CAMBRIDGE 65 



to see a cloud of children and great-grandchildren loom up 

 before her as the support of her old age. In the following let- 

 ter we see her exercising the functions and privileges of a 

 grandmother, in which she became a past mistress as the 

 years went by. Her grandchild, Louis, to whom she refers 

 not only here but in many subsequent letters, was an un- 

 usually intelHgent and interesting boy, the eldest son of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Shaw, who fulfilled the bright promises of his 

 younger years in his manhood, cut short all too soon by his 

 early death. A few months before this letter was written 

 the happy family circle in Quincy Street had been broken 

 by the death of President Felton, to which Mrs. Agassiz 

 refers. 



TO MISS SARAH G. GARY 



Schoolroom, April 29, [1862] 

 I STILL live and love you, though you may doubt the 

 fact from my silence; but the days are so full, that 

 night comes and finds half the things undone we 

 mean to do in the morning. The children have occu- 

 pied me a great deal lately, for they have found a very 

 fascinating occupation that absolutely requires an 

 older hand than theirs. There are pictures to be cut 

 out and pasted on pasteboard, farms, mills, castles, 

 country houses, paper architecture of all sorts and 

 kinds, and it has furnished an endless entertainment 

 for rainy and cloudy days. But they cannot get on 

 without me as I have made a study of it and learned 

 to put them up quite nicely, and it costs me a great 

 deal of calculation to arrange my day so that I can 

 save an hour or two for them and see the baby also. 



