Boston, Feb. 10^th 1878.

 

Dear Mother Wild & Sister Mary,

                        I have no longer the pen of a ready writer, but you shall have the best a hand of wood can send you.

 

We are both well. I am very busy, & Edward is very lazy, or you might have had a letter sooner. When your letters arrived, Edw. was in Andover, where he had gone to see Anna Stevens. He walked up & back. He went out to Brookline on Monday night to a musical club—spent the night at the Chandlers—& early Tuesday Jan. 15^th. A.M. started off on his walk. He reached Andover in time for tea, which he took with his old friend Mrs Ray, Mary / Holmes—then he walked on to N. Andover—found Anna & Walter had gone to a church party, so he wrote & mailed me a postal, & then went to the church party.

 

He came home on Saturday & left N. Andover early, while Anna & her family were asleep, walked over to Andover breakfasted with the Rays, & continued his tramp to Boston, reaching the city at 2.15 P.M. He was fresh & well, & was still able to walk to Beacon St. or near there to keep an engagement we had to dine with Annie Staigg (Atkinson) Miss Lizzie Atkinson lives with her. We had a very pleasant visit. We did not go to the Staiggs till five P.M. & spent the evening. I do not / know that I can find a more interesting subject to write about than Edw.'s adventures, so I will tell you of one more. He was returning one day from a walk to Cambridge, & as he walked along the railroad track, he saw that the grass was on fire, & that a woman as coming from a house close by with a bucket of water to put out the fire. Edw. sent her back for a broom, & then showed her how to beat out the fire with a wet broom, while he worked with a birch branch The wind was blowing a gale & the fire was rushing toward some houses, but Edw. & the woman conquered the fire, fortunately. He was half an hour late for dinner in consequence. I ought to tell you that Anna Stevens had no idea Edw. meant / to leave so early, & had set by her bed a spirit lamp, so that she might give him a cup of hot beef tea before he started, & was dismayed on waking to find that her guest had flown. I do not remember if I told you that when I went Thanksgiving day to dine at Mr. J. C. Wild's, I took those droll pictures of Arthurs which you sent me two years ago. I had taken them twice before when I did not get in, but this time I showed them, & we all had a hearty laugh over them & enjoyed them very much. Mrs Wild said her son used to draw just such pictures. I am getting a good many new ideas about drawing & sometime will tell Arthur about them, & start him in a / new direction. I get tired at the school every day, but am not so utterly exhausted as I was at first. I enjoy it intensely. Annie came there on Friday when we were having a lesson in wood carving, & said it was fascinating & persuaded me to let her try two of my tools. We are only doing simple things as yet; cutting "dog's teeth", whole sets of them, double & single teeth, so that I feel almost ready & competent to put out a sign with this legend upon it: Dog's teeth made with neatness & dispatch, by F. E. Wild—Dog Dentist.

 

Were you all buried alive by the deep snow a week ago? Boston is only now peeping out from it. Today we have had snow & rain. I think the rain will carry off the snow.

 

Annie is well & my cousins returned last night from their three month's visit in New York & Washington. Edw. & I go to tea at my uncle's if the rain will permit. Much love & best wishes to all, from F. E. Wild. 

[verso]

 

Sun. Feb. 10. 1878.

Dear Mother

I have for some time been waiting to write you, expecting from day to day to have something definite to say about my plans and expected movements. But here I am still in uncertainty, still in expectancy,—and have nothing to say. When you were sick and Elsie taken down I was at North Andover and knew nothing of it till afterwards. But glad to hear that you were both improving so well. If you are sick again, do not hesitate to send for me, whilst I am so near, to come there and boss it. Same also for Elsie or Mary or any of the rest of them. If Elsie still has any remains of her illness hanging about her, you would probably find Arsenicum useful—using the highest dilution you can find in the house and giving her 2 or 3 doses daily.

 

We have no family news of late date to pass along.  But all well

                                                                       

Yours Affectionately

E. A.

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