Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

My dear sister,

November 28th 1817.

As I hear Mr Daniel is to leave town to day, I cannot miss so favourable an opportunity of writing to you although I have only time for a few lines, as it is almost time for me to go down town. You will be surprised to hear that last night was the first night that we we have slept at home, as we had intended coming here the second night, but aunt and uncle Nicholas pressed us so hard to spend the two or three first days with them, and we found that it would be so much more convenient, to do so, that mama determined to do it, although Margret was a little skittish about it at first, however our [. . .] aunt was so kind and polite and gave us such excellant dinners and breakfasts that we were all soon reconciled to it. after four days hard work we have at length got every thing unpacked and the house a little more habitable than it was at first, though¹ it is still the dirtiest place that I was ever in, mama does not like the house at all, only think the servants have no way of getting up stairs unless [th]ey go through the front door or through the diningroom, and then there is only one closet of any size in the house, there are so may many windows in the chambers that it will take the curtains of two rooms for one, there are no less than four windows in every room, except the diningroom which has only two but then it has six doors to make up for it two of which are outside doors, two open into the chamber one into the passage and one into the cellar. When mama came down she expected to find both the carpets made and on the floor instead of that, there was not a stick set in either of them, and the woman whom they engaged was very sick, so that mama determined to do it herself, and with the assistance of all her maids she made both carpets in two days, I suppose I need not tell you that she has not been in a very pleasant humour since she has been here, she says that she could not think sleep for two nights after she got here for thinking of the six doors in the diningroom. Poor Margret is in despair about her freind Betsey, she was [. . .] just congratulating herself, as she entered the town on being fairly rid of Sammy, when the first thing she heard on alighting from the carriage was that² she was going to be married immediately to Dr Norton, whom Margret dislikes quite as much as she ever did the other, at first she would give no sort of credit to it but since she has seen Betsey she does not pretend to deny it for although she has not yet had a private conference, Betsey has shown her so much beautiful lace and jewelry that she bought this summer that Margret cannot help thinking something extraordinary is going to happen. There is to be a ball in town tonight but Margret will not go to it simply she says because she does not want to go. All our neighbours, and we have a great many very near ones, have been to³ see us, they seem very much inclined to be sociable, so much so that they all came before we were half ready to receive them which was not as you may suppose very agreeable. We have not seen cousin Lucy yet we heard to day that she is confined to her bed with the rheumatism in her face; cousin Peyton came to [see] us the first day we got in town and cousin Maria the next, the say her daughter is beautiful, she calls it Gabriella.