe of the latter, & a narrow one of the former. It is one of the richest yet quietest bits of coloring I ever saw in woollen [sic]. The rug is all soft & shaggy - warm as a blanket -- & light as a feather - a great bargain -- & a lovely thing to have always. - Kate & I lay under it all day Friday & were a good deal less seasick because the rug was so pretty! -

(I mailed you a letter from Hull, just before sailing. --)

We had been feeling pretty blue about the prospect of having to bunk in, all three of us together, in one state room, -- but how do you think we felt when we went into our stateroom & found a card with "Miss Reid" pinned on to the fourth berth! -- Mind you, these four berths in a little place not more than - well - six feet square! - only one person could be on foot at a time in it! - We called the stewardess & told her that the officers of the Co. had told us we were to have the whole stateroom! - "no indeed" she said There wasn't an empty berth on board - She had even got to have a lady above her in the Ladies Cabin" -- & then she showed us a purgatory so much worse than ours - the Ladies Cabin - with ten berths running round a little square room not much bigger than ours. - She was a giantess - one of the most horrible visages I ever saw - a fish woman of the French Revolution wouldn't out do her - I am going to try to describe her but I shall fail. - She ran the whole ship! - Well we consulted - We were in her power - we saw what it was - she had moved one person out of her cabin into ours, to ease her own peace - nine - ten - eleven o'clock came. No Miss Reid! - No bags or parcels belonging to Miss Reid - It was plain that the whole thing was a trick of Madam the Stewardess - so we bribed her - we said see here - Miss Reid has not appeared - she evidently expects to go in the cabin - now if you will arrange to keep her there, we'll pay you half the price of this berth - ($10) -" -

"Well - she would try! But we must not say anything about it!!"
--My own impression is she had arranged the whole thing with a view to making us pay her for that berth. - However Miss Reid never appeared -- & we gave the Pythoness over two pounds with perfect glee - if it had been ten we would have paid it rather than have had a stranger in that tea chest of a place. The droll thing was that as soon as we had the horror of a fourth person before our eyes, the mere fact of our having to be all three in there together, which had before appeared so terrible, seemed nothing - in fact it seemed bliss by comparison! So we said, we have learned a lesson - everything is tolerable or intolerable only by comparison --; & if nothing worse happens to us than having to bunk in all three together, we'll never grumble again. I am growing very fond of these girls. They are singularly sweet simple hearted unaffected girls; I could wish they had a little more worldly wisdom in some ways - but better too little than too much.
--Well, Thursday night & Friday & Sat. night were misery but Sat. morning - we were in smooth water - land in sight at 8 -- & at nine we were in harbor at Stavanger. Here we were to lie for three hours unloading weight - so we all went on shore - such a bright cheery little town - wooden houses all painted in light colors, some white, roofs of bright red tiles - houses all with gable ends coming down a little way like roofs -
[a small drawing of a house is inserted] So fashion -- & these gable ends also tiled with the red tiles - flowers at every window - up to the garret - growing in white flower pots or pots of yellow & red -the windows all opening out in the middle like doors - white lace curtains at all, in the good houses - many a one we saw half open & a pretty face peering out. -streets narrow, paved with rough slabs of stone - sidewalks about ten inches wide - hardly one can walk on them. Why they have them I don't know - everybody walks in the street; -- streets steep - houses crowded - the town seems all sliding down to the sea. - We sat on a seat under an old watch tower, & tried to talk to the little Norwegian children who came & stared & ran away when we spoke to them just like Maine or New Hampshire youngsters. Then we went into a fine old Cathedral - built in the year 1000 - or thereabouts -- & then I went off alone to the market, which is always to me the most interesting spot in any city or town. Here were two sloops anchored close to the wharf, with their cargoes of crockery spread out on the decks to sell - flower pots - jars, bowls, plates, some cream color and [old?], some white with gay flowers - all made four miles from Stavanger, up on some fjord (pronounced fyord - & means a bay of the sea running up into the land, and Norway is chiefly made up of them and mountains) -- Stands where meat was sold - sausages, fish, vegetables - filled the main part of the open square -- & on one side were stalls where merchants better to do had their wares exposed - here was a pile of black wooden shoes for sale! On the side walk - they looked for all the world like queer boats which some child might have scooped out of wood - the outside is painted as black as ink. - Afterwards, in the open door of a house I saw a pair of these shoes standing on the threshold as if a person had just slipped them off his feet & gone in. - After the market I went with Prof. H. to an old silver shop! -- old spoons old clasps - old rings - old everything - of the quaint Norwegian work - I could not find however the sort of spoon Sally wanted me to buy for her - so I did not buy any; -- I also resisted heroically a clasp at $7.50 which I longed for - but I have made up my mid not to give over $5.00 for one. - Prof. H. spent $30 in less than 30 minutes -- & for really valuable old things too - but I did not want any of the things he bought. -

Today we have met here three American girls from Cambridge who have just got back from the North Cape! Think of that. - one of them is a sister of the wife of the American Consul at Christiania -- & has lived here in Norway three years, so she speaks Norwegian well -- & if these three girls haven't had a good time, no girls ever did. Their account of the Midnight Sun made me feel a keen regret that we are not going to see it; -- however You & I will do that together - that is the way I console myself for everything I have to miss now - that I am leaving it to do with you; -- Still it does seem a very great pity to come to Norway & do so little as we shall - It would take a whole summer to begin to see Norway; -- from the northern point to the southern, it is as long as from Maine to Florida! - Fancy taking two weeks to see that in! However half a loaf is better than no bread; -- & I've seen enough in these two days to pay for coming! - The sail from Stavanger to Bergen alone is enough - look on the map & see the islands we threaded our way among - Hundreds of them - some, bare rock looking as if it had boiled up & cooled suddenly - some, with their verdure on them, with here & there patches of brilliant green a few feet square where there was soil enough to raise grain - every inch of soil is cultivated - pieces no bigger than a table cloth - in hollows - in corners, slanted up between ledges - oh you never would believe human beings would be driven to trying to farm such bits; tiny houses tucked into these little [cages?], one or two at a place - sometimes a village of twenty or thirty - but all in the hollows and breaks of the rocks - I never can describe it never. - Then in the distance, superb mountains - great fields of snow & glaciers in the high horizons. The highest mts. In Norway are only about 8000 ft. high -- but they look as high as the Rocky Mts.

We got in to Bergen at ten o'clock at night -- light enough to read - had a big scrimmage at the dock with custom house people looking into all our trunks -- & nobody to speak Norwegian - Got up to the Hotel by installments -- & found only one room left for all four of us - though Prof. H. had telegraphed from Stavanger for three - (people who know, write, it seems weeks beforehand, & engage their rooms) - Poor Prof H. got into a great rage - I did not suppose he ever did such things & that made matters no better - I stood against the wall & silently watched the whole scene as a spectacle - the Norwegian Landlord who could speak no English - the waiter who could speak a little -- & Prof. H. who spoke a great deal -- & the crowds of people going up & down the hall; it was very funny - but I knew it would come out all right somehow - such things always do. Finally, the girls & I got a room with three beds in it -- & Prof. H. went to a home near by, which turned out to be kept by a friend of Ole Bulls & the very home where he always stops -- & tonight I am to have a nice room to myself, & the Prof. is to have one also -- & the dear old man he said to me this morning "I expect I made myself ridiculous." & I did not know what to say - so I only laughed -- & he went on to say "I really felt like taking my passage home the next day!" - "Oh dear," said I, "I've seen too many just such scrimmages about rooms. They always turn out all right somehow, sooner or later - but you see we must have a guide: that is the only thing in a country where you do not speak the language." - Dear man, I don't think he is much better in a country where he does. - He instantaneously & hopelessly confuses every person of whom he undertakes to ask a question - I never saw anything so droll - I never shall forget a speech he made to a woman in the office of the "Inns of Court" hotel in London. - our telegram which should have gone to the High Holborn Hotel, had gone to the Inns of Court, and I believe I wrote you all about this - well - we went to one Hotel, & our telegram had gone to another -- & the next morning I went, taking the Prof. with me, to the other! To see if I could get a good room there, for the one I had would not answer at all -- & I preferred even to be at another Hotel alone, rather than stay in it. - Prof. H. opined thus -

"Well, you see, we have turned up -"(she not having the least idea who we were!) "It is by a most curious combination of stupidities that we are not in this house. We are at the other Hotel, which I find is called High Holborn"! -

The woman stared - I really think for the first moment she took us for a couple of lunatics - for I was shaking with laughter. -

Monday morning. -
--It was silly to take up all my letter with this - but never mind - it will give you a laugh - you see I never could write public letters to be sent round as I proposed - for I want all the time to be sticking in things for you alone. - Well-Tuesday, Mrs. Steen, a very interesting Norwegian woman, to whom I had a letter of introduction from the Conways, took us all to drive - [crossed out: Her father keep] out into the hills - really into them. - it is like Brattleboro, jammed up closer - what looks from the water like a steep precipitous wall - is made up of endless hills and jogs capped over on each other, with such nooks between as you never saw - just big enough to stick down a house, or a little pond - or on a hook to wiggle down - or for a half bushel of something to grow - or a cow or a goat to feed -- : they dry their hay by hanging it up in rows, on temporary fences made of rails with wires or strings, or sometimes saplings stretched from post to post. A bit of meadow filled with rows of these hay fences drying is an odd sight to see -
* * * Here comes Prof. H. - who has been out on a forage in silver shops - fur shops &c. - also the girls who have been out with a Norwegian woman as interpreter - they have bought some jolly little things - not dear, but very pretty = clasps - spoons &c. - I am meditating buying some decent spoons myself -- & clasps for my fur lined cloak. - I'd like to buy you such a fur lined coat as the Prof is going to buy - but I can't! - The thing I could have got for you if I had had your measure would have been a suit of clothes - dear me - I just used to stand & sigh over the tailors windows - such charming Scotch clothes - piles of them - in England & Scotland - stretched out in the windows - with "to measure .50s." - of "70" - or even as low as 35 - I did once see in Chester. Think of that, only from $15 to $25 for a suit of beautiful Scotch cloth.

This afternoon we go to dine at 6 o clk. With Mrs. Steen - a plain Norwegian dinner - her husband has been a member of the Norwegian Congress -- & has just got the appointment as Judge in some country district here, with which they are pleased. We have not seen him yet, but will today. Her father & mother keep this Hotel -- & are very picturesque old people - the food is delicious - better even than in Scotland & England - but I suppose we shall get nothing like it after we go into the country. - We shall stay here quietly till Thursday when we set off for a trip of four days on the Sogne Fjord (pronounced "Sone -ye F-yawd" - I wonder if you can get it from that writing. - It's no great matter if you can't. -

By Wednesday we hope for letters - I shall mail a line for you on Thursday, if a packet goes - but you must not look any longer for letters with regularity twice a week. I shall always mail them, but I fear they will go irregularly. Goodbye dear one, I send you some Norway flowers - and three pictures of the peasants costumes; -- if I weren't so stout, I'd certainly get a dress made for me in the true peasant style, just for fun, to have it to wear sometimes but I'm too big! - Goodness! A hearse has just gone by - a high thing open on all sides - black & silver posts with black curtains hanging like an old fashioned high post bedstead, with the canopy! A silver cross upright in the middle of the roof of it - and a silver cherubs head with wings at the back! - this beats the Glasgow hearses all hollow. I would really like to have a collection of photos of the hearses of different countries! - it would be surprisingly cheerful considering the nature of the subject. -

Goodby darling-

Your loving faithful Peggy.

Home July 18, 1880
Sunday morning

My Dearest Peggy:

The pious souls of the town are saying their prayers & singing their hosannas. The Presbiterians [sic] are voicing their hymns with more attention to volume & noise than to melody. Still the solemn music has a soothing effect, as it floats in through the fly netting at the open windows. It is a glorious still morning. Soft & damp, one of Colorado's real growing mornings. Even the cats are having their season of rejoicing in the back yard - perhaps religious exercises, perhaps not. -- But for the churches & the cats it is as still a morning as I ever remember in Col Springs. Bettie is out at the devotions & I am at mine in writing to my Peggy, so my househould [sic] is represented in the devotional exercises. After Breakfast I strolled in to see Emma Lamborn a moment. Col. is from home & I am going in to take my lunch with them at one &c. Emma told me to say to you she missed you from Col. Springs very much. Missed the Anti alepathic influence she guessed, & bids me to say she is not dosing. - Gertrude is getting on quite well & is growing. Anne is a big strong well girl. Emma Lamborn is a character. She runs on like a mill clapper about matters & things & people. People are not always things, but under all her fun & satire, there is a lot of good feeling & good sense I like her very much.

I helped her & the children pick & shell the peas for dinner (picked out of their own garden) -- She has no girl now, but expects two tomorrow. It would seem as if she was destined always to be in trouble, but [?] it runs off so easily -

Of your other friends I have seen & know nothing since I wrote you last, except Mrs. Parrish who dined with me Friday night. Mr.& Mrs. Parrish & Mr. Bass. After dinner Whist. Mrs. Parrish & myself against Thom & Bass. We won & Mrs. Parrish was happy. Had a good time.

Mr. Bass went to the Park on Saturday, wanted me to go with him, which I should have done certainly had Barlow not been away. For a few days I am confined closely to the Bank. - Last night Saturday, Mr. [Weittse?] took dinner with me, after which Mr. Andrews of New York & Mr. Gray came in & we had an hour of cards again. So you see my life goes on & on quietly. The only break is my letters from you coming ordinarily twice a week, but not so this week. The mails have been very very irregular for the past two weeks on account of the serious wash outs on the Railroads. So I will wait & you must not be disappointed if your letters do not reach you regularly. I will write two notes a week, but they may reach you on the same day. There are so many chances of delays between here & you! & where are you is the question. Under the light & warmth of the two months sun of Norway I suppose but will not know certainly until your letter reaches me setting forth your arrival.

By the way I forgot to write you that Mr. Runkle wrote me he would be in Col. in about ten days. I wrote him to come to me for his stay in this part of the state & asked him to give my love to Bertie & to ask her to write you care Baring Bros. &c.

I have a nice letter from Priscilla giving me an account of your meeting in London. I shall write her a letter today & call her Priscilla. I have also a letter from Miss Irving explaining as best she can the seeming oddity of Dr. Cate's applying to me for a loan of $500. She promises to return it whenever I need it, but I had already written Dr. Cate my decision in the matter& had enclosed him $200. - This I will let him keep on account of the legacy you have left him in your will, or rather that you have requested paid to him. I have a long letter from the Broken American wanting $1,000 to help him out. Making a strong plea in his own behalf. Of course I will do nothing whatever for him, & Calleh has written me for temporary loan to help him over his tight place. It seems as if everybody was unpecuneary [sic] & as if they turned to me. Those that I should help & intend to help as I can never ask, but only wait.

[Weittse?] has just come & wants me to go to the office with him to make out some business plan, for which he wants to despatch [sic] the Bank so I must close goodby my own Peggy - I look for at least two letters from you tonight-----

Just have as good a time as you possibly can & come back to me well & strong.
Lovingly Your Will

You bet I think of you everyday Every day & am wondering what you are doing, where you are, & how you are getting along.

Skiœrgehaven, Norway
Wed. Eve, July 21, 1880
On board the steam boat-
3 hours out of Bergen

Dearest Will

Would you like to pronounce that word? Here it is - Shearragerhaven, & it means rocky Harbor -- & well it may for there is absolutely nothing in sight but rocky islands - I mean islands of rock! - I am hoping that a mail will go to Hamburg tomorrow morning & as we do not get in till midnight tonight, I am going to have a scrawl ready to send off to you in the morning by giving it to the clerk tonight - we are coming back from our delightful four days - Dear me if I could go all over Norway with Mrs. Steen, would it not be good - wait till you read my story "Four days with Sanna" -- & see how much I have owed to her -
--We are threading our way now among islands, literally all rock with a little low verdure on them - some only the size of a good Princeton boulder -- & some high hills - there is a party of vulgar Americans & a still more vulgar Englishman who are making such a clatter I cannot tell what I write - Mrs. Steen says quietly "All are not gentlemen & ladies who travel in Norway," - Really such people do make me ashamed of my country -

Will - now I am going to tell you something you will not believe - yesterday I drove from Bossvangen (where I mailed a letter for you on Monday) - to Gudvangen: -- 28 miles - I wonder if your big Atlas has a good map of Norway - if so you can look on it & follow me up. - I see how these wonderful fjords make a fringe of the coast -

Ah - now I see why we stopped at this rock - men are putting off with boats full of little barrels - one is along side - three more are coming - one rowed by a woman - the woman row as well as the men --. A man standing up in the first boat calls to the captain I have nine more barrels coming" … "I cannot wait for them" says the Capt-"Then you shall have nothing" replies the boatman. The barrels are [crossed out: loaded] full of herrings - which are God's manna for these poor Norwegians - they eat them all the year round -- & sell all they do not eat.

The barrels are being hoisted on board two at a time by a great iron chain & windlass -- & the horrid Americans have stopped singing Pinafore & screeching silly jokes to watch the process -

A Norwegian gentleman has just said to Mrs. S.

"Those must surely be very uneducated people" - probably if the Americans & the Englishman knew what the Norwegians think of such behavior, they wld be quieter - but as Mrs. Steen says "They think that in Norway they shall do all they like!" - Well - the thing you will not believe - I am coming to it -

I [crossed out: have] drove down into a valley yesterday - as deep down as two Grand Canyons of the Arkansas piled one above the other -- & the road was made down a precipitous side as steep as most of that Canyon is! The road was made in loops as the R.R. in Veta Pass is -- & it doubled its length 18 times in getting down! We walked all the way down, come to think of it - so it isn't true that I drove - but we did not walk because we were afraid to drive - only because we wished to see the view better - the road was nowhere so steep as that worst place on Cheyenne Mt. - but it was all the way walled by high blocks of stone -- & at the steepest places & sharpest curves railed with a stout iron railing - that s [sic] the way people look a [sic] the question of risking human lives, in this country. - I fancy that our Cheyenne Mt. road could look to any European like the freak of a madman * * Here we go - herrings all in & the four little boats pulling away again to their desolate home. - The sun is just setting in a glorious yellow sky - ten minutes past nine -- & it will be light an hour longer. I can't grow accustomed to these endless days.-
-- Now if you have taken breath darling - I will tell you that into this deep valley there fell at the end from which we entered it, a great thundering waterfall, hundreds & hundreds of feet - on many parts of the road, the spray wet our faces --; a little farther on, there fell in another on the side of the valley, & at the base of the mountainside, down which the road winds, the two streams from these falls, come together & flow down the valley which is not valley at all - but a cleft between two mt. ranges! -- our carriage as we looked down at it, waiting for us on the bridge, looked like a baby wagon! - in fact, we could but just see that it was a carriage at all when we were half way down! -

If you had ever seen the Yosemite I could tell you that this valley is like the Yosemite, closed up narrow, so as to hold only a strip of meadow & a river - but as you haven't, -- the Grand Canyon built up - to 4000 & 2000 feet high is the best comparison I can give you. - Five miles down this dark valley we drove & came to the doleful little huddle of houses called Gudvagen at 9.30 at night - wouldn't you have laughed to see the room we were grateful for -a garret room, with two beds built in, in a closet under the eaves, like the closets we build to put [trunks?] away in - a door opening for you to get into your bed! - It is a nasty fashion they have here of building beds in - worse than in [Edinboro--crossed out] old houses in Scotland. -
--You wld have gone crazy - for the beds were full of fleas - poor Mrs. S. hardly slept at all - they favor her, as bed bugs do me. But I slept like a top & the fleas had a fine banquet off me - as my nightdress showed this morning. - A party who arrived after we did slept on chairs & on the floor in the dining room! Such is Norway in July -

--This four days has been a perfect success in every way - has given this dear good Mrs. Steen a great pleasure - for they are very poor & she has but once before visited these beautiful fjords - when she was a girl she & her brother & his friends took this journey, & walked in turns, all the way except when they were in steamboats! They hired one horse & a cart, & two drove & two walked by the side, in turns! -- & they got out of money & had to borrow to get home! - She loves nature as warmly as I do -- & watches me like a hawk, to see if I find it all as wonderful here as she does. - She cannot comprehend my living 6000 feet up in the air, -- & asks me continual questions about Colorado. - The interest all these Norwegians take in America is wonderful. It is only necessary to tell them I am an American to make their faces light up. Almost every one has a relative there. - Mrs. Steen's husband has just been appointed judge of a country district -- & they move to their new home next week - otherwise I should take her for a ten days trip in other parts of Norway which I so much want to see! - but she can take no more time. -

Now, I'll tell you something else which will astonish you - We have just added up the cost of the trip -- & it is only 40! - two people from Sat. noon till Wed. night - incessant traveling - for $10 a day - really the prices asked for food - at their little country inns are sad - for you know the people must starve - at Gudvagen for one nights lodging -- , supper & breakfast only about 3.00! - I asked Mrs. S. to ask the landlord what he expected to clear on the whole season's travel - he said about $200! -- & that he really could not live on it -- -- he has a little shop also. - The food was really very good - at this place - for supper we had stewed mutton, potatoes & rice - then beef - then stewed prunes. - Coffee - tea - & milk -- & the kindness & willingness of the people I never saw equaled - their friendliness is something touching: -- when you give a servant anything - or a driver, they expect to shake hands with you as a token of their gratitude & goodwill -- & sometimes it must be owned their hands are none of the cleanest! But I like to do it for all that. -

Goodbye now my dear one - It is growing cold & my pen is giving out - I'll write again on Sunday --, -- but where it will be, I've no idea. I expect to find the H's have gone to Ole Bulls when I get back -- & I may follow them tomorrow but only for a day or two -
--I hope to find a letter from you tonight - Goodbye -

Your own loving Peggy

[Attached to top of letter: small folded packet with note: Norway Heather-
Is this Kinnikinnick? It does not run like our vine - but grows in masses - about 4 inches high -] See end of letter for reference to heather.

Bergen. Sat. Eve
July 24, 1880

Dearest Will, Is it not strange that within twenty four hours of getting your letter telling me of your illness, I also should be down, & on the beef tea list! - I think I must have taken a severe cold, on Thursday Evening when I drove to Mrs. Steens to Supper. This is a most treacherous climate - it turns hot & cold & hot & cold in less than no time - it had been so warm (for here) that I drove out with only !! my fur trimmed black cloak. - but I ought to have worn my jacket underneath - mind you, I had on my dark blue woolen dress, the one I wore all last winter! Such is summer in Norway: -- a winter dress, and a great flannel-lined wrap, were not enough: -- I felt chilled before I got to her house, and borrowed a heavy shawl of hers to wear home, but the mischief was done - I began to feel quite wretched yesterday afternoon -- & then had a miserable hot feverish night, with a little sore throat. It is no worse today -- & I hope by keeping quiet & living on aconite & beef tea, I may throw it off: -- but dear me, don't I feel blue? - all alone in this Hotel -- & nothing to read but guidebooks of one sort & another, & two or three old newspapers. I grudge the time [gone?] too. That is almost worse than the being ill: for I had fully hoped to write one of my Atlantic articles here - have 16 pages of it done & hoped in [crossed out: by] Mon. and Tuesday to have it done. - However, there is no use in grumbling over what can't be helped -- & I have much cause for gratitude, in a comfortable room, & the kindest people that ever were in the world. As for Mrs. Steen, she is a species of angel, I think. - I don't know what I should have done without her; -- I should simply have seen & known nothing of Norway.

The Horsfords are still down at Lysœn, Ole Bull's place. - Ole Bull & wife are expected tonight. - I have just had a note from Kate, in which she says they are enjoying the quiet & rest very much -- & Cornelia seems entirely well again, which is a great relief to my mind, for I was afraid she was going to have a fever. I was to have gone down to join them on Monday but think I will not feel quite up to going. This is the first moment's annoyance I have had from my old body, since we landed - in fact it is the first I have had since last December's cold in Boston. If I could only manage to avoid taking colds, I should run the machine very well. - my old mucous (mu-cuss) membrane will be the death of me one of these days. - I had a nice note from Mrs. Botta - oh I told you about that & the pile of newspaper clippings she sent me - but I did not tell you how funny she was about the accidents in the U.S. of late. She was speaking of poor Mr. Ripley's sad state, dying by inches & suffering so much -- & she said, "I do hope when my time comes I may go quickly & not 'stand on the order of my going. The public conveyances now seem to offer every facility."! -

I am very very glad I went to see Mr. Ripley the week before I came away. It was almost the only call I made in person - I went with Mrs. Leonowens & we staid an hour & had a most interesting time. I think I wrote you of some of the kind things he said to me. I have lost, in him, the most influential literary critic [crossed out: and was sure of always] from whom I was sure of having appreciative notices. I wonder who will take his place on the Tribune - It is a grand post for somebody. - And I wonder also who that good natured silly little woman will marry for her third husband --! She will be very very rich -- & sure to marry again soon - she had been divorced, (or deserted I forget which) before marrying Mr. Ripley. -

The accounts of the heat in America make me shudder. What are we coming to! When shall I be driven to, for the summers! Greenland I think. - or Norway, -- which I learned to my great surprise the other day is in the same latitude! - my geography is scandalously rusty. - The boat from Hull comes in tonight, & I hope there is a letter on board her, for me; but I can't get it till Monday morning. Goodnight now my Will. I will kiss you many many times tonight before I go to sleep --; that is, I will kiss your picture. - I wonder if you ever kiss mine. - Do you?-

Sunday morning. -

I am thankful to say I feel better this morning - I must own I was "down" last night, as you will have [discerned?] from the first part of this letter. - [crossed out: But] I feel much out of patience with my old body - Dear me, what helpless prisoners we are in these shells. - This morning I was to have driven with Mrs. Steen out to a peasant church, some seven miles out of Bergen -- & I was counting much on the trip -both as a pleasure, (& as a letter for the Adventurer, ie. $30!) - And the sun is so bright & the air so clear, it would have been a charming day - It is about like a cool September day in the White Mts. - I have one half of one of my three windows open - (the windows here, all open out like doors -with the two upper panes opening separately, so that you can let air in only from the top, if you like, a good idea) - but I am sitting with my feet & legs rolled up in my heavy rug! & find it none too warm -think of that for the 25th of July -

I have just had my breakfast - would you like to know what? -

Two small fishes -name unknown-tolerably good - though a little coarse of grain - rye bread & butter - good -toasted white bread - good - glass of delicious milk -- & a cup of hot beef tea, made yesterday by my own receipt, thanks to Mrs. Steen who with some difficulty translated it into Norwegian. -

The breakfast table, as usually set in this Hotel, is amusing -
--always a great boiled ham, with ruffled white paper at the end of the bone, just as we have it - but here, the white paper is tied on with a bright blue ribbon - plates of sliced sausage - sliced tongue. - smoked salmon raw! - smoked herrings. -- & about six different kinds of cheese! - the Norwegians say of cheese, as we do of fruit - "gold in the morning, silver at noon, lead at night" -- & they eat it always at breakfast! - Some of this cheese is put on in slices on plates - others under glass covers - others put on whole, with pieces of embroidery [pinned?] around them, either white on white cloth, or bead work with worsteds! -A strip of this kind of embroidery round a cheese is a droll enough sight on the table you may imagine. - The Norwegians themselves Mrs. S. says rarely eat anything hot for breakfast except the tea or coffee - but in the Hotels, out of deference to the habits of travelers, they serve you with fresh fish - eggs -- & sometimes some sort of hodge podge of meat --. Never a potato, nor any of the multi-[omnivorous?] things we have for breakfasts. - Mrs. S. had never heard of oatmeal porridge till I told her -- & I could not make her understand about fried mush. - The dinner is at midday -- & in this Hotel surprisingly good - if we could only have it at night, it would be perfect-but I am forever spoiled for a midday dinner - there are always five or six courses -- & everything is nice, though some of them are queer -- and you have often three different kinds of preserve given you with meats - how in the world they can serve such a dinner for about 75 cts I don't know. - There is one comfort about my enforced stay in Bergen, that it will be comparatively cheap living! - but I'd rather not stay here much longer. - It is all very well for you to tell me to "let my active mind rest & take things as they come for once" - but I would just like to remind you that I've got a fixed date staring me in the face - it was a great struggle for me to put off my return voyage to the 29th Sept. -- & a day later than that I am not willing to stay - I can't bear it another week darling -- & how the Horsfords are to go to - Dresden - Berlin - Vienna - Prague - Salzburg & Gastein, in one month I don't see! - and if we do not get to OberAmmergau for that Passion Play by Sept. 5th, -- I can't hit that steamer of the 29th. - I suppose you will say - never mind if I don't - but I do mind - I don't want to be away from you another minute; -- and rather than do it I shall cut loose from the Hs. & take a maid who can speak German & go to the Passion Play alone, [words crossed out] & then on to Paris where Atena Stuttell says she will meet me ! --) if this is the only way I can hit my steamer; -- besides all the other reasons for coming then, that is the very important one that I do not so much mind coming alone in the Parthia, as I should in any other steamer; -- I know the Capt. & the Stewardesses & all the employees with whom I come in contact, & that makes all the difference in the world. It is disagreeable enough, at best, for a lady to be alone on an ocean steamer -- & the return steamers in the autumn are always fearfully crowded. -

I have of course given up all hope of your coming over. [crossed out: This] At least, I say to myself that I have - but I don't know that I really shall give up all hope of it, till I set sail to return. - I suppose there is a chance any day that we might have the chance to close out in C.S., of which you spoke. - and then you would come. - oh how much good it would do you! - dear Will you have no idea of it yourself. You would be astonished to see the expansion & the stimulus it would be to you - I think you need it as much as I did - we have not been really & absolutely well for more than a year. - A total change of air -- & travel would do worlds for you in all ways. - I long for it so there I can hardly believe you are not to have it. -

I wonder if you would like to know how my room looks - It is a big room - bigger than the one we have at your mothers - has three windows, as that one has: the two look out on the main street the third on a great open square which slopes up hill from the town, so that the people as I see them from my sofa, seem climbing up to the top of the window - the Norwegian flag - red white & blue - the blue & white striped making a cross on a red ground - is floating on a staff just out side this window & keeps blowing across it - It hung there all day yesterday, because it was the birthday of Mrs. Steens sister - today, because it is Sunday! - on all birthdays, holidays, Sundays, & when they have guests coming to visit them, the Norwegians run up their flag! - This is a very pretty curtain & makes the houses look gay - on the side opposite this one window, are my sofa, & a big bureau; -- this corresponds to the bed in our room at your mothers. Here I lie, & look out on the square. - my bed - such as it is - is in the corner where the bureau stands at mothers --. But such a bed! What full grown men do in Norway for beds, I can't imagine. I haven't had one yet which I could straighten out full length in -- & they are little wider than steamboat berths. Oh but I do hate them. - our little beds in the servants room are bigger. - Fancy it! - In the corner corresponding to the one at mothers, where my writing table stood, stands my writing table here - a big old fashioned mahogany table - another under the looking glass between the front windows -- & in front of my sofa, a [crossed out: large] huge wood table covered with books - papers -- &c. - a big bunch of roses in a vase in the middle, my yesterday's gift from Mrs. Steen. - So you see I am wonderfully comfortable in this Norwegian Hotel - really more so than I have been anywhere in England or Scotland! - How different from what I expected. - When you & I come we will have this same room, with another little bunk put in for you to sleep in; -- and you would find interest enough for many days in rambling round this quaint old city. - and then we will go & make a visit to Mrs. Steen. She asks me every day "do you think you really come to Norway next year?" and I say "Yes, if Mr. Jackson will come, not else. I shall never come again without him!" and she says, "No, it is too hard." - Poor things, they are so delighted with his appointment to the Judge ship - it is a very honorable post, & it is for life - and when these Judges are too old to work any more, the govt. gives them from $400 to $600 a year till they die. - but the salary is only $1200 a year - and no possibility of any outside fees or practice. - However she says her husband will be happy now because he did not like to practice law - he is only happy when he is stoo-dying (studying!) - He can "stoo dye" now "many many days and he shall be happy." - He is a queer awkward man with big eyes & spectacles -- & Prof. H. who could talk with him in German finds him very intelligent & well educated - but he speaks so little English I can't get in with him at all -- & I don't think I like him much any way. - They have been awfully poor - oh she says "we have had it very bad" - that "we have had to make debts," "and now it shall not be very good for the first years till all are paid." "but then we shall have it good" -

Afternoon.-

I wish I could show you one of the strawberries which came up for my dinner--!-Really, I never saw such berries, twelve of them filled a small dessert plate full. Of each one I ate, I made two mouthfuls, & of some of them three! - What do you think of that my Will, for a Norwegian strawberry? I think their gardens equal ours. Per contra, -- the wild strawberries, which I ate in the Hardanger Country, are about the size of a currant! - Nobody but Norwegian peasant children would ever have the patience to pick them. But they have a delicious flavor. -

To go from one subject to another with a big leap only to be tolerated in matrimonial privacy - I wish you could see another article in my room at present! - You must know, that such a thing as a cover to a certain necessary article of bedroom furnishing is unknown in Norway! - (neither did we find them in English Inns.) When I explained my need of something of the kind to Mrs. S. she said "oh we have something else for that - a night chair" - and presently the chambermaid appeared bringing a high mahogany arm chair - with a crimson velvet seat at least four inches thick - a most gorgeous seat. - in full sight below this was what appeared to be a tin pail hanging! -
--You lift off this gorgeous crimson velvet cushion, & there is a tin vessel with a flat rim like a man's hat! -- This truly elegant arrangement - is also without a cover - except you clap on the velvet seat again! -- How I have laughed over this, all to myself. - However it is a comfort -- & will adorn my apartment till I leave. - for since I am on the subject I will remark, that anything so beastly & unwholesome as the arrangements for the general public, in this matter, which are customary in Norway, I never saw -- & this Hotel so good in all other respects is the worst, in that. - To begin with, men & women go to the same place - I have got so hardened to that, that I calmly bow to a mere dining table acquaintance as he emerges from the small closet I am about to enter! - He lifts his hat & passes on! At Gudvangen we had to go across the street, in full sight of the whole town -- & how many families resorted to the same spot I should not venture to say! - water closets are unknown in this region - no one escapes that danger which is something - but here in this house, the substitute is so much worn that the air on one side the house is very gloriously afflicted by it & Prof. H. was quite inclined to think Cornelia's illness was produced by it. - While I am on this topic, I may as well confide to your husbandly & sympathizing ear, that everywhere, England - Scotland - Norway - the seats are apparently constructed for the sons & daughters of Anak! The tortures I have suffered in consequence are by no means slight. == To be expected to perform "the whole duty of man" with one's legs swinging in the air, like a small boy's on a high school bench, is a little too much - I think of providing myself with a folding footstool, to carry in my bundle! - Two pages on water closets etc.! -- & won't you have a laugh all by yourself. - Now I must write some other letters for tomorrow's mail - I am just up to writing letters today -- & no more. - I looked longingly at my Atlantic article this morning, but knew it was not wise to touch it. - I will slip into this letter two little papers of flowers I found in a book today - if you happen to see Mrs. Bell you can give them to her. I think she will like them. I take it for granted she knows all about Dorothy Vernon's Driveway at Haddon Hall in England. - the wild hyacinth came from the same region also. The heather is for you my beloved - with a kiss on it. - You might send me one and a rosebud. You never have sent but that first one & I have wondered why not. - Goodbye dear darling. If I could be transported at this instant to the place where you are, I would be there so quick you wouldn't know what had happened to you. - I am very very homesick for you today. - it is one of the hard days, when I wonder what I ever came away for. - but then if I were in America, I couldn't be with you - so it is only a question of degrees of distance after all. - Goodbye & goodbye & goodbye my precious one - Remember always that you are the whole world & more than the world to your faithful loving Peggy. -

Bergen
Tuesday Eve.
July 26, 1880

My dearest darling - no - my only darling - your Peggy is very blue tonight - no letter came in the boat which arrived Sat. night -- & there has been another boat today -- & still no letter; and yet I had one from Mr. Goddard dated the 9th of July! - and your last letter to me was dated June 30th. - so there were nine days between the day his started & the day you last one started -- & is that not enough to make me anxious, when that last letter reported you as still on beef tea & toast, & not well enough to risk going out of doors to oversee the mowing? - But I recollect that once when I was in Princeton, a letter of yours was nine days coming - and so I try to think it is only some such delay as that; for I am sure you would not fail to write, knowing how I should worry about you, after these last letters telling of your illness. - If you have longed for me to be with you during the days of your illness, as much as I have longed for you during these last four days, of mine, I am sure you were heartily sorry you ever let me come away. - I think I never found four such long days in my life. It is "no joke" to be shut up four whole days in your bedroom with not a soul to speak to, in a "furrin clime." If it had not been for good Mrs. Steen who has been twice every day to see me I don't know what I should have done. But she goes tomorrow to her new home, and it is a sore sore loss to me. After she is gone, there will not be a human being to whom I can speak one word, except the Club & one of the waiters who speak a very little English. Today I have been writing down, with Mrs. Steen's help, the sentences I most need to say - so that I can give my orders in writing - would you like to see how "mutton chops cut thick, and broiled" looks written in Norwegian -- ?

"Cottelletter tykt skaarne og stegt paa rist." -

and "bring me hot water" is "Bring mig varmt vand" - and if you want it very hot, you must add, "meget varmt"! --
I don't believe I should learn Norwegian in a life time. It seems to me far harder than French or German. - It is a perfect nuisance this having so many languages anyhow. Confound that tower of Babel I say, and the builders of it. -

Ole Bull arrived on Saturday night's boat. The report is that he arrived very very ill, and was met by a little steamer off the coast that took him immediately to Lysoen (his island). He had a English physician with him, and Mrs. Bull was said to be weeping bitterly --. Prof. Horsford and Alexander Bull arrived here yesterday, from a little trip they have been taking - and they went to Lysoen immediately. A note from Kate Horsford, last night says that Mrs. Ole Bull implores them to stay, & not come away, as was their first impulse, of course. But she says it will be a great blow to Ole Bull to have them leave -- & they must stay to cheer him up. - she also sent very kindly inquiring me to come down too! - which I should not have thought for a moment of doing - even if I had been well. - It is not time for strangers to be in a home where there is such serious illness in it. I do not know why, but I feel that the splendid old man is near his end. - It is a selfish thought perhaps, but I cannot help thinking what a great loss this illness of his has been to us - he had planned to show us so much of Norwegian life - Kate writes that Lysoen is the most beautiful place she has ever in her life seen - I am very sorry not to have seen it; -- if Ole Bull should improve -- & the Horsfords stay there till next week, I might possibly drive down on Sunday, if I feel well enough - though my present plan is to go to Christiania by boat on Saturday. - The H's plan to go overland - a seven days journey - and after my experience in my journey with Mrs. Steen, I dare not undertake such a trip again, with my throat in its present state. Discretion is the better part of valor, for a person dependent as I am, on friends who I do not want to delay. If you were along now, I wouldn't mind then if I broke down anywhere on the road. We could stop & wait while I mended - but it would make me very wretched to keep all three of them waiting, and I am so thankful that since I must needs have this ill time it happened just here & now, when I was simply waiting for them - and nobody is any way inconvenienced except myself. - I am very much afraid that Kate ought not to undertake the overland trip either - but I hate to have her lose it - Will - it's a great bore to have a body that is not equal to doing or enduring anything which the mind wishes to demand from it. -

Mrs. Steen has just brought me a photograph of her old aunt - how I shall enjoy showing it to you - a lovely old face 73 years old - not a tooth in her head & yet her mouth is pretty just as a baby's mouth is pretty before the teeth come - she was here in my rooms an hour yesterday chattering Norwegian like a brook over stones - faster than Mrs. Steen could possibly translate - I have written down some of her stories, which are really remarkable; it will be a most interesting feature in my Atlantic article; -- two ghost stories among them which are rather staggering. The old lady believes she saw these ghosts as much as she believes she is alive, & in one of the cases, I must think she did, myself! -

She wears always a white lace cap, trimmed either with white or with light blue! Her best one is light blue; she has ostrich feathers laid across the front of them, as on a bonnet -- & queer as they look, they are becoming to her - a blue one in the cap trimmed with blue -- & a white one in the cap trimmed with white. - Her hair is as white as her cap -- & her eyes are as bright - dark blue as a babys! & she is as gay as a baby - laughs -- & chatters, -- Mrs. Steen says she repeats her sentences over & over - she is so eager to be understood. - Mrs. Steen mother is three years younger - but looks ten years younger - I never saw so young looking a human creature for seventy. If she were not fat, I really don't think she will look a day over fifty - She is about as handsome as her sister - and has fine eyes. To see the two old ladies together, over a big table full of house linen, which they are sorting is a pretty sight. -

I wish if there is a photograph of me (in that writing case Mrs. Hunt gave me--) which you do not want - I forget whether there were several left or not - but if there are, I wish you would seal one up and send it to Mrs. Steen. She has been really like a sister in her kindness -- & seems to have grown into loving me - and I really love her - She is a very uncommonly sweet and dignified person - I wish I knew all her history - in some ways - though they are not in the least unrefined - in fact, for that matter the poorest peasant I have seen, has had a certain refined courtesy about him which is very remarkable. As for that bow, I have never seen it equaled! A ragged boy in a cart, in the country will pull off his cap to you with a grace that you might go days without seeing in America. -- If you felt like writing a little line to Mrs. Steen with the photograph - it would give her the greatest delight - and I'll tell you what I do wish you would do - get a few unmounted photographs of some of the Colorado views and put into the package. That will give both her & her husband a real pleasure - and I think pleasures are going to be rather rare in his country life. It is a great grief to her to go away from her relatives, glad as she is of the position & the honor for her husband.

Wed morning. -
I thought there was to be a mail from England this morning, dearest, but there is not - until tomorrow, so I shall let my letter go, without having a chance to tell you if the hoped for letter came: -- but I feel sure I will get it tomorrow; if I do not, you just may look for the bluest letter you ever had yet from your girl. It is all I can do to bear being away from you in this way, when I am well, & on the move & get my letters with regularity. -

Now I will put in two funny things to relieve the croak of this dismal letter. - Last night Mrs. Steen came in with the newspaper, & said

"It do tell of you in the paper." & of Mr. Ole Bull." - She then proceeded to read the enclosed paragraph which I send you to give you a good laugh. - When she came to the statement about Prof. Horsford, she hesitated & finally said - "the notorious Prof. Horsford - is that how you say? - and the notorious American authoress Mrs. Jackson" -- --when I explained to her that we only said "notorious" for people who were widely known by reason of ill conduct of some sort, she was as horrified and [? Word written over & illegible] as anyone could be. - You will take notice that in Norway, "inventing" is a wide term. I couldn't help smiling to think that the "Baking Powder", & "[Acid?] Phosphates" of which I suppose the dear Horsfords are a little ashamed in America, should redound to such glory here! - I will copy for you also, dear Mrs. Steens attempt to render into English, the receipt for some wonderful little cakes they make here -- & [which?] I have the tins for baking -- & won't you like them [though?]! - They are as thin as wafers, & in a queer fluted hollow shape, so that they fit into each other & pack away in small compass. - I think you'd get dyspepsia here, they have such a variety of sweets & all so delicious. - x x

Dear me - such a time as I have had getting a fire this morning. It is so raw & cold, I needed a little fire -- & it's a very little fire indeed that I've got - but a world of smoke! - In one corner of my room, is an iron tower - several inches taller than I - it is in three stories, with a fine cornice. The lower story has a door which opens in two parts like our front door --; the lower half to be left open for draft. The second story is adorned by a huge wreath -- the third by a harp surrounded with foliage --; -- the wood is set up on end, in the first story --; if it worked, I can conceive that such a mass of heated iron would make the room infernally hot - but I thought I would better run the risk of it, & keep the windows open if need be - the air seems so very raw & damp. - But instead I've had to have the windows open to let the smoke out! & have no fire either - so it is a bad job generally. - Karoliner, the nice chambermaid is in despair over it -- & so am I - so we shall give it up. -

Mr. & Mrs. Steen have just been to bid me goodbye - It really touched me to the heart to have him explain in his slow broken English his great obligation to me for my kindness to his wife - It is very strange that they can't see that the obligation is on my side. - I have promised them that when we come to Norway, you & I, we will come & spend a few days with them. - This is some comfort to her - but not much; -- she cried when she bade me goodbye -- & said, "Oh, this is very hard, this day." - "Can you not promise to come"? "No-"I said, "I can only promise to come if Mrs. Jackson will come. I shall never come again without him. But I have great hope that we shall come". -

Now I must send off my letters - I shall feel a little more lonely when I stop writing to you - It is a poor poor substitute for seeing you face to face - but you seem a shade less far away when I am writing. - Goodbye - Goodbye - I shall mail my next letter on Sat. before setting off for Christiania -- & after that, if there is a gap of a little longer than usual, don't be anxious, -- because I shall be two days on the voyage to C. - more water! Ugh! - I hate even the smoothest sort. - Goodbye my dear dear one. -

Your faithful loving Peggy. -

Col. Spgs July 29th 1880
My Dearest Peggy,

I am so sorry for you-you have missed the circus. We all went to see the animals & other fixin's yesterday - I took all of the Solly children. I was to have taken the Lamborn children as well, but Col. concluded to go & manage his own little ones. Everybody was there as usual & it rained as usual - not very much however. Many of your friends remembered & spoke your enthusiasm for the circus & how you took in all the side shows as well. They wondered what kind of a circus you were attending now. It did not seem to me so much of a circus as the one we went to here some year or two ago. I wonder if the circus was smaller, or is it another case of the big apples of youth growing smaller with years. Night before last I took dinner at Dr. Reeds to meet Mrs. Reeds sister Miss Cumming who is with her now & also to meet a Mr. & Mrs. Hollister, Buffalos people, living here now. Mr. Hollister is interested in mining about Alma. I have not been near the Reeds much since my return. The Dr. & Mrs. Reed have said some slighting & uncomfortable things about us & it by accident came to my knowledge. I have just quietly let them alone. Mrs. Reed invited me time & time again to call, so I concluded I would go to dinner there. They really appear to have no friends that stick to them & I begin to pity the Dr. although I confess he does not deserve friends, for I know of no one among his acquaintances here, that he has not abused & spoken very slightingly of. I have analized [sic] his motives & character, so as to satisfy me that his own egotism & conceit coupled with the bitterness that has come to him from failure & disappointment & bad health has turned the wine of life sour - Mr. Wood, (who has acted, I think, very unwisely in his church episode) blames Dr. & Mrs. Reed for all of his church trouble. He was a firm friend to Reed, but even Mrs. Anchor has failed him. What I have heard of Reed saying was nothing very damaging only speaking very slightingly of me & in a way that I cannot resent, only I have made up my mind not to claim as a close friend any one who is capable of speaking so of me. All the ladies seem to let poor Mrs. Reed alone. She is quite out in the cold so far as I can see. She no longer has any intimates. Her quarrel or rather her jealousy, of the Solly's has been a disastrous feeling for her socially & I begin to think a damaging thing for the Dr. as well. But let the poor people go - they have a hard uncomfortable time of it I am sure. Any one, with inordinate (abnormally inordinate) ambition such as the Reeds have & with no more power & ability to secure success must find life sad & sorrowful.

Just here I was called away & this letter has lain untill [sic] this morning 30th & I have only a few moments now I will not gossip or scold any more am really sorry for what I have said in the foregoing, but have not time to rewrite & leave it out. I will proceed to finish up a record of my doings & close on Monday night I took dinner at the Sollys. It rained so the Butlers did not come for this. I was sorry as I liked the looks of Mr. Butler. On Thursday night Mr. Steel took dinner with me at home & last night I had Mrs. Parrish & Miss Solly to dinner. And later Mr. Boss, Judge Elliott of Denver & Dr. Reynolds came in for a game of whist. The ladies stayed until ten o.c. & we men played afterward until twelve. Judge Eliott [sic] staid all night with me. To-day I take Mrs. Parrish up to Manitou Park. I will stay tomorrow for a days fishing coming down Sunday afternoon. So, goodby my own Peggy until Sunday night when I will write you again if I am not too tired, everything is going pretty well with me in business, and I am well in health now. My regards to the Horsfords if they care for them.

Lovingly Your Will
I have not had a letter for four days & conclude you are now in Norway. --

Bergen. Friday Eve.
July 30, 1880

Dearest, Having just sent off a letter of 24 pages to you, I begin another! - not knowing what else to do with myself, while waiting for my supper -- & also thinking it a good plan to take a partly finished letter along with me in my bag tomorrow, to mail just as soon as we reach Christiania on Monday morning.

A gorgeous sunset tonight promises a good day tomorrow - if anything ever promises anything in Bergen! I went out in a carriage this afternoon to go to the Bank & get some money - the sun shown when I started -- & it rained when I reached the Bank - not more than half a mile - no not more than a quarter of a mile away. - They are so solemn & still at this Bank it brightens me to go it, & I thought I should have fainted from fatigue before I got my money, they were so slow. - I believe five men had to do something about giving it to me. - Prof. Horsford has gone back to Lysoen (pronounced Leesern) - this afternoon, having rushed into Hammers, the old silver store, & bought a $50 belt for Cornelia! I do really think he spends money in the wildest way. If he were my father, he would drive me half crazy, getting things in this promiscuous hap hazard sort of way. I'm sure Cornelia would much rather have had something else, for $50, than this belt which though it is real silver to be sure, & is 200 years old no doubt, is not a thing one would want to be forever wearing. - Still it is a nice heir loom to have in the family -- & if he's bound to spend his $8000 on the trip - al right, only, I think he'll spend double that, if he keeps on at this rate! -

A letter from Mrs. Ole Bull tonight urging me still to come to Lysoen. I am glad it did not come earlier - for I might almost have been tempted, as she says Ole Bull is pronounced today, out of danger, and she very much wishes to have me see the homeopathic physician they have with them - but it is too late now -- & on the whole, I think it is better - I want to be where I can be absolutely at liberty to order all I need in way of food &c. when I am ill. - If I have as great comfort in the Christiania Hotel as here, I shall be lucky indeed; -- but I confess I am a little tired at the Horsfords repeated change of plans. Don't you think it is a little hard on me? - first they were sure to go Friday - I planned to start the day after them, & that would give me only about three days to wait in Christiania. Then they changed to Monday -- & now to Tuesday - so I shall have to be all alone in Christiania from Monday morning, till a week from the next Wednesday! Nine days! -- & don't you see that at this rate, they're never going to get through Copenhagen - Berlin - Dresden - Vienna, Prague, Salzburg -- &c. to be back at Oberammergau by the 5th of Sept. - which is my latest possible date! -- I shall certainly have to lose a part of the programme [sic] which is a pity -- & take a maid & go alone to Oberammergau - I feel sure of it -- & besides the forlornness of being alone I grudge the expense. - However you told me "for once in my life to take things as they come" - so I'll try! -- I'm thankful to say, it is getting dark - the days are growing shorter - It is only ten minutes past nine, & I cannot well see to write any longer. Goodnight my beloved far off one. Oh if I could but kiss you just once!-

Sat. morning. - Sunshine! Thank the Lord - and a clearer air than we have had for some days - I set off in half a hour - Madame Katrine Hansen has not yet appeared - but I expect her momently [sic]. I asked her yesterday if she were every sea sick - "Oh no," she said "I was not once sick all the way coming from America here - and four days after I get here, I got a little boy"! - That's what I call a good sailor - but sailing much too close to the wind. - If I am equal to it, I shall add something to this letter on board the steamer, tomorrow - if not, just note my arrival & mail it individually on landing at Christiania: on Monday morning -

You don't send me any newspaper scraps, but I will send you some! By the way, I have asked you several times if you ever got the big envelope I sent you with all my Indian articles in it? -

Sunday am. On board the steamer Jupiter.

"By Jupiter" as Socrates used to say - so I am - and don't I wish I were somebody else or somewhere else, or something! - Will, I write [sic] I had you here to swear for me - not the first time I've wished it in the last two months - But never more than in the last twenty four hours. - Ugh - haven't I been sick! - This Jupiter rolls like a log, last night we were quite out at sea & this morning - in the "Skager Rack" if you want to look in the map & see it -- & it's a good name for it, I'll say that much, if a Rack is a plan of torture -- & Skager might mean what it pleased, it wouldn't alter it - Scattering Rack. I think it might well be - I wasn't way so uncomfortable all the way across the ocean - Well, it's over with - unless we may be going into rougher water tonight & I don't think we are -- & at any rate, we shall be at Christiania tomorrow morning at 8 - so I feel more courage. -

I came off with flying colors at my departure from Holdt's Hotel yesterday. Mrs. Steen had written down for me a sentence in Norwegian which I had spent a good deal of time trying to commit to memory, to say to her father & mother when I bade them goodbye -

"I shall take away with me the pleasantest remembrances of my stay in your home and of the kindness of you all." -

You ought to have seen their delight when I said it! - They could hardly believe their ears - they laughed & shouted Norsk! Norsk -- & seized my hands & shook them -- & the old mother patted me on the shoulder - really they are the very sweetest & dearest old women I ever saw - how impossible such a sort of feeling in America, being innkeepers & their customers - The goodwill & feeling of hospitality there is here, are most wonderful; -- would you like to see the sentence I said - I suppose I shall forget how to pronounce it, by the time I get back to America -

"Jeg tager med mig de behageligste minder af mit ophold in eders hjem, og am eders aller venlighed". -

You'd never guess which words bothered me most to learn - "med mig" I kept getting it "mid meg" -- for an age - long after I knew all the rest of it. -

The clerk went down to the boat with me -- & it was well he did - otherwise, I wouldn't have had my stateroom - spite of its having been positively engaged three days beforehand -- & the clerk's having been down himself on Friday to make sure - they had calmly put two men in it! -- & I was to go in the ladies cabin with six others! - I was too much aghast to say a word. I simply sat down on my trunk, & said to the clerk - "I shall go back to the Hotel & wait for another boat before doing that. I dare not spend two days & nights in a close cabin with six people". Then he explained to the Capt. that I had been ill -- & that I would not go unless I had my stateroom - so the Capt. put his two men somewhere else. Where I don't care! -- & Katriner had a berth in the cabin - I had my little hole of stateroom all to myself, with the port hole wide open all night -- & even then I half died in the berth being put crosswise the ship instead of lengthwise made it much worse, you see, tossing you from head to feet with the roll, instead of from side to side. As Katrina said, "It is first the head & then the feets that makes it worstest, that is the difference". Her English has kept me alive! - That, & the beef tea I brought from Holdt's. - Will - there is one result of my journey which you have not foreseen - the Japan air castle has sunk out of sight - foundered at sea! - I do not believe it can ever be raised again. I do not think anything will induce me to spend 20 days at sea . - I'll cross the Atlantic again, any minute that you'll come - horrid as it is, it is worth it -- & one can endure nine or ten days - but three weeks, -- never! - But I do not expect to be so ill coming home. I shall try a different plan. I am persuaded that the braving it out theory is a mistake - when I come home, I am going to begin by lying in my berth a day or two, take nothing but oatmeal gruel &c a little [once?] in three hours -- & see if the stomach cannot in that way get used to the notion be degrees, -- I am [persuaded?] it will be better. - Also my stateroom is up stairs & if the weather is good, I can have the porthole open - which will make to me all the difference in the world. I shall be ill on land if I spent ten nights in the cellar, I think! -

All the six women have left the boat -- & now I have the whole cabin to myself - which is luxury. - this is the sort of room one would have in a fine yacht. What heaven yachting must be to a person not seasick - Really, in the intervals of my sufferings, I get such glimpses of the glory of the sea, & the ecstatic sense of motion that I think it would be almost worth while to keep going till one had bullied ones stomach into good behavior.

I wish I could show you the face of the stewardess on this boat. She is one of the few absolutely beautiful women I have ever seen - she dazzled me, when she first flitted past - her face is almost angelic - if I were going immediately home, I really think I could take her! & she cannot speak one word of English - but she is resolved to go to America -- & hopes to go next year - she has a brother in Chicago. - Her face is a little like the pictures of the Empress Eugenie - but with much finer chiseling & more character - her nose - mouth & chin are as exquisite as anything I ever saw in a Greek statue - her eyes are light gray, laughing & honest, & spirited - her head is simply of a perfect contour - her hair in a low knot behind - but a few light curls floating & [flying?] over her forehead. You may think I am crazy - but I assure you it is all true. I spoke to the Capt. about her, & her beauty, & to my surprise he had evidently appreciated the peculiar quality of it, for he replied

"Yes, there is something quite not common in her, her face is quite antic"! (he meant antique, which is exactly the thing that it is. -- This is a fair specimen of the sort of English which everybody speaks. It is next to impossible to keep your face straight. - This peerless beauty, gets $4. a month - was in a Hotel in Christiania before - at the same wages! She & Katrina have struck up a great friendship. Katrina's husband keeps a Restaurant in Bergen, & Katrina who is a mightily shrewd young woman in her way, was as struck as I was by Anne -- & at once thought what a godsend such a girl would be in the Restaurant! -- "I can tell" she said, "I can tell in one minute, if peoples can be trusted - I watch her - she is so polite, but she passes the gentlemans and does not speak. I can tell"! -

"I have been in long speech with her" she said - "And I think she will come to Bergen by my husband and me" - They will pay her $4.20 a month, & Katrina will teach her English -- & on the whole, she will not be any more exposed to temptation in a restaurant & billiard room place, than she is in a steamboat - She is "an intended", Katrina says -- & "that is good-when one is intended one must be careful; and if it is one you love, why then you wish to do all right - and her sweetheart is very nice young fellow - he is in the engine, in a Hamburg boat!" - ("Intended" meant "bewitched", as you will infer.) -

Monday morning. - up & on deck -- & this fjord is as smooth as a looking glass - nonetheless I hate it - the wiggle & jiggle, & thump & quiver of a boat are more & more awful to me every time I go on one --; but I have had something else to do than think about it this morning. - first of all - I was waked at half past four, by a deluge of water through the port hole, right on my face. - They were washing the decks! -- & the port hole had not been fasted tight - Gag! - I sprang up & tried to turn it tighter - turned it the wrong way, & in poured more water! - there I was, holding up the thing to keep the water out, the cabin door locked - no human creature could hear me - at least I succeeded in fastening it -- & then I ran to the door & screamed for the Beauty - everybody asleep - the telegraphic knob which I had been told to press & it would bring a servant instantly did not work - so I outed in my nightdress & sash & pounded on the Beautys door - then back again - met a man -- & irrespective of night dress, called him in! - If I had been in full dress, he could not have been more civil, locked the portholes with his eyes averted from me, & fled as soon as he could. Presently came Anna, in despair - with her "oh poor lady - poor lady! -gathered up the wet sheets pillows & blankets, & made me a dry bed in another corner! -- Then I took another nap -- & then had my breakfast -- & took a fine bath, went into clean clothes -- & feel like a new creature in the expectation of the thought of being on dry land in an hour.

This Christiania fjord is a superb sheet of water - seven miles wide where we are now, & it does not look three - the shores are beautifully wooded - rocky at the margin - but rising into soft low wooded hills - country houses are tucked in here & there - in little oases of green.

I have just had a funny talk with the Captain - He asked if I had ever been in Holland - I said only to go down the Rhine to Rotterdam - but I would like to see more of it - "It is a most stupid country" he said I was there, & they put the spit kin on the table when they eat!" "The What?" said I "The Spit kin" "Oh Spittoon" I said "Yes, yes-"They really did put it on the table, when they sat down to eat; he himself had seen it - it was shaped not like the spit kins in Norway - but high, like a vase - "like what we put flowers in" -- & so they would eat, & spit, & eat & spit -- & he described it in pantomime, so that I thought I should die laughing. I then complimented him on the cleanliness of the Norwegian "Pit kin", which is a thing I have been meaning to write to you of, for it would be such a capital thing in Colorado -- & everywhere, for that matter - where spittoons must be used. - In every Norwegian room, is a round brass open pan, about the size round of our spittoons, but oval; -- a little larger round than ours too, but not so high; I think - This pan is filled with fine twigs of juniper - fresh & green -- & kept fresh & clean every day! -- See how much wholesomer every way -- & less offensive -- & less disagreeable for the person taking care of them? I told the Capt. I intended to tell of that custom of theirs, & recommend it in America; I added that it was several days after I landed in Bergen before I could imagine what that little round pan full of juniper was for - in my room. It stood on the hearth of the stove, & finally I came to the conclusion that it was for kindling the fire! - He laughed heartily, and said

"There is a tale about that too - about an American. They do say that in America, it is spitted every where!!" bowing apologetically to me & saying "escuse me" - and an American did find one of tese pans with green shunniper, in his room - but he did not spit in - he spitted all over, on the floor; everywhere all was spitted; and when the servant did come in - he said "move that away. I want to spit in the place where it stand on the stove"! -

So you see a spittoon story in some shape or other is told of Americans everywhere! -

Hotel Scandinavie - Afternoon-
--Well-I've had a cruise after rooms! - I wonder what I would have done without Katriner; -- She's a smart little jade -- & I'm getting to enjoy her immensely. - She'll be money in pocket, as well as out of it, this week -- on the whole she'll "come to" more than she costs I am sure. The Hotel Victoria, to which I first went, & where Mrs. Stern had written to engage rooms for me, I did not like at all -- & the rooms were not good; -- it was close to the water, damp & dark. - So I took a little coupe, & went with Katrina on a search for a better place - stopped first at Bennetts, a place here where they advertise to give all information to travelers, fit them out for different routes, & furnish them with carriges &c. --; there I inquired about the different houses of which nearly a dozen were put down in my guide book - all but three, were "second class," -- & most of them as close to the water as the Victoria -- ; one of them, "the Grand," has a most enchanting situation, -- an off look over the whole harbor, and a beautiful green park with trees in front - but I could get no good rooms there, except by climbing three flights of stairs -- & that, just now I did not feel that I could undertake - though I long & sigh for that view - so I settled on this Hotel, smaller & I dare say better, for that reason - where I have a very good room, with one opening out of it for Katrina -- & where I shall stay today & tomorrow at any rate -- & then perhaps move up to the Grand, if I can get a room on the second floor. -

I am pretty tired, but feel on the whole better than when I left Bergen -- & shall set myself regularly to work in a day or two. If I can only be well enough to write all the forenoons -- & go out with Katrina & see sights & get material, all the afternoons, I can use the eight days I have to wait here, very well; -- perhaps finish my first Atlantic article, which I would like much to do. - I'd like to have two of those done while I am away, if possible - I don't want to have everything left to write up after I get home. - if I can do two of those, & the six Advertise letters & the six T.C. letters, while I am away, & the C.U. - that would be 300
360
685 - I would have due me on my return, to pay right back to you, which I would like to have, enormously! -- Dear me, if you were only along -- & I were traveling leisurely as you & I would - staying two or three weeks in a place, how much better I could see everything & write everything too; -- to write as I go along, would be incomparably better -- & to see things at my leisure, instead of feeling that each thing must be "done", as quite as possible so as to get to the next thing. I have lost some of my material that way - Edinburgh I've really got the true & feeling of, better than anything else, because we were six days there - Bergen too, I have got pretty well - but the last week there I was shut up in my room! - My, but I did grudge that time. - Katrina's fare & mine, from Bergen here, & our meals, from Sat. noon till Mon. noon - cost 84 kroner - a little more than $21 - here, I think I shall live for about $7. a day - and I shall spend probably $2. a day in driving. - so I hope to keep inside $10 a day, even for the two. - I am keeping an exact account of all Hotel bills & travel fares, I pay myself, as well as of what Prof. Horsford pays - so as to Know at the end, exactly what travelling costs. -- & what living costs in each place. -

Goodbye now my dearest one - There is a mail to Hamburg from this place every morning - so I shall mail another line to you [crossed out: tomorrow] Wed. morning, as usual, spite of these two last letters. - In one of your letters that I read over, while I was packing, you said, speaking of one letter of mine

"Part of it is too personal to show round"! - I hope to goodness they are all too personal to show round! - Of course there may be now & then a page which might be read - like this about the spit kin for instance, in this letter - but I am sure, the most of my letters are written in a way which is only for my own husbands eyes - I scratch ahead, as fast as I can go -- & write just as I would talk -- & on all subjects!! -

[Mem.?] -- The W.C. in this house is the worst yet! - Really these people are barbarians! - Mr. Alexander Bull asked me to write a letter to him about these things, a letter that he could translate into Norsk, & have it printed in the papers here - he said it would do the greatest good -- & I believe I will do it. I don't mean that he actually specified W.C.s but that was what he meant -- & he wanted also that I should say what I liked in Norway & the Norwegians which I can most heartily - but in the one matter of W.C.s they are worse than the peasants who use the fields! - You wouldn't believe what I have this day seen in this Hotel. -

If I don't get a letter from you tomorrow I shall be very unhappy. - I know you would write, if you were not ill, -- & I cannot charge a much longer delay to [mere?] accidents of the mails. - Goodbye, & Goodbye -- & all this paper full of kisses my loved one. -- Your own Peggy, --

[Included with letter is a bill from the Hotel Scandinavie I Christiania for 2/8 1889 (Aug. 2, 1880) itemizing charges for Mrs. Jacson [sic]., totaling Kr.20.05.1.70]

P.S. -

It has just "come over" me what if the letter in which I asked you to send me another $1000 next month had miscarried! -- So ask you again to please send it to me, to Barings London -- & ask them to send me a second letter of credit, or whatever I need, to enable me to draw on them for it. My present letter of credit is from Kiddle Peabody & Co., Boston, endorsed by Baring Bros. -

--You will doubtless know how to arrange so that I shall be sure of getting it. -

--Don't think you'll never "get your money back" old dear-- I shall have $535 due me immediately on my return-from what I will send back while I am away -- & $220 more to be paid by Harpers on the day they publish my book. - so there is nearly $800, to begin with. -

$300 more from Scribners, & $420 from the Atlantic, as soon as I can write up my articles -- $720 more - making $1520-all of which I propose to pay back to you if you like; -- and very likely I shall bring back a part of this second $1000. - but I want to have it, [so-crossed out] as to feel free & easy. I shall not spend a dollar more for the having it - I mean, I shall, not spend a dollar more than I think it really wise & best to spend - simply because I have $1000 to my credit more. - And if I have to leave the H's & take a maid to Oberammergau & Paris with me, as looks to me, more than probably now - it is getting so late -- & they have still so many things to do - then I shall need more money than I have now, -- to get back to England with. -
--My! Don't I hope I'll make $3000 or $4000 out of my book -- & $10,000 out of my play! -- By the way -- you never wrote me a word about my plan for another play - "The Cook of the Buckeye Mine." Did you get that letter? -
And you have never mentioned the Woods - Millers - McAllisters - or Judge Randalls - or Sanders - in any of

[Letter from Susanna Steen]
For'de, August 3rd 1880.-

Dearest Mrs. Jackson! -

How very very glad I got yesterday when I received a letter from you. - I had longed so very much for to know anything about you and may confess I had a little hope that you perhaps would give me the happiness of writing some words to me. - I am so glad to know that you felt much better and I hope you have not had it too bad on the voyage to Kristiania. - I hope Katrine Hansen has done what she could for you and that you now are quite well again. I shall be so glad to hear so dearest Mrs. Jackson. - If I had never felt the least interest in the discovery of the Viking ship of course I should do it now. If it had not been for that it was perhaps most likely that you should not so soon have given me the happiness of receiving a letter from your dearest Mrs. Jackson; [crossed out: but still] I have really felt much interest in the discovery of this ship and my husband had a mind to go down from Landefjord to look at it when we were at Kristiania but still we did not. - Now I hope we may see it when we come to Kristiania [crossed out: this next] winter and shall enjoy it much. I am so glad that you know about the ship. - I thought about it but did forget to tell you about it and that I find rather much more strange than [crossed out: what] I did forget to carry with me [the thing?] even our little journey if you remember it. - My husband has now written as you see and have mentioned four persons because he knows it is holidays just now so there are few such men at home he even says that perhaps some of them is at Kristiania now but still we will hope at least one of them must be there; -- and that you may get as much accounts of it as possible. -

I hope dearest Mrs. Jackson you will be so kind and let me read what you do write about it. Excuse me that I ask you for this favor. - My husband [crossed out: this] did understand it so that you would have photographs taken of the ship and the relics but I did not understand it so. - I want to write to you soon again dearest Mrs. Jackson if [crossed out: you] but I am afraid to made you feel tired of me and my letters. - I am also afraid that you shall find me to be too sentimental if I do write and tell you as much as I feel inclined to. - I cannot forbear to thank you most heartily for all the happiness you have given me. Those happy days with you are and shall always be one of my dearest and happiest remembrances in all my life. Now it is my hope and heartiest wish that you will come [crossed out: ag] back to Norway and to our plain little home you don't know how much that thought takes up my mind. And believe me dearest Mrs. Jackson that it will give me a great happiness to have you here and try to make you feel as comfortable as possible in a plain Norwegian house. - How very very happy I should feel if I could see you did feel yourself well with staying some time with us. - Dearest Mrs. Jackson you must come I cannot forbear to think I should never more meet you again. - Do come Mrs. Jackson and you will give me so much happiness. - Of course I can't be for you so much that you should feel any desire of seeing me again but for me to meet you again is quite a different thing. -

How often my thoughts shall return and return to you dearest Mrs. Jackson. - [crossed out: I can] I can't hope that you will often let me hear from you but don't forget dearest Mrs. Jackson that you have here in Norway a friend who always will long for seeing you again and for hearing from. - You have made me feel so much friendship for you and given me so much happiness! - I do long much for your books you kindly will send me and I shall enjoy it so very very much. How good it shall be for me to read them and know that you have written them. - Now I fear you must be rather tired of my letter or find me too sentimental but I must write as I have done. - Tell me dearest Mrs. Jackson do you dislike this letter? You must be kind to tell me for I should be sorry if my letters or the letters I take me the liberty of writing to you should made you tired as well of me as of them. -

Goodbye dearest Mrs. Jackson once more thanks heartiest thanks for all the happiness you have given me. -

My husband wants to be kindly remembered. - This is written most of it in a hurry so here is still more bad English that it would have been if I have had plenty of time. - I sent the telegram today because I was afraid that you should be quiet in Kristiania waiting for letter instead of going to [Ruigerige?] or to any other places. - I wish I could bring this myself and spend some happy days with you dearest Mrs. Jackson. -

I cannot tell you how thankfull I shall be if you would let me get some words from you when you can. -

Yours always affectionately

Susanna Steen

[continues on back of page}

You must think me very stupid that I have not translated what my husband has written on the enclosed paper and so I really am for now there is alas not time to spare the [crossed out: post] letters is to be sent immediately if I shall get it in, but I hope some one may translate it for you (but I think Katarine Hansen can't really) - I am very angry in my self for being so very stupid, hope it shall not happen again so as this time

Aug. 6. 1880
My Dearest Peggy,

The last letter I have from you, is the first one written in Norway, dated Bergen July 11th. The letter you wrote from Hull I have never received as yet. Well my girl your Bergen letter sounds as if you were having & were going to have a good time in that old fashioned out of the way country, but how about mosquitoes? I am told they are very active & very numerous in that far away northern country. -

I am very glad you are forming such an attachment for your traveling companions - Sailing together on a piece of sail cloth flat on your back will beget friendships or the other thing I am very glad it takes the direction of closer attachment. The new rug has already served one good purpose, since it served to occupy your attentions & thought from sea sickness. Do you prescribe new rugs as a cure all instead of your former receipt? - The dress of the peasant women is very effective & I should think would be very pretty indeed on any one stout or otherwise. The photo would indicate a repressed quality in the peasant but my recollection is that the Norwegians are outspoken and talkative. I guess my impression was derived from Ole Bull & that crazy headed woman we met at Mrs. Batto's, that you took such a [fancy?] to & that I thought a little daft. -

Your bout with the Giant Stewardess was useful in as much as it set you to philosophizing & set you to thinking & feeling that troubles in this world are only relative. One would think my Peggy had traveled enough not to be black mailed out of ten dollars by a stupid woman. It was I think a clear case of black mail -

For myself, since I wrote last I have been going on quietly from day to day. Mr. Runkle with me. On Tuesday afternoon [crossed out: night] we went to Manitou up the Ute Pass Iron Spring Canyon taking supper at Beebee House where we met a Mr. White, a correspondent of the N.Y. Tribune a bright & capable man. On Wednesday night Mr. Steel came in & dined with us we played whist, Mr. Lund making the fourth. (Mr. Runkle is very fond of whist! Last night we dined at Glen Eyrie. Had a very pleasant time Mrs. Palmer sent an invitation to me on Wednesday. I wrote her I could not come as I had a friend with me. Yesterday she wrote me asking me to bring my friend for which I was glad, as it gave me a chance of showing Mr. Runkle Glen Eyrie under pleasant circumstances. Only that Mr. Runkle had ridden up Cheyenne Mtn. on horseback in the morning & was very tired. Still he enjoyed the dinner. The dinner party [crossed out: was] consisted of Mr. Risly [sic], Miss Rogers a Mr. Smith Mr. Langran Miss Seward (who is staying at Glen Eyrie.) Mrs. Mellen Mr. Runkle & myself. We left there at half past ten oclock. It was a delightful night for driving - I am going to have Mr.& Mrs. Risley & Miss Rogers over to dinner to meet Mr. Runkle tomorrow night. I find Mr. Risley & Mr. Runkle knew each other in Washington ten years ago. He is a wonderfully convenient old gentleman & Mr. Runkle gets on well with Miss Rogers Mrs. Risleys sister (who is to me a very tiresome old maid indeed) not one half so interesting as Mrs. Risley. - Mrs. Governor Hunt has been very sick indeed - not expected to get well - For several days it was thought there was no chance but yesterday Mrs. Wagner told me she had a long letter from the Governor in which he said she was now easier & would recover. I have not learned the nature of her trouble (Poor woman however she has suffered -

Mr. Boss & Mr. [Weittse?] are in Leadville - Mr. Runkle wants to go to Leadville next week. I will go with him if I can get away & of them I will write you.
Lovingly Your Will.

Love to the Horsfords.
I will write Drexel Morgan Co this day to send the one thousand letter of credit to you - Your letter giving a history of the Burial Bill discussion was printed in this weeks Gazett [sic] - That must have been an interesting occasion.
With ever so much love,

Yours ever, Will

Christiania Monday Morning
Aug. 16. 1880
Before Breakfast-
[note at head of letter:
Take great care of the bio of the old ship!]

Good morning my beloved one - See what you have come to in the way of paper-Every scrap of everything is used up except this cut out of the old mss. books you saw so much of last winter. I have used two of them already - filled with notes. I only brought four -- & the other two are half filled - I only wish I had brought twice as many. I can't find any paper I like so well. - You will be delighted to read at last that the Horsfords are here! I have never been so glad to see anybody in this world except you. It has been a very long & very hard three weeks; -- & more - three weeks last Friday since I was taken ill - one week alone in Bergen, and two weeks with Katrina here. - K. & I drove down to the station to meet them last night at nine o'clock -- & succeeded in persuading them to come to this Hotel - they having telegraphed to the Victoria for rooms. The Hotel where I first went, but did not like it. - They have a big room with five windows in it just like mine, one story lower down - [?] parlor & two bedrooms opening out; -- & it does me good every minute I think of their being in the house. - Cornelia it seems was ill in bed four days at Voss Vanaeu, with chills & fever!
When the Prof. telegraphed to me that she was tired out. - It is evident that we got an ugly malarial poison in Bergen -- & I fancy it will be a long time before we hear the last of it. I wish I had a month to spare. - to go straight up into the Engadine & have it driven out of my veins. - The Prof. Kate have escaped better - though the Prof. was pretty ill for a week - but Cornelia & I have taken in more or were in a more susceptible state.

Yesterday dear darling, I wrote nearly all day - with intervals of visiting - It was too hot to stir out of the house -- & I though it tired me less to write than to do nothing! - I wrote my fourth letter for the Y.C. on the India Museum in London - Today I send it off with one which I wrote the day before on the Christiania Steam Kirkin - an establishment here for providing food at cheap rates for poor peoples & where they feed over 2000 each day! -
--This makes eight letters I have sent back to the D.A. & Y.C. --: $240. -- & I have one
Atlantic article & part of another done - so I think I have done a great deal in nine
weeks, don't you? - I have a notion of beginning now to write Encyclicals - to send
around to the friends to whom I promised them - for I have new material in full, for
Seven magazine articles - the two for Scribner and the Passion play will make nine -- &
I don't believe I'd get any more than that printed in a year - so if I put the rest of our
journeyings into shape of letters, they will be ready to go right into the book. - See? -
This is the way it looks to your Peggy now. -

Monday P.M. -
And now - won't you hate this thin paper! I remember how you used to despise it - but it is the only paper I can find here that the stylographic pen will write on. -
Poor Ole Bull is dying after all! That rallying, while we were in Bergen was a deceptive one - a telegram was waiting for the Horsfords here which seems to leave no hope, & the news has saddened them all very much. What a comment our whole Norway trip is on the uncertainty of human plans - We were going to be at Ole Bull's house the first week in July - he was to show us so much of Norwegian life - Kate & I each bought a dinner dress, chiefly because of our visit there! - etc. - we were detained till the 8th of July before sailing for Norway - because Ole Bull was ill - we were kept waiting in Bergen another week - till we all got ill then he arrived in a desperately ill state - though the Horsfords were in his house they did not see him till the last day -- & now he is dying! - and we have spent five whole weeks in Norway - [crossed out: and] seen comparatively little of it - got more or less ill - and will have to give up a good part of our projected trip~! - Such a lesson as this is a good answer to people who are always saying "oh things always turn out right somehow!" - I should think they did! However - things might always be worse than they are - that's certain. I suppose one is very seldom in a predicament so bad that it couldn't be possibly any "worster" as Katrina says. -

Good little thing - how I shall miss her - The plan is now for us to start for Copenhagen on Thursday - and she will then return to Bergen. She has had on the whole a good time - and has been simply invaluable to me. - I pay her 50 cts a day -- & all her expenses - the whole thing -- her fares to & from Bergen - wages & living - will come to about $75 I think - but I shall have made three mag. articles out of what would not had made more than one without her -- so it has been a good investment, aside from my absolute need of her. -

Now I am going out to the Botanical Gardens to see if that Victoria Regina has bloomed - I must see it - I'll never have another chance I know in this world. --

There were letters today - yours of the 25th July - one from Molly & one from [Roltanie?] - both with newspaper slips about the Indians. How perfectly horrid you are never to send me one single scrap! -- I wonder if you read a paper, now I am away! -
Tuesday Morning! - Seven o clock! - up at six this morning my dearest one - so as to have a good long talk with you -

To begin with - Thank the Lord it isn't quite so hot this morning - a fine breeze is blowing in at my three east windows -- I shall send you one of the day bills of this Hotel to show you my room -- & also to give you an idea of the way they send you your daily records each night. It is a capital idea - saves mistakes -- & collisions. - Katrina has already pounced on two small overcharges on her meals, which were promptly rectified, --

Last night I sat down to the first Christian meal I have had for three weeks!-Meals on a tray, alone in ones bedroom, are not gay. - The Horsfords have the three rooms under mine - the big corner one with 5 windows is their parlor -- & here we had our dinner - which by their request I ordered, & the good little German waiter who has taken such care of me, was in his mettle to show them what the Scandinavie could do. -
Clear soup.
Fried flounder - delicious
roast mutton, potatoes & turnips - this last, a great luxury! -
Salad - crisp green lettuce.
Musk melon, with ice inside it which not only the waiter himself had never heard of- but Mr. Alexander Bull also, who dined with us, had never seen, & thought it such an improvement! - Think of people with ice enough for themselves, & to ship all over the world, eating their melons warm!
--Poor Mr. Bull sailed for Bergen last night at ten - to find his father dead I fear -- & he will never forgive himself for having come off with the Horsfords for this weeks journey. I confess that I wondered very much that he should have been willing to do it.

Now for the 4 letters I have to answer - July 16 - (dated 14th - mailed 16th!) - I think that contains nothing which needs reply, except to say that I am glad you have so many games of whist - it is a very great resource -- & I only wish I could learn to play the game well, & join in your parties - but that I can never do I fear - owing to my surplus of imagination - which you suggest is the one thing which needs pruning! You are quite mistaken - in the first place - it is by my identity that I earn what I do, of my daily bread - 2d - it is only by [crossed out: that] help of that faculty that we have any hope for the future - it is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen"! -- --And it turns out very drolly, that the accusations you bring against it, by implication, is the very proof of the subtle truth of its workings! -- I can't imagine why you think that the fact which you state, that that [crossed out: week] day when I was so anxious & unhappy -- & for ten days afterward - you were only "in bed, sick -all day" - is an argument in favor of not trusting to ones impressions! -- I was just as sure all that time that something was wrong with you, as I am now - and I think it is about a terrifying thing. I wonder if you will have had any such instinct of my tribulations in the past three weeks. -

The 18th you were at home listening to the Presbyterians, & the cats! A droll combination -- -- I'd like to say something on the subject of the cats - but think on the whole I'll reserve it, till bed time, some night, next October! -- If you'll remind me then, I'll tell you. It's very funny -- & you're losing a good deal in my not making the observation now; -- but it will keep, if only I don't forget it.

I am so glad Mr. Runkle is coming to stay with you - I have staid often in their home & am glad to return a little of the obligation.

As for your letter from Miss [Irving?] in regard to the late loan, I think it is the very queerest thing I ever did hear of. I wish you had sent me the letter to read. Poor girl how humiliated she must be - and if she has the money herself, why doesn't she give it to Dr. Cate! I'd advise her however to keep it in her own hands. -

[Ammernars?] asking help from you seems to me, if I understand the case correctly, is the biggest piece of cheek I ever heard of - If there is a man in the world that ought not to ask for help at your hands I should say it was [Ammernars?] By the way, did you ever receive that piece of bronze they sent you? - We'd a good deal rather have the $700 wouldn't we!

Your letter of the 22d is all Grant! - "My stars & garters". Am I not glad I was not there - to be expected to give a swell dinner to that party - But you seem to have had a very good time. - I take one mischievous note, of your comments in the two dinners - my Will -You say the [phrases crossed out] people at Mrs. Bass's were a much finer looking set of people than at Mrs. Bells - now I know exactly what that means - Mrs. Risley & Rogers, & Seward were dressed "anyhow" -- & Mrs. Bass & Mrs. Palmer were got up "regardless" ! -- & Emma Lamborn is always a showy woman when she "fixes up". -- & it was chiefly clothes which made the difference. -- I might make another comment; -- on Mrs. Bass's walking into my home & taking my china, without even asking your permission! - but I won't enter into that farther than to say that it is a liberty I should never have thought of taking in her house, at any time; and for her to do it now, after she has broken off all relations with me, is simply astounding. I only wish every article she took had been smashed, as a just retribution on her. - I wouldn't have minded losing my best soup tureen, for the sake of seeing so neat a bit of justice rendered is that, & for the psychological interest of reading the letter she would then have been forced to write me! - I guess that's a little bit malicious - but I don't mean it so at all - I feel very goodnatured [sic] this morning with my sense of the ridiculous in its fullest play -- & that is at the bottom of this satire -- & when you come to consider the situation, I think you'll see the farce of it yourself. -

On the [25th?] you wrote an acknowledgement of my Ayr & York letter -- & [told?] me to my honor that Steele had reprinted the "gnats & camels" letter. - (I take it for granted he didn't spell "camels", as you did canibels! Oh you funny old dear with your spelling! -

I am really surprised to see that you seem to care for the little flowers I send - I have thrown away a great many lately, after having kept them a few days - they had lost their color so much, that I thought by the time they reached you they would be only so many dried herbs! -- But I'll slip them in after this - only I'm afraid the wild flower days are nearly over - Chiefly cities after this -- & how I do have them! -

Mrs. De Coursey had written me of Mrs. Gen. Palmers prospects - I am very glad; -- & hope it augurs & tokens many things. At any rate it disposes of one story! - I don't believe that there has ever been a time when they did not live as man & wife when they were together. -

Think of your having met the "Nothing to wear" [man?] out in Colorado! Who doesn't turn up there! - I should like to see him. - now this is all - except a few words in reply to a few words of yours, which I will put on a separate paper - to go into the fire after my darling has read them over once & takes them into his heart to keep. - It is best to have [no?] record anywhere of anything we don't wish to share with strangers after we are dead. -

After all, the Victoria had not blossomed; & I had my drive & paid my half dollar for nothing - The old Professor said

"between eleven to four tomorrow I am sure it must be out!" -

"The bud is now so -"putting his hands together & making the fingers into a sort of cone --"and between eight this morning, and two this afternoon it has shot up, so much" - showing again on his fingers how far he meant - at least four inches - and it is now above the water fully. He begged me to go & look at the bud - but I did not think it worth while to encounter the boiling heat for anything short of the perfect flower. -

Today the air is clearer & cooler -- & we are refreshed - but it is still hot -- & not good.
Afternoon-
Dear Darling - If you had only been here; -- I have seen the great Viking ship which was dug up in Norway last spring -- & it is one of the sensations of my life - If only I could have gone all alone with you & the old antiquarian professor - but there were ten people in party -- & that was a great drawback on my pleasure - I send you a scrap of the wood of it; -- please to look at it & think that over 1000 years ago, some old fellow who had sailed in his ship, was finally buried in his ship -- & his horses & dogs & trappings are buried with him -- & now they have just dug what was left of him & his ship up! -The hull of the ship was in excellent preservation # [denoting note in margin: # 74 feet long!] - some oars - the rudder - fragments of [boats?] -- & a great many bits of metal ornaments, buckles & [boxxes?], and rings - some of them beautifully carved - were found. The mound had evidently been opened once before, & probably the most valuable things stolen - a few centuries ago perhaps or perhaps just after he died, like the [?] A.T. Stewarts grave! -- The peasants on whose farm this mound was, were very very poor -- & finally, the old woman said to her son, there is nothing left now, but the old mound - we must open that & see if there is anything in it we can sell! - so they dug in & found the old ship standing - I wish I had got here in time to see it in the excavation before it was taken out. -- The peasants received in all $800 for it -- ; $300 from the fees paid by visitors who went to see it, before it was moved -- & $500 paid to them by the Norwegian govt. - As Mr. Gade said, it was a pity the U.S. or England had not had a chance to buy it. What a thing it would have been to have in Central Park in New York! - There have been many of these old mounds opened in Norway -- & countless relics found - several ships also - but none either so perfect, or so old as this one -- Nothing that I have seen since Rome, has given me such a sense of being carried back into the olden time. - I had seen an account of it in an English newspaper weeks ago -- & hoped to have been in time to see it in its original resting place - but was too late. - I shall write an account of it for the Scribners I think - for I am sure they ought to like it, as I can send them pictures to go with it - perhaps I'll make an extra $50 out of it. -

Goodness Will - what material I could get in one year in Europe! - oh dear love - won't you come, before Peggy is two old to work? If you could only take one year out, & travel - then I could go back & have my hands full of work for another year -- & make a lovely book -- & get as much for it as I did for my first Bits of Travel which have sold I am sure as much as 15000 or 20000 copies. -

Before I went to see the ship I went to see Dr. Kaurin the homeopathic Dr. here - Miss Allyn went with me to interpret - she speaks Norwegian as well as English - but even with a person as clever as she, it was very hard to make him understand all I wanted to. - He thinks we will all be better as soon as we get out of Norway - I hope so -- Cornelia is taking 6 grams of quinine a day! - We shall see which of us gets out of it the best - Dr. Kaurin has just sent me the medicines - written on the envelope is the direction

"1 powder with 10 tablespoon water. 1 tablespoonful evening and morning; strong shaking ahead." - "Shaken before taken"! -- That's a good specimen of the English you hear all the time; -- it is droll beyond words. -

I was too tired to see the Victoria but will go tomorrow, sure, I must not miss that flower. -
Wed. morning - Seven o'clock! -
Dear darling - This is goodbye from Norway to you - We set off tomorrow afternoon at 2 - by boat for Copenhagen. - All the Vienna - Hungary &c.-of our trip is given up! This is inevitable - but is a very great loss. - I should have to stay a month longer to do it - You see we have lost just a month over to poor Ole Bull - He is dead - the telegram came late last night - It will make a sad day for the Horsfords who really seem to have loved him very dearly -
Goodbye - my own beloved one - I will write you from Copenhagen - on Sunday -

Shall try & begin an Encyclical there - my only chance you see now, of having material enough to make a book, is by keeping these minute journal letters of each day, & printing them in that shape - If I can manage to do that, I'll still have enough to make a book I think. -

Kisses & kisses my love - on this space below - Do please tell me if you put your dear old mustache down over the paper & take them off! -

Your Peggy, -----

Germany. Cassel
Aug. 29. 1880
Sunday morn.

Dearest Dear -

Here I am in Mrs. Hunts apartment - three flights up in a nice modern home in the new part of this old town - with a superb off look over a rolling country, to high hills in the distance - more like Princeton than like anything else, you & I both know. - Mrs. Hunt & I have just breakfasted on a tiny little table in her sitting room - a very bad breakfast indeed - cold veal, cold tongue - scrambled eggs - bakers bread - horrid coffee, & thin milk! Deliver me from German food I say. - I'll take my chance in Norway - anywhere, rather than in the best of Germany. - I left Copenhagen on Thursday morning - having mailed an enormous Encyclical, to you on Wed. - 40 pages 200 words to a page! - I wonder if you'll wade through it! - Remember dearest I don't want them read to any one in C.S. - you'll see the wisdom of this, if you consider - that I am really writing these now for print - my own friends understand -- & it is all right but I don't want any one in C.S. - to hear a word of this - I would make an exception of Fanny Parrish if she could promise not to tell a soul she had read them - You can judge best whether that would be wise. -

On Thursday, we came to [Lubeck?] - My old woman is very funny - she can speak German, & that is all she is good for; for all the rest she is a care & not a help; but I couldn't get on without her. - Friday I spent in seeing [Lubeck?] & yesterday came here - three pretty hard days - all of which are going into the big letter - so I'll not write a word of it all here - I shall mail that letter on Wed, in Munich. - I am glad & thankful to say that I feel now quite well again - the first time I have felt so, for a month; these three days hard traveling & work, have encouraged me very much - I am awfully tired but do not feel any longer the peculiar frustration which belonged to the diptheriatic symptoms; -- so I trust to come out all right. If only I find Alma Shettell in Munich, & can give up traveling with a maid. I shall be quite at ease in my mind, but the experience of traveling double worries me; -- However, except for my maids, I should never have got material enough together to do much with -- & as it is, I think I'll have a book out of it. -

Mrs. Hunt is well -- & all is admirably arranged here - This is a wonderful place to come to, to educate children - such masters -- & teachers -- & a superb picture gallery - really every advantage - [charming?] society - a lovely country -- & the healthiest city in all Germany - everything except food! -- Elly & Enid are just now away for a few days at a Bath Place, near by, where they are taking Mud Baths, for their blood!! - Think of it! - I'd like to take one just for the fun of it. If I had a week to spare, I would stay here quietly & do some work, -- but Will -- my Will - my Will - do you know that a month from tomorrow I sail for home & you! -- Think what I have to do in that month. - The H's & I had our pictures taken in Copenhagen, all together -- & I was going to send you one - but it is so simply horrible of me I will not send it. Mrs. H. says I look like a Negro woman of bad character & 100 years old! - I think so too. - What can be the reason I always make such a awful fright in a picture - I have never seen anything like it. -
Goodbye dear dear love - what a struggle it is to tear myself away from this letter & go to the Encyclical - but "duty calls"! - If I can send home, six Encyclicals -- of 8000 words each, there will be a good bit done towards the book; & it will be of material that I couldn't possibly utilize in any other shape than familiar letters. - Fare well, my dear dear one - I shall find letters waiting me at Munich -- & my mouth waters for them. I have written to my old Fraulein, for rooms & hope she can take me in; -- if Alma isn't in Munich, I shall try to get the Fraulein to take me to Ober Ammergau. -- & let this old lady go - otherwise I shall have to keep her on. - I hope you have sent the money - so I shall get my new letter of credit in Munich. - I shall be in my last $500, but the time I get there; -- ugh - how the money has melted away this last month --; -- but I feel all right about it now, for I have got material for nine mag. Articles -- & with my Encyclicals will bring up arrears -- & have a good little book. - During my ten days in Paris I intend to write every forenoon - so as to bring home if possible - three mag. Articles done - which will be $420. -- & I have already sent home, $240 worth to the papers. - What I'd like would be to have $1000 to put in my boy's hands when I see him, but I'm afraid I can't do quite that; -- but I will before long - if only my old body won't play me false! - I wish you could work bodies as you can machines! -- Goodbye love - Your ever faithful Peggy.
P.S. Mrs. Hunt sends her love -- & says what a comfort & pleasure it has been to see me -
Bay & Paul are splendid. - Bay is taller than her mother. -

[no date; Sept 1880? in pencil top right corner]

My Sweet Peggy,

I will just write you one single little word before going down to the bank. I was lazy this morning - was out to a party last night - That is a little collection at Mrs. Gorsten's - played whist. Mr.& Mrs. Wood Mrs. Lamborn Mrs. Risley Mrs. Parrish Mrs. Ballow Mr. & Mrs. Metcalf - Mr. Wills & your humble servt. I eat some cakes & drank some sherry & as a consequence I feel squally this morning - you must take a contract to do the late eating & drinking for our family. I took home Mrs. Ballow & Mrs. Lamborn -- [crossed out: If] I handed Steel the article by [Green?] of the Everts family - Steel is very ready to help where he can do it without weakening his hold on his readers. They have as a body been so thoroughly in opposition to the idea of any good connected with the Indians, that he has had to be careful - His is the only paper in the state that has had Maneliness [sic] in dealing with the question. I believe Steel is going to take a high position as a journalist in the future - He is growing in solid reputation.

If this should reach you at Miss Risley Sewards please give her & Miss Upton my regards
Lovingly yours

Will

Poor Mr. Strettell is very sick at Gleneyrie - Has had a quite severe hemorrhage & is confined to his room & bed. Dr. Solly has been out two nights all night. [crossed out: Should} He has not much vitality to come & go on.

The Bells invited me over to dinner last night but I had previously accepted Mrs. Garsten's invite or I should have gone - I read Mrs. Parrish the part of your letter reffering [sic] to the Chinese Prof & her cousin. She says your description is exactly true. She is an apple blossom.

Sept. 10, 1880

My Dearest Peggy,

I am going to write you just a short note this Friday morning. Last night was my time for writing but I went out to play whist at Mr. Merrimans old rooms (a Mr. Wills is now occupying them [crossed out: now]) After the game, on returning home I found Mr. [Weittres?] at the house. He stayed until twelve o'clock so I did not get my letter written, & this morning I do not feel like writing - having the heavy headiness that comes from drinking beer the night before - though I only took one glass.

Since writing you last I have had no out of the way experiences. Everything goes quietly & regularly with me at home. I have usually some one to dinner but have not had for the past two days. Dined yesterday at [Keuney's?] restaurant with two young men from New York, one from St. Louis & [Weittres?] Senator Saunders & son are now staying with Barlow. I will have some talk with the old gentleman before he goes & see how he feels towards you & the Indians. You complain of my not cutting out Indian articles. I don't see them. I take no New York paper & our dailies do not say much on the Indian subject just now. So you see your Eastern sentimental friends that are constantly looking outside of their homes their towns & their state for some wrong to correct, must keep you posted on that question. - since writing you I have received two letters of the 13th & 16 & also the True History of Joshua Davidson. Have read the book. It is a wonderful arraignment of the Churches as well as the injustice of the Social divisions that are maintained in the older societies & that are creeping into our newer life - So long as our government remains on its present plan, we must always be much more free from such cast differences as is set forth in the book. I wish he had not found it necessary to take Joshua to France & have him take part in the Commune. I confess I am prejudiced against all long haired Communistic teachers & my impression [crossed out: always} was that the Commune was made up of very very bad elements.

Peggy, if you find no worse spelling that "campbell" for Camel in my letters I think you should praise me, for Campbell does spell camel - now does it not? If I spell so badly that you can't make out the word then come for me but not much before.
Lovingly & lovingly yours

Will
People are wanting to talk with me as I am writing at the Bank so I must not write more.
This letter may not reach you if you return on the 29th of Septr.

Col Spgs Septr. 12th/80
Home Sunday night

My own Peggy,

I have your letter from Christiania of 19th Aug. just before starting & also your letter from Copenhagen after arrival of Aug. 22, -- just rec'd both of them tonight & it is good to know you are safe on land again. You do not say that you had a good trip or a bad one. I know you dreaded it. What a pity you suffer so much on the water. For someday we may want to cross the ocean together that we may have a good time in looking over the old countries with their art their [finish?] & their peculiar civilizations. Your letters from Norway were to me mostly interesting. I should enjoy travel there very much. I was greatly touched as well as amused at poor Mrs. Steens English in her endeavor to express her appreciation of you to you &c. Someday we may be able to gratify her by calling on her in her new home. Now don't make too much of this, for it is only a "castle &c." & must not be taken to mean a promise of anything of that sort. -

It is good to know you are again getting well & strong & bad to learn that the Horsfords are not well [crossed out: again]

Now Peggy I am going to tell of myself a little before I go to my bed.
On Saturday I went to a dinner party at Dr. Bells. There were there of Ladies Mrs. Lows two Miss Turners, Mrs. Wheeler & Mrs. Bell the hostess-in all five of gentlemen Mr. [Jms.?] Dodd of Dodd & Brown, Mr. Swinburn (Mrs Basses Swinburn) Dr. Bull (a recruit & the Doctor of Worcester Mass) & myself & Dr. Bell the host, in all five - just filling the table comfortably. -The dinner was nicely served every way. The only thing to criticize adversely was that we sat down to the table at one quarter to eight instead of at seven as the invitations called for -

The five ladies were perhaps the best dressed ladies that I have ever dined with. The fact is they were stunning as to gowns - Mrs. Bell in white satin with heavy gold fringe. Mrs. Lows in white silk with heavy lace trimming. Miss Lettie Turner in a beautiful blue silk & her sister in white beautifully trimmed. Mrs. Wheeler in some spotted pink with some light (say illusion) over it. Miss Turners sister is very very pretty. I had the pleasure of taking Mrs. Lows out to dinner & had a long & rather pleasant talk with her, rather shocked her by recommending her to read the [crossed out: life] history of Joshua Davidson if she wished to learn of the sincerity of Society work & ways. I wish all these compant [sic] professors could & would read & ponder that little book. It is a wonderful sermon - but to the Bell party. After the dinner say nine o'clock & after we withdrew to the Library that Dr. Bell has built on this summer, in order (among other things) to make a home for the Holy Cross picture. There we took our coffee & smoked our cigars with the ladies present & at their request. This library room is a most beautiful room - a real restful comfortable artistic room. The North end of the room holds the picture in a recess some [crossed out: four or] five or six feet deep, with flaring sides & with a sky light above to [crossed out: let] light up the picture. Opposite the picture, on the south side of the room he has put in a large bay window (stained glass) except in the center of the plates which are left plain, the stained is delicate & subdued the ground work of say a yellowish green with neat fizzures [sic] of still deeper yellow painted on. The whole effect of the window is good, nothing that is too positive & that jars on one. On the east side of the room is the fire place & a wonderfully fine marble also door glass into conservatory. This I will not undertake to describe. On the west side of the room is the door leading out on to a porch & a small stained glass window. This door is beautifully covered & the window is subdued but effective. Dr. Bell has succeeded in creating a beautiful a very beautiful room, & yet have it so quiet as not to lessen, rather to heighten if anything, the value & points of the picture. The picture I want to see by daylight before saying how it impresses me finally, though I confess to feeling (not thinking for I never could think about a picture) that it is a great picture. The Misty Clouds around the mountain. The top standing through these clouds & the great distance of foreground showing the Holy Cross stream & its banks & suggestions of foothills all struck me as wonderfully well told & yet with all this portrayal there is quite a softness & feeling to the whole picture that to my uneducated mind was quite attractive. I will look at it again one of these days. We reached home about half past eleven. I drove Dr. Bull over to the Bells. This Dr. Bull is a new Doctor who came out here for his health, (having regained it almost already), from Worcester Mass. He brot. a letter to you from a Mrs. Woodward & really regrets that you are not at home to help him get well. He seems a nice sort of a New England, precise & gentlemany Doctor about 33 years I should think. Is now staying at the Sollys to take his practice while the Doctor Solly goes east to see his Sister off to England & at same time to press his acquaintance with the Doctors of the east. Solly is a good manager in some ways. This morning Mrs. Boss called & asked me up to lunch (one oclock) to which I went-party-Mr. Swinburn Mr. Bott myself Mr. Boss & Mrs. Boss. Mrs. Boss goes east tomorrow & says she wrote you that she would meet you in New York in October. Perhaps a little respectable cavalier treatment from you would be the best medicine for her if she has neglected your letters &c. -- Mr. Wood is very sick again. Doesn't leave his room & doesn't see any one but the family & physician. He is having a hard time of it poor old man. Mr. Risly [sic] is better - The Risleys have bought the Barker House on the corner north of the Hallowells. I wonder if you remember it? A white house (squarish) (They the Risleys) found their old quarters too small - to finish my days doing. This evening I dined with Mrs. Parrish - party Mrs. Solly & her daughter Helen myself & Mrs. Parrish - a picked party of Quakers you see. Spent the evening until after nine & then to the bank for the mail & since then this letter giving my dear girl Peggy all the news that come to my mind of the doings in & around our little village, & now for the present good night with a kiss

Your loving Will.
Good morning Peggy Darling one word to say how do you do & then I seal the letter. As to the money you enquire after it went forward long ago surely you will have it long before this reaches you. Spend all of it if you need to make your trip a success. Never mind bringing any home & don't force things unnaturally in order to get back by the 29th of this month to London though I shall be ever so glad to see you as soon as you feel like coming only don't throw away anything to gratify a mere feeling.

Lovingly yours in the morning

[written along left margin:] You spelled widower with two ds in your letter to Mr. Lloyd! I suppose it is because you're so d-d lonely!
Paris. Monday Eve.
Sept. 13. 1880

Dearest,

I will just say goodnight to you, before going to bed - My second day in Paris is over, thanks the Lord, "My stars & garters" how I do hate it. - I shouldn't if I could go alone, quietly by myself, & say what I want to say, ask what I want to ask - but to learn to depend on somebody else for every word is trying indeed -- & with a third person along, who interrupts every other word! -- I did get Alma to myself however this afternoon for about three hours -- & went off & bought the cloth for my brown dress, the one with the fur - How I do hope you'll like it. - But dear me, I can't get all the dresses I had hoped to. Things are not so cheap here, after all; at least they are not, to our knowing no more of the wars & places, than we do & I do not find Alma so familiar with Paris as I thought she was, & oh what a whirl it is! - Now I must tell you that this is a gossipy goodnight - a kind of a Strettell journal you'll say - but really Will, there are the queerest people - Do you know they go without butter at the lunch table, to save [crossed out: twelve] ten cents! - I noticed today they were not eating butter, -- (I had had my lunch up stairs, left over from my breakfast) -- & I said "Isn't the butter good"? "Oh we never eat it at lunch, said the old lady - I don't think it at all necessary, with nice cold chicken like this." -- & "lunch with butter costs half a franc more!" - Yet they drink wine at dinner every day! - They have already borrowed 120 francs of me & I am beginning to wonder if they will borrow 60 francs a day all the time we stay, & if they'll ever pay it! - I suppose of course they will. - I shall ask them if they don't. - So for feeling under any obligation to them for coming here with me, I can just tell you it's the other way, thus far - for Alma is getting three dresses made -- & I take the carriage & by the hour, & then half the time is spent on their things. I'm not going to keep on so, I know that. It is too much! - Isn't Peg cross tonight? That she is - so she'll go to bed. She is vexed with everything & everybody -- & half wishes she had not tried to get herself a single dress but just made the old things do. However that is very silly: -- to have a chance to get Paris clothes & not do it would be foolish indeed, for any person needing to move about in the world as much as I do. -

Tuesday morning-

Goodmorning dearest. I am happy to say I don't feel so cross this morning - a night & solitude have returned me to myself - but one hour of the old lady would get me all awry again & I have now another paragraph to add to the Stettell journal - Last night Alma asked if she couldn't come & lie on my bed half an hour after dinner -- & we had a nice talk for about fifteen minutes when in came the O.L.. (I'll call her the O.L. for short.) -- & spoiled it all. But this is what I was going to tell you. - Alma asked if her mama was like what I expected! -- I said, (truly) that I had not expected at all - I had no preconceived theory of her! - Then she said she wondered what [crossed out: her father] I would think of her father. I asked her if he were as fond of the world, & show, & all that as her mother. Oh dear no, she said -- & he was the most absent man -- in the world - half the time did not know what was being said to him ! -- & once at a dinner table when it was proposed to drink the health of absent friends, he asked them to drink his first, for he was more absent than anybody else. Isn't that good? -- Well now, you see I understand that old gentleman without having seen him. He has been driven to this habit of abstracting himself from all that is around him, by the O.L.'s [crossed out: way of] eternal cackle. Even in these five days, I have already come to it in a degree - as a mere measure of self defence [sic]: -- what a pitch of perfection at it must a man reach after quarter of a century's effort to shelter himself from his wife's tongue! - After one is soaked through in a drizzle, he doesn't feel much wetter however long he stays out I suppose. - Well - the odds & ends they had bought with my 120 francs all came in last night - cheap flowers - embroideries laces -- & the material for a gown for poor little Alma, whom I do begin to pity from the bottom of my soul. - I think it mortified her to have to borrow money of me - she said "men were so tiresome about money - papa did not like to get money changed at San Moritz - said he would pay all their bills when he arrived here - but he didn't consider how awkward it was to be without any ready money &c. &c." - I don't mean after this ever to have more than a few dollars in my purse at a time - for after all - they are so uncommon queer, & so stingy, that there's no knowing if they do mean to pay me - or to ask me to let it stand & [could run the money high?] "dear Arthur"! -

Now I go to work again. - on a paper for the Christian Union. -- $25. - earn it today I hope. - Sent off yesterday - one to Advertiser - 1 to Y.C. & a little poem also - ($50.)

- making $170 s worth sent to them, & $180 to Advertiser. - 170
180
350 -

If it weren't for the necessity of writing all I possibly can in the way of Encyclicals, I might get two magazine articles all ready - one is done - but I can't give it to the Atlantic till two others are done to go with it - one before & one after. I don't believe I'll touch the Passion play article till I get home - if you & I can go somewhere & stay quiet for three or four weeks. I'll do it a great deal better there than here! - I must make that my best work. I couldn't work on it here, anyhow - at any rate not till the O.L. is gone! -

Wed. Am -

Dearest - After I set to work on my article, I found I was not in first rate [trim?] for it - All the still undecided & undone things kept popping into my head -- & what do you think I did? I just took a Commissionaire -- & went off alone by myself with him - went to the dressmakers with him - went to four shops -- & in four hours did more than I could have done in ten with the O.L. along. - I left a note for Alma telling her that as her mother had said the night before that she had a good many things to do the next day, I really couldn't take her away at all -- & so I would go by myself for the forenoon! - I paid 8 francs to the Commissionaire & 10. for the carriage - so - for $3.20 I had horse, carriage, one man to drive & another to interpret for four hours! - Pretty good. The distances here are the maddening things! - I must find out how big this city is - I thought N.Y. was bad enough - but dear me you drive a solid half hour here from one shop to another - or from one dressmaker to another -- & you drive like lightning too. - I will slip in a bit of the stuff I got for my winter suit with the brown fur. I am just as sure you'll like it, as I was that you would like the suit I bought you last spring. - It is silk with a little wool mixed - dearer than I meant to get - just as everything else is -- & I get vexed at every turn - but I have to keep reminding myself that I am buying things to last a long time: -- now goodbye my dearest love - Your Peg is not a very happy girl just now - she likes traveling & seeing sights much better than shopping & being bothered about clothes. - I'd like to be dressed by somebody else, without having to give a thought to it at all - I shall try to make out one more Encyclical while I am here. -

Lovingly - your own Peggy.

[added to back of last page:] A letter from Jessy says Mr. Runkle has been there & "can't say enough of Mr. J. & his kindness to him."

She says she never saw Mr. R. to such advantage that "Will Jackson & Colorado have done him good. There are few people in the world I like so well as I do your man." - She also sends me your note to Mr. Lloyd asking them to stay with you. I wish they could - if Betty could manage it -- & Jessy is not at all fussy. She is one of the few women I'd be willing to have go into the house when I'm away! -

Paris
Sunday Pm
Sept. 19, 1880

Dearest Love -

I have just finished my fourth big Encyclical - some 9000 words in it I guess - My but it's a chore! I've written from nine this Am, till now - only stopping for lunch a hour - it was a rainy day, & we could not take the drive we promised ourselves - Alma went to her church however - spite of the rain. - We will not get off till Wednesday I think - I am awfully sorry I can't make out one more encyclical - perhaps I can [crossed out: at Liverpool] in the week - to go by Sats steamer! - I'll try. - I sent you a long letter yesterday - I believe I can only send you one more! Think of that! -- & then there will be ten whole days you won't have one letter! That is awful - I wonder if you will mind it very much -- & I wonder oh how I wonder if you'll have patience to read the encyclicals! - Goodbye dear Love, for the last time but one! - To London on Wednesday - To the Nevills perhaps on Friday -- & to Liverpool on Sat. - if all goes right. - I have set my heart on that three days absolute rest in Liverpool. I believe if will help me more about the voyage than anything else. -

Oh Will, how much wiser you were than I thought you were. When you suggested the possibility of my $1000 as not being enough - not that it isn't going to be - but it is going to be so much less more than enough than I thought. - You know I wrote quite indignant at your thinking I would spend all that - I thought that I could make my other money hold out to get me to Liverpool & I could have, if it hadn't been for the five weeks having a servant with me - that $200 would just have put me through here, for the living in this nasty Hotel -- & carried me to Liverpool -- & I was firmly resolved not to spend a cent over $200 here - so I pleased myself with the thought of crossing the ocean with $200 in my pocket to wave in your eyes, the first day -- & astonish you. - but dear me, I shan't do it - for I was nearly out when I got to Paris - I shall have spent $600 instead of $500 -- & have my living & my journey too - so I want to prepare you for my not bringing home but $200! - this vexes me - however - if I had the $200 my sickness cost me, it would be $400. - so I am not to blame for that. -- & I [?] you'll be so glad to see me, you won't mind about money very much for a little while. - By the way - I will just send you a memorandum of what is due me in Boston - In case I go to the bottom, they'll never look you up to pay for my letters -- & it would be a pity to lose it all - I've worked hard enough to earn it, the Lord knows; -- I've really worked a great deal harder all summer than I did last winter - because I've written in addition to so much traveling. --
I kiss you goodbye - love -

Your Peggy

6 letters sent to Advertiser -- $180
5 to Youths Companion
Perry Mason Ed. 150------ 170

Temple Place

Boston
& 1 poem - 20---^
1 article to
Christian Union
New York 25
________________

375. --