66 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 



You will find Louis wonderfully changed; he is full 

 of fun and frolic, but I am very sorry to say very 

 much afraid of strangers, so that unless he takes you 

 for his grandmother (not impossible, my dear) you 

 may find him a little shy. 



I was delighted to get your letter about the Atlantic 

 Monthly; every now and then I am seized with doubts 

 and fears about the articles by Agassiz [Methods of 

 Study in Natural History], and I like to be propped 

 up with a friendly word about them. Agassiz says 

 at his club Whipple, Lowell and Holmes praised him 

 highly. 



About this last May article I was especially anx- 

 ious. You know the coral reefs are very attractive 

 to me, and perhaps I have not understood any of his 

 investigations better than those upon the Florida 

 reefs; but I am conscious that what is beautiful and 

 picturesque in his studies interests me more than 

 what is purely scientific, and sometimes I am afraid 

 that in my appreciation of that side of the subject I 

 shall weaken his thought and give it a rather feminine 

 character. It grows every month more fascinating to 

 me to write them, and I hope we shall make another 

 arrangement with Ticknor and Fields next year. 



The school draws to a close, and a sense of freedom 

 begins to come in upon us already. . . . You will not 

 fully feel how blank a place Felton has left till you 

 come home. Oh, Sallie, when I remember his constant 

 little visits, half an hour for a chat, and feel that he 

 will never come in again, cheerful, genial, affection- 

 ate; he never came that I was not thankful to see him; 



