Transcription
Saratoga Aug 6t. 1853
My dear Sarah,
I thank you for your long letter giving me such a budget of domestic news. That about Angelines engagement is particularly interesting: I hardly know whether to be glad or sorry about it. I hope in her new condition she will not be obliged to work hard for she is not fitted for it. With us she would always have been taken care of, and her health and strength consulted, but we could hardly expect that she would remain with us long–she is too pretty and amiable in her appearance not to attract attention and have admirers, and she might have made some unfortunate match. If the man she has chosen is steady and industrious and can support her comfortably all
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may go well with her. If he had been a thriving carpenter I should have been well pleased; but he may do well as a carman, I am ignorant of the profits of the calling. Mr. Grinnell may be able to〈throw bus〉give him employment. I feel quite attached to the poor little girl and shall miss her from our household. Tell her I shall endeavor to be present at the wedding–in the mean time put a hundred dollars at her command as a wedding present from me.
I am sorry Mr Grinnell has deferred coming to the Springs for some days yet–as I doubt whether I shall remain here after their arrival. I feel a little fatigued with the bustle of the place and with the very
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attentions I recieve begin to be a task upon my spirits.〈However〉I begin to doubt whether the water of the Springs is beneficial to me, and whether it is not apt to act unfavorably upon the head–I have ceased to drink it.
Where are Pierre and Helen and what are to be their movements. I should like to fall in with them.
I am glad to hear that your brother Williams little Kate is to pay a visit to the Cottage. I beg you all to make a pet of her and keep her with you until I return.
I am writing on half sheets of paper for my stock is out. Writing still is a labor to me so you must excuse my scrawl–
With love to all
Your affectionate uncle
Washington Irving
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[PAGE 4 BLANK]Transcriber
Marisa CalderioLanguage
EnglishNotes
Washington Irving. Letters. Volume IV, 1846-1859. Aderman, Ralph M., Kleinfield, Herbert L. and Jenifer S. Banks. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982, pp. 425-426.
