My Dear Aida,
Not seeing you last summer when I made my visit to Eldred and being somewhat disappointed I shall have to commence a correspondence with your permission which was received by mail not many days since in one of Emmogene’s (Emma’s) letters.
So if you conclude to write to me once or twice a week I will not consider it too often and upon special occasions one everyday would not be objectionable. 
I think that Emma told me that you have written me a number of letters but unfortunately I never have as yet received one. So I hope you will not blame me for not answering those letters which I never have seen.
My visit last summer at Eldred was a very pleasant one and I was sorry that you could not have been there to have joined us in the nice little time that we had.
Maria got somewhat offended with me because I happened to see her hair
All braided and twisted and fixed in a curl
When I knew all the time was the make of a girl
But when she gets married I shall have my old fun
I shall gaze at her hair as before I have done
But I see it all now by the eye of my mind
Not a crimp nor a curl can I anywhere find
I have vie’d it all o’er as then it will be
When the baking of cakes is a pleasure says she.
I expect to teach the coming winter, have a school engaged and the term commences the 19th of next month and should I not before that time surprise you on Christopher St. you need not feel very much alarmed before the first of March 1878. I wonder if the girls told you how badly they were beaten at Croquet.
Write soon as convenient and don’t let Emma see this for it is purely confidential.
Yours truly, 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
28. Old Acquaintance, February 1877
29. New York Visit? 1877
30. Fall 1877
