It is long since I heard from you, my own dear Virginia, but still longer since I have written to you, and I have no right to complain of, however I may regret, your silence. I know what the trouble of children is, and do not wonder at your making what I am fain to call you, after Mr Matthews, “a...

I take so little note of time, my dearest mother, even by it’s loss, that I do not know exactly when I last wrote to any of you, but it seems to me more than a fortnight, and perhaps you are beginning to be surprised at my silence. I have been very busy getting the little girls ready to go into...

I The day I intended writing ...

I sometimes fear, dearest Virginia, that you will all imagine, that I have become perfectly stupid, such miserable trash do I send you once in two weeks, to let you see that I am alive, & well in bodily health at least, my letters are written under such disadvantages that nothing but a...

Your letters are always most welcome dear Joseph whether “two days” or two months should have intervened between them. they do not require the additional recommendation of containing a bulletin of the new comer and his dear mother’s health grateful as that must allways be to me, to make them very...

I have been most anxiously expecting a letter for some time past, my dear mother, that I might hear something more of this appointment of Nicholas’s. Burwell wrote me that Mr Clay had named him to a place worth $ 1600. a year, but from you I have heard not one word, and know not how to account...

I wrote to Mary only yesterday my dearest Virginia, but as I have half an hour this morning, & Cornelia comes next in the regular turn, I shall put you to the expense of an extra eighteen-pence, in order to reply to yours of the 27th Aug. which I have just received. I feel the more inclined...

It is late in the morning of Tuesday, dearest mother, and I should not attempt to write, as I dislike so much to be hurried in writing to you, but having in my last mentioned Ellen’s illness I thought you might be anxious to hear again. she is very much better, but still pale & thin; I...

our late dinner has scarcely left me time I fear my dear Sister to despatch a letter to you before it grows dark, but having defered writing till evening, I have no alternative between making the best use of the little day light that is left me now, & infringing on the morrow morning, which...

To any one else I should feel it necessary to begin my letter with an apology, but I have such confidence in your affection, and reasonableness, as to hope that you will excuse my seeming negligence when I frankly tell you that knowing Ellen wrote regularly, I have not forced my thoughts from the...