106 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 



December 25 



WHILE Christmas is fresh in my mind I must write 

 you about it. I dreaded [it] this year, because when 

 you were all away it seemed to me I could not make it 

 pleasant. But I believe because we all feared it might 

 be dull, we "made an effort," like, or rather unlike, 

 poor Mrs. Dombey, and we really were very cheerful. 

 I must say, though I say it that should n't, the tree 

 and the room did look lovely. Ida and Henry who had 

 never seen it upstairs with all the green boughs and 

 garlands and crosses were delighted. Then the chil- 

 dren were so enchanted with their presents and so de- 

 lighted with the tree that it made everybody else gay. 



TO MISS SARAH G. AND MISS EMMA F. CARY 



Cambridge, January 8, 1868 



I HAVE been waiting for a quiet minute to write to 

 you, for you are both so delightfully associated with 

 the Brazil book that now it is finished and the great 

 burden and responsibility is off my mind, I long to 

 talk to you about it and to share with you some of the 

 pleasant results. As to its ultimate success, sale and 

 that sort of thing, I know nothing. It only makes its 

 appearance in the shops today, though it has been 

 bound for a fortnight past. I only wanted you to know, 

 while they are fresh in my mind, the judgment of the 

 few friends who have seen it in its finished form. 

 Knowing all my anxieties about it in matters of taste, 

 style, etc., and knowing too how my highest aim was 

 to show Agassiz the comprehensiveness of his aims 



