Livy darling, I tarried a few hours at Jackson, last night, in the hotel, & slept in a room newleyⒶemendation furnished in mahogany, the prettisest furniture you almost ever saw—bedstead, dressing bureau, chairs & sofas. And on the floor were moquetrie carpets & rugs which were close imitations of the rag carpets of a former generation, but soft as velvet, of course.

We got up at 5 & took the train. All the way, in the cars, was a mother with her first child—the proudest & silliest fool I have struck this year. She beat the new brides that one sees on the trains.

Yesterday it snowed lightly all day & all night, the very first snow-fall we have yet seen. The woods this morning were fairy-land to look upon, so spectral in their white robes les, & so gracious & beautiful. Naturally I was full of thoughts of you, all the time; & yet perhaps not more so than usual—still one connects you peculiarly with the phases & spectacles of winter. I love you, sweetheart, & the children.