30 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



as it is called, a church which was built before the Revolutionary 

 War, and there also an oration was delivered. Your uncle Penrose 

 and myself were invited to join the procession of the old people. 



In the afternoon we went in a steamboat down to a place called 

 Nahant. There is a narrow strip of land that extends a great way 

 out into the sea and at the end of it is a high rock and on this rock 

 there is a beautiful house built, and you can see from it a great way 

 out into the Ocean, as far as your eye can reach. The people of Boston 

 come down to this place in the summer months because it is very 

 cool and pleasant and they have an opportunity of bathing in the 

 sea water which is very agreeable and refreshing. When we came 

 back in the steamboat there were about twelve hundred people on 

 board of it and we had scarcely room to stand or sit. 



We expect to set out in the stage to-day at one o'clock for Albany. 

 Get your mother to show you the map of Massachusetts. If nothing 

 happens we are to sleep to-night at Worcester and to go through 

 Northampton, New Lebanon, and so on to Albany. It will take two 

 days and a half to reach Albany. I hope you take care to water my 

 flowers every other day when it does not rain and are very good and 

 obedient to your mother and kind to your sisters and try to love 

 God and that I shall hear a good account of you when I come home. 



Your affectionate father, 



SAMUEL BAIRD. 



Tell Sam I will write to him if I live to get to Saratoga. Kiss 

 your mother and sisters for me. 



Only one other letter from his father to the boy is 

 preserved. Both parents were together and Samuel 

 Baird was in poor health. It runs as follows: 



From Samuel Baird, Sr., to Spencer F. Baird. 



CARLISLE, July 3, 1833. 

 MY DEAR SON: 



I was very much gratified to receive your letter yesterday morn- 

 ing informing us that you were all well in Reading. Your mother 

 began to feel very uneasy, not hearing from home. She expected a 

 letter a day or two sooner than the one that came from you. 



