Phil^a Dec 22^d 1861

 

My dear Mother

                        You will see by the enclosed bill of lading that the box is on its way to you which I have been writing about in a previous letter and finding that this opportunity would probably be the last this season & also finding this out quite hurriedly the box was packed equally hurriedly and since its departure I find I have omitted two articles I wished to send of small compass but which I had put away in a safe place to pack with the cloak & which I entirely overlooked I told Em to look over her things & I gave her very short space to do so in & get some little things for the children together the little dog greyhound is for Eddie & was made by a prisoner at the penitentiary Sister Mary has been there & knows its locality Em put in the little red riding hood for May & I send to Walty the sponge cake box with sugar plum filling to remind him of our Christmas I should hardly suppose he could have lost his sweet tooth quite yet if not wish him a happy Christmas for me & good health to enjoy it. if dear Mother you keep the cloak I enclosed / for sister Mary the mousseline dress pattern for a [?] wrapper it is not nice enough for any other purpose it was purchased for Christmas I was in the house or I could not have sent it as I was not well enough that day to go out the weather was as damp as a pouring rain everything leaking and my cold will not admit of my going out now when it is damp I was a little imprudent about Thanksgiving time and the week after had quite a visitation our Thanksgiving was a week or two later than yours if Mary likes the dress well enough to keep it tell her she had best measure it as it came in the dress pattern cut off I could not get any more I do not think it will be a large pattern for one so tall as she is perhaps not enough even if Mary has the cloak perhaps you would like the dress but dear Mother only view it as a morning dress never in the street it is not the proper thing so conspicuous you know the little old fur cuffs I sent for the children to play in the open air they are excessively shabby I know and were lying in Ems box for two or three years she sends her love to May & Eddie Charlie & Dan She scrambled together between dinner & dessert the little things she would have been more generous if she had more time the man was to come for the box at / four o'clock and it was then to be nailed up & I put the Barege Anglaise dress for May to keep all things steady sister Mary may think it too shabby to make use of tell her to take off the ruffles if she likes & make a plain dress of it in the spring they are very pretty quite plain. I received a letter from Laura last week or rather more than that about ten days since in which Mr Phipps added a postscriptive saying father thought of going to Washington and had invited him to accompany him and that I might see them on their way therefore I have been expecting & expecting and when a carriage has stopped even at a very late hour anywhere in our neighborhood we have [?] to the window in expectation of their arrival their room has been in hourly expectation also water in the bucket &c

 

At New Year I am to have a visit from Hamilton & Katie Field they may arrive on New Years day it is the long expected visit from Katie come at last and they will after making me a visit go to Mrs John Fields & stay; they were at the Fields last winter & visited them for a long time and afterward visited the Nortons and Mrs Thomas Cary. the friendship took place in Europe Mr & Mrs Field were three or four years in France & Italy and were as intimate with Hamilton as possible & the intimacy has continued Mr Field staid with them at Nahant this summer he has now gone to Washington with the Nortons Miss Emma Cary & Lillie Cleveland but will return at New Years he told me. We knew both Mr & Mrs Field before they ever met Hamilton or went to Europe & they are delightful people I received a letter from brother Ned yesterday and a first rate letter it was he has been suffering from his teeth very much they ulcerated in the sockets he said but now it is over he says he feels better than when at home he was on guard when he wrote & was officer of the day which involved he said a trip of more than two miles by water of over four miles by land and along tramp to visit all the pickets he enjoyed it highly the moonlight was so fine he says Ellen looks so sharply after his wardrobe that he wants for nothing & their mess is excellent so that our offers of service are lost upon him. Lillie Bache has just packed off a large box to Hewson containing over an hundred dollars worth of articles some of which he sent for among others a Christmas plum pudding boiled.

 

We shall dine with the Bradfords as usual on Christmas and Mr Blake and Mr Chapman will dine there too they are very frequent visitors at the home and are two Boston boys Parkman Blake & Jonathan Chapman and I believe the usual evening gathering will be dispensed with Emma begs me to send her kind love to all & I wish you good night dear Mother & a happy Christmas to yourself Mary Minnie Edward & all my little nephews & nieces with particular love to Walter from Susan

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