[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to Anna Loring, October 13, 1844

"tobacco and gas" - come to the part of the city where
we now live, and tell me if there is a purer air float-
-ing under the sky.

The sketches for Miss Fuller's book are very free and
graceful; and

Monday morning. Dear Anna, my unfinished sentence
was interrupted, most pleasantly, by the entrance of Ole Bul,
who staid three hours, as full of mirthfulness as a child.
I do not know how your father would have liked him,
if he has persevered in getting introduced, at Buffalo.
He does not admire free, gushing, spontaneous characters,
so much as I do. And in society, which demands of
every man and woman
to conceal their individuality,
and repress their inward
life, Ole Bul might, very probably, appear below the
ordinary level, for the very reason that his free nature
is so infinitely above it. But alone in my humble
little parlor, where he can laugh, shout, clap his
hands, or tell his sorrows, as the mood may be, - he is
a most delightful person - gentle as the flute, various
as the violin, lively and naive as the oboe. I never
admired any human being so much.

I was going to add to my unfinished sentence,
that I was very glad to have the sketches to put in the book.
I thanked Miss Fuller in person, when she called there the

{written perpendicularly in the left margin}

"Pet lamb" is at Northampton, lecturing
about politics. If he were here, he would
send most cordial love to you all

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