Page:Poems Davidson.djvu/319

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BIOGRAPHY OF LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON.
261

lected for the next six months. There are few more of her productions of any sort, and they seem to us to have the sweetness of the last roses of summer. The following playful passages are from her last letter at home to her sister in Canada:—

"The boat will be here in an hour or two, and I am all ready to start. O, I am half sick. I have taken several doses of something quite delectable for a visiting treat. Now, she concludes her letter, "by your affection for me, by your pity for the wanderer, by your remembrance of the absent, by your love for each other, and by all that is sacred to an absent friend, I charge you, write to me, and write often. As ye hope to prosper, as ye hope your boy to prosper (and grow fat!), as ye hope for my gratitude and affection now and hereafter, I charge you write. If ye sinfully neglect this last solemn injunction of a parting friend, my injured spirit will visit you in your transgressions. It shall pierce you with goose-quills, and hurl down upon your recreant heads the brimming contents of the neglected inkstand. This is my threat, and this is my vengeance. But if, on the contrary, ye shall see fit to honor me with numerous epistles, which shall be duly answered, know ye, that I will live and love you, and not only you, but your boy! So, you see, upon your own bearing depends the future fate of the little innocent, 'to be beloved, or not to be beloved!' They have come! Farewell, a long farewell!"

She proceeded to Albany, and in a letter dated May 12th, 1825, she seems delighted with her 'reception, accommodations, and prospects at Miss Gilbert's school.