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; 
