104 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, vn 



printers saying the compositor is in want of MS., which he 

 cannot have and I am tired and overdone. I am an 

 ungracious old dog to howl, for I have been sitting in the 

 summer-house, whilst watching the thunderstorms, and 

 thinking what a fortunate man I am, so well off in worldly 

 circumstances, with such dear little children, and such a 

 Trotty, 1 and far more than all with such a wife. Often 

 have I thought over Elizabeth's words, when I married 

 you, that she had never heard a word pass your lips which 

 she had rather not have been uttered, and sure I am that 

 I can now say so and shall say so on my death-bed, bless 

 you, my dear wife. 



Your very long letter of Monday has delighted me, with 

 all the particulars about the children. How happy they 

 seem: I will forward it to Caroline, though twice it has " my 

 dearest N." 



Trotty is quite charming, though I am vexed how little 

 I can stand her: somehow I have been extra bothered and 

 busy : and this morning I sent ofi five letters. . . . 



" My dearest N," means " My dearest Nigger." He 

 called himself her " nigger ' meaning her slave, and the 

 expression " You nigger," as a term of endearment, is 

 familiar to our ears from her lips. 



Emma Darwin to her aunt Madame Sismondi. 



DOWN, Sunday [probably September, 1846]. 



. . . Charlotte writes to me for a receipt for a punishment 

 for Edmund. If she will send me ditto for Etty I will 

 engage to furnish her, but I am quite as much non-plussed 

 as she can be. Since she has been unwell the whims in her 

 little head are wonderful. Now she never will have her 

 night shift on, and it has to be put on after she is asleep. I 

 must come to a downright quarrel I am afraid, but I am 

 always in hopes these fancies will blow over. 



1 Etty, called Trotty Veck. 



