[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to [Ellis Gray Loring], May 9, 1850

New York, May 9th, 1850.

Dear Friend,

I am rather glad, on the whole,
that your negotiations failed. The more I reflected
upon pitching our tent in the vicinity of Boston, the
more my heart sank within me. Such a location
would have inevitably subjected us to expenses and
company, unsuited to our pecuniary means, and our
chronic state of indifference to all mundane affairs.
It would be a precious privilege to be near you; but
the more I have thought upon it, the more I have been
convinced that privilege could not be enjoyed,
without incurring liabilities which ought not to be
incurred. My mind tends more and more toward
South Natick, Stoneham, or some such out-of-the-
-way place, where I can hide my broken wings.
That is all I want for the rest of life; to hide in