Digital Exhibits

Oberlin Feb. 19, 1881

Dear Peoples

The letter that the bad weather has been detaing all came in a lump, three of them as to envelope four as to content thereof. And they were all long ones. I am proportionality gratified. I was a little surprised and considerably grieved to hear that the U.S. scheme had fallen though Such is life. The best laid fears of mice and men may be split by the [?] affection of some body. I suppose that Mrs [?] brother wished to have a hand in or both hands in the [?] and thought there would not be room for him if you were there. It was probably best for J and S to light out under the circumstances. Such an enterprise depends for its [?] upon the friendliness and good will of the individuals concerned. Yet it seems too bad. It is very much too bad. And for Father to be played out too! I look to see some of my [?] [?] past bitter, next. To scrape along in a small puttering way is under really the common tale, and is a fact, the natural way for small people to go in. Yet as I [?] add, life is itself such a majestic thing, think the little differences of rich and poor, small and great, [?] and unknown, viewed in the light of eternity will seem in [?] [?] I now [?] [?] of Mr [?] would not add much to the view he could command by fishing up a few stoves and getting upon it them, to see. Even so the [?] and all that sort of thing; all that is but in us can be used and enjoyed and [?] it says as well in a [?] as in a high place. And further a dew drop is decidedly nice in the [?], but try to institute it for the sun, it would become night unto being ridiculous I think me full into just abroad the place that fits us, [?] as we will. To prepare a few of the dying for death, out a few of the living for life, is evening to be my ambition. The raindrop [?] to to [?] a rainbow, as it falls; then it spatters on the ground, and is spill - not [?] perhaps; it may be rained in power.

We had a nice storm yesterday. It moved furiously in the early morning then hailed and rained, then began to [?] as night came on. But the clouds were [?] away during the night and this morning it is brilliant, sparkling until [?]. [?] and a few other birds are beginning to come around. They have been here all winter, but have not shown [?] much until now.

I was very much [?] Sarah, by your detailed [?] of what you do each day. It brought the picture of things at home vividly before me. I will try to get some seeds of the water lily, when I am in New England. It would be well to have a tub full of them. Since it is likely that its old place will still be ours, we ought to [?] it some. I was only the after day imagining myself learning [?] on the outside of the fence, looking at the [?] trees and walnut trees, the viol the [?], and the vine; while strangers gazed coldly from the curtained windows and wondered who that old [?] out there was. It is a fully good place and I love it.

I love my home, I love my home. As long as you are in it [?]. Suppose, Mary, that I, in my own name, and with my own land as security, should [?] a few dollars, say $150, would that help you enough so that you could come here next year? You see that you could easily make up for it afterwards, by teaching music. Good music teachers always can get a job. Now just on Clatstrop, and Louis and Clark, but summer, a teach might have had [?] or more scholars. Of course that was [?] a little country place, and you would not wish to teach these [?] you had a few months in the summer for recreation. But with your voice, and your [?] taste, and your general broad culture, you might become a remarkable musician. Of course you would not wish to study music simply for the sake of teaching if for a living but mainly for the culture and development that it would give you, so that you would amount to more. Music is the most delightful way of giving and receiving mental [?]. There is a delicacy and a [?] about thought when carried to the soul by the medium of music, that is utterly wanting in words. Music also is superior to pictures. The uneducated usually simply stare at good picture, but music they can understand. It would be a shame and a disgrace for you to let your musical talent be buried in the ground. What do you really feel like doing about it? How does it strike you? What is your [?] [?]? Providing that you had the [?] twenties all [?] around in your pocket crying out out to be used, what would you think about it? Is your opposition all due to your belief that it will take too much effort for much pinching and pulling and scraping to make it pay to try; or does the matter seem [?] undesirable? Of course I do not wish to urge you beyond your feeling, but I do think that you will never again have so good an opportunity to fit yourself for a [?] cover.

So for us M [?] is concerned we can let him stand in the background for awhile. Then you can give me your mule for what I lend you, and I can collect it off of him afterwards. I do not wish to burden W. We need [?] [?], this [?] [?] the most long suffering the most [?], ought not to and shall not, and need not, be burdened. I will just get some one of the Lymans to lend me $150. I should think that Uncle James perhaps would do it. Or it is [?] that some other, some Denison might [?] a little as a [?] I would give security on my land. That piece of land out to be worth $3 an acre now. If security on fifty acres would satisfy them it would be all right. My aspect in getting it of a relative would be [?] that be would be perhaps less hard on me, and if I should [?] it, it would not go out of the family, so to speak. I have a notion to do it anyhow. But perhaps I had better see what you say about it first. I would give you a general prestige and opportunity to have studied at a first [?] institution. If you should try to take lessons at home you would have so much [?] to do that you would lose half the benefit. Here you would take it up in a [?] spirit, have all the [?] that would come from good teachers, and other enthusiastic students. I could not properly put my land to any better use, even if I should [?] 50 acres, a [?] whole of it. Yet I do not wish to do that. It will be worth 20 or 30 dollars an acre in a few years. It will rise in value faster than the interest of $150. If I could get monty at 6%, the interest for [?] would be only $9 a year. Then, of course, with what I know of language, and my other accomplishments, and only myself to take care of, I could pay it up in a short time, by teaching or preaching. It seems to me to have so few risks, and so many advantages, that it would be wicked for you to lose the opportunities [?] a year here would afford by my not doing it. What do think? I feel imperative, I feel like saying, than should. Of course if you do not do it now, while I am here, and can assist you, you never will. And think of that: you on the threshold of life, discovering yourself from a life de[?] to divine art! Of course you can do more good by being more cultivated, more experienced, knowing more of the world. Only a [?] would question it. I am [?], I am not [?], I know that it is the best course. This is not a thing of an impracticalle collage head; not at all. I know that you would dislike to have me go in debt, and if I had no lacking I should dislike it myself. It is merely a way of making my bond a