Walton, New York February 13, 1877
Friend Emma,
Yours of February first is at hand. Contents noted and now while all the pleasant sunshine of summer prevails without, I’ll spend a few moments indoors penning a good many lines to you.
I know how uninter-esting and dry my letters always are to you. I am also well aware how incom-petent I am to make them anything else.
Friday night your letter came. I’ll proceed with my dry epistle.
I have just returned from church and can’t help exclaiming as I raise my pen and glance around, what pleasant weather it is. More than spring.
How I could enjoy the day with thee. (I’ll make it more than a few minutes) as an old acquaintance or friend whichever thou wilt. It makes no difference to me. But thou dost know and see the impropriety. I do not.
Accordingly my introduction to this letter must be wrong, but I will not change it now. Pardon me for such mistakes and the next time I write (if ever I get a chance) I’ll change the form and make it “my old acquaintance” instead.
As to my visit to Eldred I can’t tell when it will be. I have been thinking about going to New York this spring but nothing certain yet. Should I conclude to
go, don’t be surprised if you should see me where you never did before—
at 90-1/2 Perry St.
Now the apology or why I did not write at first.
One word is enough—you may call it negligence. You have never offended me to my knowledge, so free your mind, and not simply for the news of Eldred alone did I write, but it always seems a pleasure, not a pleasure to write alone, but read as well. Yes “woman is sometimes very earnest.”
“Sometimes” is well put in. Seldom might be better and modified by very, very, better still. We make the picture from above scenes in every day life.
As your favor is granted you need not confine yourself to your premise. Write some as convenient. I shall always be glad to hear from you. I will try and be on time better hereafter.
Yours truly and love to Aida,
Chester Beers
Previous Posts
1. Is that the New Teacher?
2. The Math Tutor
3. Chester Beers to Friend Emma, Correspondence Continues
4. What is the News? October 29, 1869
5. The Merry Laugh of the Village School
6. Teaching Advice in a Poem
7. I Would Not Wait for Erie’s Train
8. 1870 Highland
9. Mrs. Prindle’s Soliloquy
10. February 28, 1870, What Is the News?
11. Who Teaches in the Village, April 1870
12. Fair Hagan’s Pool, June 1870
13. Shades of Night, 1870
14. Deposit, New York, 1871
15. Dear Father, January 1872
16. Emma Attends Albany Normal, March 1872
17. Lumberland Schoolhouse, 1872
18. Verdant Meadows, June 1, 1873
19. I Have Been Very Busy, August 30, 1873
20. 1874–1875
21. 1876, A Challenging Year
22. Impossible To Be Your Friend, 1876
23. The Old Schoolhouse, May 1876
24. Centennial 1876
26. Save Your Patience, June 1876
27. More 1876 Centennial Images
