Worcester - Sabbath [October] 22nd My dear dear Mart, I cannot tell thee how rejoiced I was to receive thy dear letter, which came last night - Thee had been in my mind so constantly that it seemed as though I could not bear the suspense much longer - A kind letter from Sadie last third day relieved me much but I feared so you would not find my letter waiting for you for her directions were so different from what thee gave me - How glad I am thee received it - Oh! Mart, I cannot bear to think thee is so far from me - hundreds of miles farther than before - If I could only get a letter in a day or two after thee writes it but it is [Underlined: so] long coming - A whole week seems a very long time to me - I cannot tell thee how glad I am that thee had so pleasant a passage - I was afraid thee would be terribly sea-sick, but am so glad thee got along so nicely - Oh dear - I know how thee felt when the steamer moved off from the dock and thee bade good bye to all thy friends - I do hope thee will find Miss Sharp pleasant and agreeable - I am anxious, more than all to know about her Do tell me every thing - If she is good company and lively, she will help keep thee from being lonely - I am glad she is ready to take hold of her work and bear all the rough with thee. I do hope thee will like her. Oh how much I should have enjoyed thy journey with thee. I never was out on the ocean and I have such a longing to see new and strange places - Only I should want to come back soon. Long before this I suppose thee [Crossed out: has been] is established in thy new home in Rockville surrounded by [Underlined: little darkeys] - Wonder if thee is in Sabbath School, trying to teach them there, today! Oh dear, I guess thee will find they are not quite so tractable and intelligent as white children after all - I suppose I can never make thee own but that they are though !!! Has thee got to do thy own work in the house and keep school, too? I wouldn't do it! Plenty of darkies to wait on thee!! They have always been used to it, and I'd make them now - Thee must not forget to tell me just how everything looks, how thee is situated, what thee has to do etc. etc. Saide wrote me a very kind letter telling me all about thee, before leaving New York - I was so grateful to thee and her, too - I replied to it last night but did not write a great deal - Oh Mart I must tell thee Dr. Everett is married! Brought home his wife from nobody knows where one night at 12 o'clock about two or three weeks ago - So [Underlined: our] chances are all gone now - Shan't we both cry over it? I'm sure I shall - not - I received a letter from Cousin Em. a few days ago. She was very well. Asked after thee and said she wished so much that thee would write her - Thee knew of my cousin Emma Wolcott's death - I believe I wrote thee in my last letter - It was a terrible shock she died so suddenly - I cannot realize it yet - Our folks went down to the funeral but I could not get there in time, so did not go - All our family are about as usual - Sister's health is very poor - Mamie goes to school - Brother is helping Father at the mill, but intends going away to school by spring if not before - We have a new sewing machine - Wilcox & Gibbs - Sister rather have it than Wheeler & Wilson's, so Mother got that one - I have not seen it yet, but am quite anxious to do so - I have not seen any of the folks since I was home sick, but am looking for Delia before long to visit me - I don't hardly believe I shall go home again before vacation, which comes thanksgiving week - Five weeks more of school - We have an examination at the close of this term - I dread it ever so much - Mrs. Hall's folks are all well and wish to be remembered to thee - they feel much interested in thee, and are as anxious - (almost not quite) to know how thee is situated, and how thee will like as I am - I read them thy letter last night - and they all enjoyed it very much - I like here as much as ever - they are always kind to me and I am as happy as I could be any where away from home - I suppose thee will hear from John by thy folks, about as often as I can write thee - He has bought him a house the corner of Hamilton and 34th [streets] a very pleasant place. I should think from his description - He has rented it to the family who owned it, for the present. I am quite anxious to see it for it probably will be [Underlined: my] home sometime in the future, though I cannot now tell when. There are eight or nine rooms in the house - I believe - gas & bathroom with hot and cold water - I think it will be [Underlined: just] such a house as I shall like - and I am so glad we will not have to board - But - thee remembers my servant girl, that I wanted so much - Annie Grace. She is married ! So I cannot have [Underlined: her] any way - but there are plenty others, I presume that I can get, and like as well as her - I suppose thy folks will write thee all about John buying his house for every body there knows it - Of course, there are all sorts of rumors about us being married - but that is all - They don't [Underlined: know] any thing, and now he has rented it, perhaps the story will all die out again - as it has so many times - I must close this now - but will write more before I send it - I have to go to [Sunday] School this afternoon too - Ever thy own Anna Worcester - 3rd day - [October] 24th, 1865, 5 o'clock P.M. My dear Mart My letter has not gone yet, and I will write a little more before sending it - I have been out of school quite a little while, and thought I would sit here at my old desk, just where thee and I were when thee was here - We have to keep a warm fire now, the days are so cold - but with that exception every thing is just as it was then - did we have an instrument? I have forgotten - We have one, now. My school is not very large - about 50 in attendance - I feel very little tired tonight - wish so much that I could have a good talk with thee - I do wonder what thee is doing just now! Remember if thee can, and tell me - Oh, I cannot realize yet that thee is so far away - the sun is shining in the window on my desk, a stream of golden light falling on my paper - I wonder if thee is where it can shine on thee - I suppose it is very warm in [South] Carolina - Here it has been as cold as winter, the past week or two - snow in New Hampshire, already - I have got on my winter clothes, and many wear their furs already - What did thee take for clothes? I really wish I knew - did thee travel in thy black and white dress? and did thee take more than one trunk - Thee did not write me anything about Ben going to New York with thee - did he go? - I do not know where the island thee is on, [Underlined: is], for certainty unless near Hilton Head - on the coast - How are the syllables divided? Wad-me-law? is it [Underlined: u] or [Underlined: w]? Is that right? I never heard of the island, and conclude it must be quite small - Tell me all about it when thee writes - Tell me just where thee is - How large a place Rockville is - where thee is teaching and how many scholars thee has - Every little thing will be [Underlined: so] interesting to me - Miss Hall is coming & we are going to make a call before going home, so I must close this for now, but will write again tonight so I can send the letter tomorrow morning - I wish thee could get it tomorrow night - Evening 7 [half] o'clock Miss & Mrs. Hall & I are sitting alone here in the sitting room - cold and cheerless without but a nice warm fire & a bright light make it very comfortable within - I received a short letter from John tonight, no news - he did not get time to write Sabbath, so wrote a few lines yesterday - Said thy folks had heard of thy safe arrival, and that Jennie Ricker is visiting Lyd. That was all - Oh, I do hope I shall get another letter from thee in a few days - I want so much to know all about thee - I am so thankful sister did not get an opportunity to go - Her health is very delicate - I feel very much worried about her - I wish there was something to help her - It seems as though there might be something to give her relief - I am looking for her to come out here sometime before my term closes - Oh, I thank thee ever so much for the leaf thee sent me - It is quite a curiosity - I think I shall have to form a laboratory of [Underlined: curiosities], as I have several trophies on hand already - What does thee do with thine? For a wonder, I have at last got [Underlined: John Halifax] to read - Have not got very much interested in it, yet - but suppose I must like it, as it is Miss Muloch's - I wonder if thee can get anything to read where thee is, though I presume thee has the [Underlined: papers] if nothing more - I do hope thee will find the climate south a benefit to thy health. I am quite anxious to know how it agrees with thee - There are so many things I want to know. If I could only see thee. I would make thee talk enough to fill half a dozen sheets of paper - Thee must come home in the spring at all events - I shall want to see thee so much - Perhaps I shall be in [Philadelphia] by that time, though I cannot tell - I must close now - this has been written in haste, but I hope thee will excuse it - Thee will be glad to get it no [Underlined: matter] how it is written - All send love - From thy own Anna E. Webster Box 86 Worcester [Massachusetts] [Envelope] Miss Martha Schofield Rockville, Wadmelaw Island South Carolina Care H. A. Evans, [Superintendent] [Number] 2. [answered]