Livy has gone shopping, & to visit the Slees, & I remained at home to write a newspaper letter, but find after pacing the floor for an hour that I have no special interest in the subjects that present themselves. A man cannot do a thing well which his heart is not in, & so I have dropped the newspaper scribbling for to-day.

We have called upon the Slees once—I have called upon them once—they have called upon us once—& now She has gone to call upon them——so the lines of communication between these two households are unbroken, thus far, & are likely to remain so.1explanatory note

We telegraphed the Twichells to come, & they did—& remained twenty-four hours by the watch, & were happy, & so were we. They took full account of the house & all its belongings, partly because they vastly enjoyed doing it, & partly because they expect to have to tell, & retell, & iterate & reiterate the details of our grandeur to all them that be in Hartford, & & (& who somehow of late appear to take an interest in us.)2explanatory note

I went after them with the carriage at 3.40 PM day before yesterday, & from that till dinner time (at 5,) we showed them elaborately over the house, & made Twichell wipe his feet & blow his nose before entering each apartment (so as to keep his respect up to an impressive altitude,)—& we listened to their raptures & enjoyed the same—w & I told them the story of what happened to l Little Sammy in Fairy Land when he was hunting for a Ba Boarding Ⓐemendation House, & they enjoyed that. But I never let them go near that drawing room they till they thought they had seen all the glories of the palace—till after dinner, in fact, for I wanted to have the gas ablaze & the furniture-covers removed. It looked magnificent! I think they will give a good account. Mrs. T. says Alice Day’s house is vulgarly showy & out of taste.3explanatory note I am awful glad of it. (So is Livy, but she don’t say so—at least she don’t want it mentioned outside.) (Its no such thing and Mrs T. did not say so—ahem! naughty Youth)

Livy makes a most excellent little housekeeper, & I always knew she would. Everything goes on as smoothly as if it were worked by hidden machinery. The servants are willing & entirely respectful toward her (which they had better be.)

Livy has a dreadful time making her cash account balance; & she has a dreadful time economising a turkey in such a way as to make him last a week; & she has a dreadful time making the servants comprehend that they must buy nothing whatever on credit & that whatever they mu buy they must make the butcher or the grocer set down in the pass-book to be critically scanned by her eagle eye. These are all the dreadful times she has on the surface. She naturally has her little down sad moments within, & she confesses it—but you may take an honest man’s word for it that I think she secretly reproaches herself for not being sad oftener, so as to show a proper grief for at leaving so lovely & so dear a home. The plain fact of the matter is that she has undergone the most astounding change—for verily she is become so boisterous, so noisy, & so lawless in her cheery happiness that I, even I, am forced int to put on an irksome gravity & decorum in order to uphold the dignity of the house. She pulls & hauls me around, & claws my hair, & bites my fingers, & laughs so that you might hear her across the street; & it does appear to me that I never saw anybody so happy as she is in all my life—except myself.

We entirely enjoy these glad days. We sit alone in the loveliest of libraries, in the evening, & she I read poetry—& every now & then I come to a passage that brings the tears to my eyes, & I look up to her for loving sympathy, & she inquires whether they sell sirloin steaks by the pound or by the yard. Ah, the child’s heart is in her househkeeping, not in the romance of life.4explanatory note

We are very regular in our habits. We get up at 6 o’clock every morning, & we go to bed at 10 every evening. We have three meals a day—breakfast at 10 oclock, lunch at 1 PM & dinner at 5. The reason we get us up Ⓐemendation at 6 in the morning is because we want to see what time it is. We then go back to be Partly this, & partly because we have heard that early rising is beneficial. We then go back to bed, & get up finally at half past 9.