"So make yourself easy. I will never leave anything to your imagination about these dear little fellows; so, 'go 'long' and get yourself well as soon as you please."
T. S. D. TO MRS. H. CAMPBELL SMITH.
"My much beloved Niece,—You can't know how much pleasure your eminently characteristic letter of the 20th ultimo gave me—gave all of us. It is so like you to remember a promise that I did not make, but which you chose to believe I did make because you wished to have it so. I was too fearful of being unable to visit you this summer to promise such a thing, and yet could not give expression to that doubt; and hence you were left to draw your own inference, and you only know one way of solving such problems as these. I now know that it is impossible for me to enjoy the hospitality of Cam and yourself this summer, as we are expecting my brother's family,—the whole tribe, consisting of himself and wife, Nanny, Mary Ware and her son Toby, and perhaps Martha, to spend the month of August with us. They are all together on Honey Island (except Martha), but they know that they can't stay there through the summer, and so they propose to divide about three months between Aggy, Colonel Porter, and myself. So you see, my dear, that I am nailed hard and fast right here for this summer, at least. But I don't relinquish the hope of seeing the inside of your new home some time or other, and will do it as soon as I can, for I wish to see you all very much. As you say nothing about gnats in your letter to me, I hope those vile pests left you quickly after your letter was written to Mrs. Douglas. They are a great deal worse than mosquitoes, I think, as they light on you in clouds—in your eyes, nose, and ears,—are not to be frightened off, bite like ——, and pass right through ordinary mosquito-bars. I fear your region is subject to them at certain seasons of the year.
"I don't know whether to congratulate Cam on his
