Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTELRS. 191
TO MRS. ANNA LORING DRESEL.
WAYLAND, February 13, 1866.
It takes Germans to make pictures of real, all-alive
children, because they are an honest, child-like nation. The French make graceful puppets and fashionable dolls. I have laughed and laughed over that
little book, and I dare say the sight of it will have
a cheering influence all the year through, whenever
I am inclined to be sad. It will be like having a
play with children, with the great advantage of putting them away when I like. The literary portion of
it is not above my comprehension, with the exception
of three or four words which I suppose to be baby
lingo. I thank your dear mother very much for the
beautiful statuette. The more I look at it, the more
I am impressed with the genius indicated by the conception and execution of the group. That craving for
beauty lies too deep in my nature ever to be uprooted.
Speaking of beauty, I wish you could have seen our
great elm-tree, one morning, when a cold night had
completely incrusted it with the frozen vapor of the
preceding warm day. Such great branches of pearls
and diamonds lifted up high in the air, with the darkest and clearest blue sky for a back-ground. I am a
great admirer of winter scenery, but never in my life
have I seen anything so beautiful as that. I shouted
again and again, and I would have run two miles to
have caught a poet to come and shout with me.
David admired it greatly, and made divers superb
comparisons in a quiet, philosophic way, but I
could n't get him up to the shouting point.