Why mercy,! were you expecting me? Do you know, I just thought you would be looking for me—but bless you, I couldn’t help it. If it were only Livy’s fault—but there isn’t anybody to saddle it on—I guess it was my distress about those Railways—which is funny, because formerly I would just as soon have been smashed up on one of those railroads as any other way.1explanatory note But my life has grown very precious—to Livy. Well, I’m coming right along, now, in the spring—I am indeed,— & I shall bring my wife. Then you can scold us both, & all of us will enjoy it the more.

I have an easy time of it this year—talk nearly altogether in New England, & shall close during the last week in January. I can’t talk take Ⓐemendationnear all the engagements that offer, but I take one for every night of the season (except Saturdays & Sundays, which I reserve to “loaf” in.) It is jolly. I shall sleep in Boston a good deal of the time. I have been lecturing almost Ⓐemendationevery night for some two weeks, & have retained my handsome room in this hotel all the time. Shall give it up for a while, next Tuesday, & go into Vermont & Connecticut. But I shall talk many times in Mass., yet, this winter.

Goodbye & love to you all—for I have many business letters to answer yet, this afternoon, & a lecture to deliver to-night in a neighboring city. Hurry’s the word! (Found it in an old dictionary—didn’t see it before.)