Cornelia being now on a visit to Carys-brook, my Dearest Sister, the cares of house-keeping have devolved upon me, with the heavy addition of my being obliged to finish Sidneys trimming in the course of a week, and both together give me scarcely time to sleep & take my meals, but this is...

I have been sitting all the morning with Mrs Madison my dear sister, and must now take advantage of her having retired to her own room to begin a letter to you, which I fear I shall scarce have time to finish before the ...

I wrote a hurried scrawl to Mr Coolidge by the last mail which would have been burnt if I had had time to collect my thoughts to do better, but although I went in to Nicholas’s pavillion and it rained furiously while I was there, I was so often interrupted, and even forced to leave My letter to...

as you have yourself had the misfortune to be housekeeper for our large family My dearest sister, you can perhaps imagine what it is to have five persons in addition to our usual number, but I think even with your experience of Monticello in the summer, you could scarce form an idea of the run of...

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...

I must write to you My dear Ellen, when I can, and not wait for time to do it quietly and rationally. I have literally not one quiet hour from 5 in the morning my usual hour of rising, till 10 at night, when we generally retire. the odd half hours and quarters that I can command I will most...

I recieved your letter dear sister while setting at Maria Carrs sick bed, for her illness continuing & increasing the girls at Tufton became quite exhausted and ...

I am mounted upon a high chest in the cellar, my dear sister, in the midst of sweapers and scourers, for my time is so completely occupied by serving & entertaining company that I have not a quiet unemployed half hour even to devote to you, but write to you I will even in this sort of...

I wrote to Mrs Coolidge by the last mail, but really in a state of mind so unfit that if there had been any probability of it’s being more composed before the crisis of the 8th ...

Virginia & myself have had a contest, my Dear sister, about who should write by this post but I could not yeild my birthright so easily in this case, willing as I am to give up the melancholy privilege in general; I am not very fit company however for you or any one else this evening for I am...