labor, I shall not recover fully from it for two or three months. Then, if I must take up a similar course next winter, and have this tie upon me for the summer, I think I should sink under it entirely.
“I grieve to disappoint you after all the trouble you have taken. I am also sorry myself, for if I could have received a maintenance from this ‘Dial,’ I could have done my duties to it well, which I never have all this time, and my time might have been given to my pen; while now, for more than three months, I have been able to write no line except letters. But it cannot be helped. It has been a sad business.
“I think perhaps Mr. Parker would like to carry it on even under these circumstances. For him, or for you, it would be much easier than for me, for you have quiet homes, and better health. Of course, if you do carry it on, I should like to do anything I can to aid you.
“There must be prompt answer, as the press will wait.
“Your affectionateMargaret.”[1]
The following month, after the appearance of a circular from Mr. Emerson announcing the continuance of the magazine, she writes as follows: —
“Dear Friend, — I received your letter before I left Boston, but in the hurry of the last hours could not write even a notelette with the parcel I requested J. Clarke to make up for you of Borrow, Longfellow, some more shreds of ‘Dial,’ including the wearifu’ Napoleon, and the Prayer Book, if Dorothea Dix could be induced to grant the same. What awkward thing could I have
- ↑ MS.
