[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]Monday Eveng June 16. 1845.
My dear daughter,
For a wonder I have nothing special on hand this eveng, unless it be to give David a whipping for playing truant - and altho there is a goodly supply of calorie [?] in the atmosphere & your Grandmother makes free use of her face [...] for my back I am quite comfortable - you will like to know what we have been about for the last week or so - last wednesday [sic] we started on a strawberry spree - vis: Mr & Mrs S. Hubbard - Mr & Mrs W J Hubbard - Mr & Mrs Hosmer - Mr & Mrs Eustis. Mr & Mrs Scudder - Dea Rogers - Miss Babson & Mr H M Holbrook went to Millbury & passed the night - about the time you get up the next morning - with horses & buggies we were on the way to Douglas - where we breakfasted - then visited the axe works & saw 86 Vulcans forging & grinding & polishing axes. -
after attending to our business we returned to Millbury to drive & by the eveng train to Boston. the weather was very fine - no dust - and altogether we enjoyed ourselves much - Mr Eustis laid in a good supply of strawberries & fresh salmon - of which we all had enough and that is saying a good deal - Ellen is now on a visit to Dorchester - On Friday last your Grandmother came from Hartford & will make us a visit before she goes to your uncle Hubbards - your Uncle Gurdes came with her, but returned to New York the next day - your Grandmother news in excellent health & is as lively as a cricket - Mr Adams exchanged with Dea Haws of Hartford yesterday - the Dea staid with us he gave us two excellent sermons - the morning [?] discourse was on the causes of religious diclention [?] - and nothing could have been more appropriate to our present condition - I felt as if every sentance [sic] was suited to me & I wish I might profit by it and be more faithful and devoted to my masters work -
Marshall & Rebecca Lane have gone to Rye beach man [?] Portsmouth for her benifits [sic] - she had been three weeks without scarcely leaving her bed - I hope it may prove salutary for her - she has been quite a sufferer for a long time -
Charles & family are well - he is much engaged in getting a minister - they have given a call to young Storrs - son of Dea Storrs of Braintree & the prospect is fair that he will accept it. Mary Steel is rather better & has gone to Brookline to pass a week at Charles[.] If you write to her, you had better not allude to her illness despondingly as you might do from the terrors of my last letter - you & Miss Brown must look out in season for our weeks board for your Mother and I & fierce boys & Hivie -
Ellen was invited to ride on horse back by a young beaux to accompa[n]y his sisters - but her want of knowledge of the art compelled her to decline - Professor Woodbury gives us excellent music - so that we do not feel old Colburns loss at all - but rather feel that we have made a capital change.
Uncle David Sears has made his annual visit, he dined with us - your Grandmother Sears will visit us in two or three weeks - Mr Prichard also - so that we shall be having company most of the summer -
I went to a Gentleman party the other eveng at Dea Lamberts to meet Rev[?] W Reed, who is called to Bowdoin St. - he appears to be a very pleasant man, Bowdoin St folks are quite taken with him -
Your mother & Grandmother desire much love
& so your father would say such line to my dear Jenny
CSYou have no doubt noticed in the papers the death of Mr Howes [?] - truly a gentleman has fallen in Ware [?] - The Hardware merchants are going to erect a monument to his memory in Mount Auburn - he was a christian merchant & that is saying much.