April 9th.
Dear Eliza: We have made our little visit to the W’s at Fishkill, and the first thing after dinner drove over to your place. . . . Every one says it is very much improved, and the trees that are being set out are very fine ones and add to the general air of elegance.. . . I must tell you how beautiful too your greenhouses looked, lots of flowers and very beautiful ones, and two large boxes have come down this week for Mother, and been arranged in rustic baskets, etc., and make us look very popular to the seven usual evening callers; last night they were admired by Messrs. Beekman, Shepherd, Goddard, Denny, Bronson, Frothingham and Dorus W., and each gentleman tried to look conscious to the others, while I looked so to all. . . . Returning from Fishkill we found Sarah Woolsey here, and she is now sitting on the sofa reading the news. Uncle Edward has just gone, and Jane and Hatty are off at the hospital. Abby is very down in her mind about the Merrimac, and thanks fortune (secretly) there is always something to be melancholy over. . . .
Sarah drove out one morning to see Aunt E., who entertained her with abusing Abby for her political opinions! She said the Tribune was not a paper for Christian people, particularly females, to take, and that as long ago as Rutgers Place times Uncle E. had warned us against it. “I read it myself, it is true,” she said, “but then the curious eye and ear must be satisfied!” Capital reason for doing what a Christian “female” should not do!
