[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to [Anna Loring], January 15, 1841

I've something to say to you'. But before
she could finish, I used to cry out, "You need'nt
say it, Aunt Maria; for I have lost my book,
and cant find it nowhere'! Then, just as like
as not, she'd pull out my old French book, and
say 'Here it is'. Oh, she used to plague me so!
I wonder whether the old lady remembers it?
What a queer, short, little old lady she is!"

But perhaps you never will
have a chance to think all this; for, perhaps,
before Aunt Maria loses her eye-sight, she
will go away from this world into the
spirit-land, where they never grow old.

Since I left you, I don't
have any little girl to play with, except
my niece Lillia Maria, who has come up
from Springfield twice to see me. She is a
pretty, playful little creature, as frisky as
a squirrel, or a young kitten. She went to see
a menagerie of animals lately; and she told
me she saw an "Afichunck eat an apple, and
a monkey ride horse-back on an Afichunk."
By Afichunk, she meant Elephant.

I tried to teach her Miss Martineau's story
about the little chicky. The "Pe-po-pi-toe"
pleased her mightily. She was in such a hurry
to arrive at that, she galloped over the