[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to Anna Loring, August 8, 1843

expect to find any friends again in the world
that I shall love so well. I should love dearly
to ride into your barn on a load of hay; but I
must stay at home, and work, work.

I spent the 4'th of July at Staten
Island, in a nice rural corner, with Mr. Page
and his pretty wife. We sat under the trees
all day, and heard no sound, but the faint
echo of guns from the distant shipping. Mr.
Page caught a ground-mole, the only one
I ever saw. It had a very clumsy shape, but
exquistely beautiful fur, of the richest brown;
soft, fine, thick, and glossy as velvet. We only
played with it a little while, to see the fur
glance in the sunbeams, and then we let him
plunge down into the earth.

I wish you would ask Rebecca whether
she will go to Cottage Place, and beg for me
a root of the yellow lillies, which grow under
the windows there. She can tell the folks my
story, and I guess they will let me have one.
One bulb will be enough.

Good bye. Write often, for I love to hear from you.

Yr affectionate Aunt Maria.