July 2 Thursday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote two letters to daughter Clara, still in Riverdale. The first:
Clara dear, if you are sorry you neglected to offer a good-bye to Miss Sherry yesterday at the cars, write to your mother & say so, but don’t do it in such a way as to betray that you got a hint from here. Miss Sherry is hurt about something, & your mother thinks it was that. She feels sure it must have been that, & she is troubled about it.
It is noon. Aunt Sue is down town broiling, your mother is sofaing in the pleasant breeze on the porch & blinking at the view—which she concedes is lovely, but doesn’t begin with the noble view from her windows in Riverdale (a place which she was as homesick for, last night, as ever a lost child was for its mother’s breast.) Homesick for those Perkinses & Dodge‘s, too—a malady which we shall all suffer from in the coming days.
Give Fritz a fee, in addition to his pay. Give him from $3 to $5, as you please—or split the difference, if you prefer.
I see Aunt Sue’s carriage climbing toward the lower gate.
The bluebirds have a home in the Cherry tree; there was a Bob White in the grounds this morning. I wish Jan was dead. Lots of love to you & Jean from us. / Father
P. S. The next-to-the-last sentence gave your mother a cruel shock. In her delicate state of health she is not strong on grammar, therefore the word “was” did not save her. She thought I was saying “I wish you was dead,” whereas I was referring to the dog, (Jan.) {I thought I should bust.} Your mother is physically (but not morally nor spiritually) languid, this morning. But that is all. I think it marvelous that that horrible trip did not exhaust her [MTP]. Note: Miss Margaret Sherry: Livy’s trained nurse.
After writing this note Sam received a telegram (not extant) from Clara. He then wrote a second note, which reveals the subject of her message:
Clara dear, your telegram just received. The prescriptions can’t be telegraphed, (nor even read, for that matter), but I am sending them by mail & you will get them day after to-morrow.
Take awful good care of them. If possible, let Dr. Moffatt [sic Moffat] get copies made—then send me the copies. / I hope the carbuncle is not in the family. Is it? [MTP]. Note: Sam’s July 5 reveals it was Clara who suffered once more from a carbuncle. Dr. Henry Moffat, Yonkers.
Sam also wrote to Eleanor V. Hutton and Laurence Hutton, noting they would leave for a trip down the Nile on the next day; also that he and Livy had left the day before for Elmira. He related the trip (see July 1 entry).
“She [Livy] will live on the front porch for the next 3 months, then sail for Genoa, to live under Fiesole all winter. We send both of you our love, & we hope we shall see you in Italy, when your Nile trip is finished” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Livy weak & exhausted from the journey. Melancholy & homesick. / B. probably arranged an option with Scrib. Began to frame new propn [proposition]” [NB 46 TS 20].