CHAPTER XXII 



SOME FAMILIAR LETTERS 



1882-1888 



THE ensuing summer was spent at Campobello. Mr. Shaler had 

 previously worked up the natural features of the island and 

 made a report upon it; he knew it well, therefore, and he was 

 charmed with its beauty. He thought to make a summer home 

 there, but after trying it for two seasons, the distance from 

 Cambridge was found to be against the project, for what he 

 had in mind was a refuge that he could easily reach and thus 

 escape, when it became too burdensome, the pressure of life in 

 Cambridge; indeed, he was in search of a place which at the 

 beginning would serve for a second home, but eventually might 

 be raised to the rank of the first in his affections and order of 

 living. This search was to be rewarded later. 



The following letters from Mr. Shaler and others reveal to a 

 certain extent, aside from his regular Cambridge work, the 

 happenings of these years. 



Mr. Shaler writes : 



NEWPORT, KT., June 2, 1882. 



. . . I have been out into the country with my mother to visit some of her 

 nephews whom she had not seen for a long time. The visit seemed to cheer 

 her up a bit. They are all well-conditioned bucolic folk with comfortable 

 homes and well-bred families. A pleasant spectacle to one who does not see 

 much of his kin. 



I have filled in my time with a novel of Trollope and Hamerton's " In- 

 tellectual Life." You will like the latter; it is a pleasant essay on the condi- 

 tions of culture. 



OLYMPIA, KENTUCKY, Dec. 28, 1883. 



I find there is a chance of decent weather, so I shall have to try my jour- 

 ney into the woods [he went to investigate some iron properties] much against 

 my will. ... I have never had an absence from home that vexed me so 



