Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

I have atlength given up the keys & have time to write to you My Dearest Sister, to think of you I always find time even when most pressed by the labours of housekeeping & distracted by the crowds of company which we have had a constant succession of this summer. I believe I have entirely lost the taste for company with which I was born, & now unless our visitors are particularly interesting I think only of the interruption to all my occupations & still more of the fatigue to our dear grand-father which their presence occasions. besides the strong desire that I feel to make a good use of the few remaining years spent at home, I feel the great disadvantage of not having habits of order & method, & lament that youth is slipping away without leaving me one of the resources & comforts which should be layed laid in against old age. there is no regret so bitter as that of time misspent, years that have rolled on & left behind not one useful acquirement, not even the regular & industrious habits which would enable me to spend my future life more profitably. a few months of house keeping badly done, the little sewing requisite to keep the small wardrobes of Nicholas & myself in repair, a little interrupted & unprofitable reading, brings me [. . .] to the beginning of a new year to be spent like the precee preceding. I feel some pleasure in making good resolutions, although I have never yet practised any of them long enough for good to result from them, but perhaps in constantly attempting I may at least do more than if I gave up in despair. at present I have finished one of the most troublesome months of housekeeping that I ever had, owing to our having the plague of following Zacharia added to the former list, & to the encreasing failing of our cook; besides which I have the childrens copies to attend to, & during a fortnight that Margaret & Patsy spent with us while Maria Carr was illest, I was closely employed two hours every day with my four pupils. now I have much more leisure, or rather should have more, but we have delayed so long beginning the piece of work which we undertook to do for Sidney, that our whole time must be devoted to it in order to finish it in time. What I do look back with real pleasure & satisfaction upon, is the time spent in working for you, dear, dear Sister, I feel the utter impossibility that there is of my ever expressing sufficiently to satisfy me the love I have for you, the gratitude I am filled with for the services you have done me, far greater in number & importance than you are yourself aware of. I now look forward with considerable impatience to my having leisure to begin your pocket handkerchief, & I shall work on it every day with more pleasure than I shall do any thing else. it will be time devoted to you, & which is some comfort to me when separated from you by such a distance. you think it necessary in the last letter you wrote me to apologise for the descriptions you have given us of the most striking scenes through which you have lately passed, but you can not tire your mother & sisters by any details whatever. all interest as coming from you, & the more we know all that concerns you the better pleased we are. I wish your eyes would suffer you to send us some of the views from your windows, Martha Woodward has just made her first attempt at drawing from nature, & has made a very pretty drawing of this house & lawn as seen from the stones at the edge of the grove. Mr. Vail took a sketch from the same spot which he intends to finish as soon as he returns to Washington & send it to you. you do not know what pleasure this attention has given us, & when you get it I shall almost fancy that your eye is once more resting on the home that contains objects so dear, & in return so devoted to you. you may even fancy when you look at the little miniature door leading from the portico into the drawing room that you see Grand-papa’s dear figure seated in one of the campeachy chairs drawn before the door for the sake of the pleasant evening air, just as you will see him next summer, only that he will then I hope be in better health than he has been for some months past. Nicholas left me nearly a fortnight ago for the Springs, he accompanied my Brother to Bedford to visit Francis & Mr. Gilmer, & was to pursue his journey from there to the White Sulphur Springs. Mr. Baker & his daughter Elizabeth spent a day with us on their way to the same Springs, which gave me a safe & direct opportunity of writing, but I have not heard a word of Nicholas since he left Poplar Forest. he is travelling on horseback, with his clothes in a pair of saddle bags, just as he will ride the country when he begins to practice practise law. Wayles Baker has already got into a very good practice, & is courting, with great prospect of success, a young lady of independent fortune whose name is Eggleston. I rejoice in Wayles’s good fortune for I am truly attached to him, but also I take particular interest in the accounts of success attending the young lawyers, as it gives me hopes for Nicholas, which if disappointed heaven knows what will become of us! I am sanguine however, & we both have been sufficiently schooled in adversity, to [. . .] have learnt prudence, & above all to [. . .] shun debt as we would perdition. Brother Jeff & Sister Jane however think me on the verge of a most foolish extravegant act at this very time, but as in this single instance I think them incompetent judges I shall not recede upon enquiry N. found that Brother Jeff could get a draught on Boston from Colo Peyton without inconvenience to himself, for the small sum requisite to purchase a square pia[no] for me, & therefore my dear Sister you may resume your enquiries on the subject, [. . .] I will enclose the draught which I am expecting by every mail. I am grieved to act directly in contradiction to Brother Jeffs seriously & strongly urged advice, but when I recollect what a resource it will be to me in future years, when I shall probably so often be a solitary, besides that music is really the only thing I have a natural & decided taste for, & that it will be a source of pleasure to Nicholas as well as myself, & to Mama while I remain here, & when she is with me, & that they approve the purchase, I cannot yield even to Brother Jeffs arguments, who tells me I have no right to any amusement that will cost money, & who does not take at all into consideration the time I have spent practising on an old instrument too far gone even to learn on. your approbation I have already got, and I have never repented following either your advice or Mama’s in my life, though I have often had cause to regret my not having done so.—I have still to write to Nicholas to day, & moreover expect Mama & Aunt Cary to bring Mrs. Genl Taylor [. . .] of Norfolk, & her sons, home with them from Church to day, &. must finish in time to alter [. . .] my dress before they come. Aunt C. arrived a few days ago with all her family except Jane; She sends a great deal of love to you, & desires me to say that Jane will certainly visit you next Summer if you are in Boston when She gets there. She will be the first occupant of our room, & I fear it will be long before She has a successor. Mary’s beauty has gone with her colour & plumpness, She is now thin & pale, & only a sweet pretty looking girl. your name sake provokes me to death by her name, & Mama’s, is a perfect hurricane! a voice like thunder, & movements as sudden & [. . .] boisterous as a gale of wind. Mrs. Cocke has just been overset by some wild fire pranks of her carriage horses, & a good deal hurt, but “the jineral K O K continues to be the titus jineral in the ’versal world” & refuses to give up the horses although the driver openly avows that he could as soon command the winds as young Ro Roebuck when he takes it into his head to play any tricks. on the occasion above mentioned the horses sprang up a steep bank by the road side, & the carriage was dashed over before the driver was aware of what was passing. Martha Wod Woodward & Harriet both send particular & oft repeated messages of love. give mine most warmly to my brother & believe me ever dear most dearly loved Sister your own