[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to Louise [Louisa Loring], June 24, 1849

4

Frank Shaw has been trying to coax me down to Staten
Island, with a promise of moonlight boating. But I tell
him it is a dreadful thing to have to sit up at dinner,
in a gown. He says I may bring a petticoat and sack if
I like; and Sarah says she will lend me one of her night-
-gowns, and I may sit on the straw carpet, or lounge
thereon, just as I like. I suppose I shall have to make
the great exertion of going there, because Page and his
wife are to stay there a few days, and he says it will
make it more cheerful for him to have me about; and
I am so flattered by the idea that I am any sort of use to
anybody, that I give up even my resistance to loco-motion.
I love Frank and Sarah Shaw; partly because they are
very good-looking, partly because they always dress in
beautiful colors, and partly because they have many excel-
-lent qualities.

I send dear Anna a blue
scarf, which I hope she will like. My little Spanish friend
nets them, to earn her bread. So I kill two birds with one
stone by making presents of her wares to those I love.
The silk stockings I want you to buy, and pay me
$2 for them, if it pleases you to do so. You know I
once came very near making a fortune by a pair of silk
stockings. But this time I am not trading on my own
account. Poor Dolores gave me the stockings, in token
of gratitude, and I want to sell them, and give the
proceeds back to her.

The old gentleman never
had a serious thought of going to Boston to the anniversary;
not from the reason Ellis supposes, but because he is chief
cook and bottle-washer to the Prison Association, and really
cannot be spared. I read the cordial message to him, and
it pleased him mightily. He is a good old man.