June 14 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to daughter Jean (incoming not extant) at Eastern Point in Gloucester, Mass. He was planning a visit to Gloucester.  

The time is drawing near, dear Jean, & I shall be glad to start. Miss Lyon has been hard at work up there among the workman for the past 3 days, & it is now almost definitely settled that next Thursday is my date for moving into the house. There has been a whole world of work to do, but I have escaped it all from the start (a year ago) to the finish.

Clara has been writing something for a London paper [See June 6 article], & doing it very well. I will try to remember to enclose it.

Do not trouble about the books I am giving to the village library. There’s none that you would wish to withhold.

There is no hurry about the Aquarium-sign, Jean dear. It can wait as long as you wish.

Indeed I should like to tarry with you a considerable spell, but Dr. Peterson will not allow that.

For your good he will restrict me to hours, not days.

I am dreading that Portsmouth journey. I suppose I shall have to come down here from Redding; then take 5 hours to Boston; then some more hours to Portsmouth—all in dead summer-time! By God, I would rather be hanged. However, it is a memorial service in honor of an old friend, & I think he would reciprocate by & by, if he could.

Goodbye, dear heart, with lots of hugs & kisses— / Father [MTP]. Note: Jean was making a woodcarved sign for Sam’s Aquarium Club to hang in his den at the new house. Also, she was “insistent” in asking for a visit of several days [Hill 198]. The Portsmouth trip was to attend the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial. See June 29.

Sam also wrote to Dorothy Quick in at the Hotel Windsor, Atlantic City, N.J. relating updates on the new house in Redding, Conn. 

I am so sorry, dear heart, that I could not come to Commencement, for I would have been so glad to see your school & meet your friends.

Miss Lyons is working very hard, these days, getting the new house up-country ready. Of course it requires a world of labor to get a new house in shape. She has been at it might & day, this past week, & has gotten all the furniture & the orchestrelle & a billiards table in, at last, and says the house will be ready for me next  Thursday. I shan’t be able to leave here till Thursday afternoon—Then I’ll go. I am sure I shall like the house, from all  accounts. I think you will like it too, when you come to pay me a visit.

You careless child! How do know you can trust Claire & Dorothea & Nellie? As for me, I never expect to see those rabbits nor that bird nor that goldfish again. I wish now I had gone to Plainfield while they were still alive.

I wish you wouldn’t be sick so much, dear. You seem to be always traveling from one malady to another, & it grieves me. Get well, dear! & stay well! Won’t you?

I am glad you got the brass right—I think you did well.

Miss Lyon sends you lots of love, & so do I—multiplied by 6 [MTAq 172].

Sam also wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

 Dear Dorothy: / Charles Rann Kennedy is the author of “The Servant in the House.” His wife, who was the chief figure in “Everyman,” plays in it, & so does his niece, a girl of 18 or 19. It is a wonderful play & a wonderful cast.

The reason I didn’t know where Woodstock is, was because I knew it used to be in anotherState & had moved, but I didn’t know what State it had moved to until your last letter came.

Yesterday morning I shipped the Georgian member of the Aquarium to Europe, with her parents; but they will visit me at “Innocence at Home” (the house I have built near Redding, Conn.) the 21st or 22d of September, & I hope you can come at that time, too, & have ventured to enter you upon the list accordingly. The house is about ready, now, & I shall go up there next Thursday, if nothing happens to defeat Miss Lyon’s calculations. I haven’t seen it yet.

Yes indeed, I wish I could come to Woodstock, but I know I can’t manage it. I’m too old to skirmish around like an angel-fish. / Yours, with love, / S L C [MTAq 173]. Note: See June 7 for more on Kennedy.

Lilian W. Aldrich wrote to Sam, inviting Sam to a function on June 29, the day before the Memorial to Thomas Bailey Aldrich [MTP].