Buf. 14th
Dear Susie:
I hold Livy up, now, & she goes through the motions of walking—from the bed to the chair—& sits there 2 hours at a time. I don’t lift her into the sitz bath or out of it any more—merely help her.
I have talked to the wetnurse, the Dr. has talked to her & Miss Clara has talked to her—& so between us we have drilled her into a good officer. We like her better than at [first. She ]has willingness, plenty of it, but no sense—I mean no judgment. She goes on dressing the cubbie serenely, & never bothers about his frantic crying.1
Sarah got at [loggerheads ]with her—& next [ she ref refused ]I found she had for a week been leaving Emily to take the whole care of the baby at night. So I discharged Sarah. She didn’t want to go at all, & was ready to make good promises for the future, but I thought it best that she should go—& to tell the truth I couldn’t cheerfully stand that breaking of my own express order (to sleep in the same room with the wet nurse.)
I hired Susy c to come back that same day—got her to compromise with her employer & come here several days before her time was up. Margaret was staunch & true, & a ready help through all the fuss.2 I
I make them keep the cubbie in the library altogether, now, & regulate the place temperature with a [thermometer. It ]is high treason to take him into the kitchen upon any pretext, & misprision of treason to even refer to the kitchen in his presence.
Miss Clara is perfectly splendid—but you know that. Livy drinks ale, now, for a tonic—suggested it herself, & the Dr., as usual, agreed. She was as tight as a brick this afternoon (as the historian Josephus would say.) She talks incessantly, anyhow, so the ale hadn’t any the advantage of her there, but it made her unendurably slangy., & that is what we grieved for.
We play cards a great deal—cut-throat [ Eur Euchre].
Susie dear, can you correctly pronounce any one ‸two‸ of these italicised words without referring to a dictionary?
“He was an aspirant after the vagaries of the exorcists, & a coadjutor of the irrefragable yet exqu exquisite [ farrago ] on the subsidence of the italicised finale.” (Webster is an old [fool—]([Livy’s ]permission.)
We all join in sending a great tidal wave of affection sweeping down upon you where ever you are3—not to [ dro ]bury you & drown you, but to bear you upward & onward to any & all happinesses that you may seek, and any & all ambitions you shall aspire to, by the will of God. Amen.
Livy & I have had a long & pleasant talk about Mrs. Corey,4 & I have drawn a picture of the baby’s foot for her—chose the foot because it happened so, not because it was worthier of his father’s art than any other feature of him.
The cubbie is not well, & Livy thinks Dr. Wright will help us lose him if he can ‸get‸ ten days more to do it in. I wish we were in Elmira, for I think a good deal as Livy does. It will be hard, very hard to go & discharge Wright & take another physician, & yet we have got to do it if the baby gets really sick.
Very lovingly, & ever & ever so gratefully Yours, Susie, for your long & exhausting service here when your own health demanded your absence. (Shall we ever be able to repay it to either you or to Theodore your other [ see self]?[)]
Samℓ.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L4, 358–359.
Provenance:This letter remained in the Langdon family until 1972, when it was donated to
CU-MARK by Mrs. Eugene Lada-Mocarski,
Jervis Langdon, Jr., Mrs. Robert S. Pennock, and Mrs. Bayard
Schieffelin.
Emendations and textual notes:
first. She • first.—|She
loggerheads • logger-|heads
she ref refused • [possibly ‘she refrefused’]
thermometer. It • thermometer.—|It
Eur Euchre • Eurchre
farrago • farraarrago [corrected miswriting]
fool— • fool—|—
(Livy’s • [redundant opening parenthesis]
dro • [‘o’ partly formed]
see self • seelf
