Susan remains in Lynn, at the Chestnut Street home Nathaniel Hills and his family where she is boarding.
Lynn November 9, 1866 Friday P.M.
My dear Edwin,
While others in the family are playing a game of croquet in the sitting room I have stolen away upstairs & will commence my promised letter to you. This is another of those lovely afternoons we have had this month, & I have wished you were here where we might enjoy the beauty together. Brightly tinged clouds are adding much to the pretty sunset, & they do remind me of other days which are remembered with pleasure.
Mr. Hills was kind enough to go to the office on his way from school & obtained for me a letter from you. I need not tell with what reception it met. I was unusually tired & found a letter the more acceptable for that reason. The pansy was fresh and fragrant and more beautiful than art could make one. I wanted to sit down at once and paint one, but I have not the time, just now. I do love to make pictures and I hope sometime I may find a leisure hour which I may spend in that way.
I should enjoy seeing the painting which you visited; I have heard it called very fine & shall hope you will describe it to me when I see you.
This evening Miss Brown and I are to spend with Miss Breed, & the Shakespeare Club which meets at her house. If you were here I think she would extend an invitation to you. She thinks I ought to be delighted that I have not got to go into school this winter & she is afraid I won't have much sympathy for them, who have to stay. I told her I could have all the more.
She is very tired this term & I think she might think favorably of the proposition which has been made to you, & which you were to consider very seriously. Have you done so? & what is your decision? I, of course, am interested to know.
Home from the Shakespeare Club & find it 11 o'clock; but tomorrow will be Saturday & I shall not need be very brilliant, so I may finish my letter & correct some compositions before 12. I have spent a very pleasant evening. The company numbered about 20 & read "As you like it." I went back to times when I was a member of such a club & read those same plays.
The weather today has been very much as it was a week ago, & did we not have a pleasant ride in the evening of that day? And, we were guilty of keeping late hours then, if I remember rightly. It seems a long while since then, yet I know time is going very quickly; & soon the last week of my school life will be finished. I shall miss it very much, but may I not look to you for company?
I am sorry you are disappointed in your painters; I hope you will find one who will do the work as you wish it, and when you wish it.
Do you know I am to go home tomorrow? What there is in this wide world like it, even if we are ever so pleasantly situated away? May "ours" be one of those happy ones which shall be dearer than any other spot.
I think you saw Miss Lewis when we called at Gravesend school house, she tells me you look so much like your brother James (whom she has several times seen) that she could not tell you from him. When, dear Edwin, am I to hear from you again? You know when I shall go to the office & it is for you to say if I shall go in vain. But I must not sit up writing any longer or I shall bring back that disagreeable headache. With much love & kind wishes & a good night,
I am as always,
Yours, Susie
Susan's letter is received the next day, Saturday. Edwin responds the next day.
Acton "Our cottage home" Sunday Evening Nov. 11th, 1866.
My dear Susie,
I will reward you for furnishing me with the usual Saturday evening letter by sending an answer by the first mail on Monday morning so if you go in to the office on your way from school it will not be in vain nor will the fault will not be mine.
Have you attended church today? I hardly think you ventured to go to the plains as the weather has been so doubtful. I have attended all the services of the day and will now spend the closing hours in the same pleasant way that I have done many times before but dear Susie I am looking forward with pleasure to the time when we can spend them more pleasantly. I took dinner at home all alone today and had a cup of tea of my own manufacture but was not what could be called a "social cup of tea," though I enjoyed it as well as I could under the circumstances.
Sat. evening we had a sing in Music Hall and a very pleasant time. Next Tuesday our singing commences at South Acton. John, Quincy and I expect to go.
I have got my work on the house all done with the exception of a little mason work and the painting. I went up to West and South Acton last night to engage workmen to finish that for me but did not succeed as I hoped, not finding the painter at home.
I have moved a part of my plants into the window to see how it will seem. I think we shall like the arrangement. I have also made the proposed change in the doors and think it a decided improvement.
The brackets I like as they are both useful and ornamental but the happiest and pleasantest addition of all is in the future and it seems to me that we cannot help being happy with the blessing of our heavenly Father upon us in our quiet home.
I shall think of you tomorrow morning probably in the rain as starting for the last time to commence the duties of the week in school and have no doubt you will have some sad thoughts but I hope pleasant ones will outnumber them.
Edwin returns to the tongue-in-cheek proposition that he take another teacher as his wife and leave Susan to continue position at the High School.
I had given up all thoughts of the proposition made to me as you seemed so little inclined to fulfill your part of the condition when you had so good an opportunity and I do not know who else would be willing to assist me. You say Miss Breed thinks you ought to be delighted that you have not got to go into school this winter and dear Susie I can say that I certainly am whether you are or not.
It seems a long time since I bid you good bye at the school house in Lynn and perhaps for the last time in that place as I hardly think I will call on you till school duties are over when I shall not be under the necessity of correcting compositions and assisting in translating the difficult passages in Latin.
My brother will probably be away the last of the week and though you know I would very much like to meet you perhaps it will be for the best that you should give your whole attention to the school as it is so near its close. Please bid all those boys good bye for me and tell them they will not probably get another chance at me and they ought to have improved the last.
Are you on the lookout for the display of meteors? I should enjoy watching for them with you. I hope we shall have a clear sky and that I shall wake to see the sight. I furnished the last bouquet of the season today which was not quite equal to some of its predecessors. It is a very dark night with every prospect of a storm.
When shall I look for another letter from you, dearest earthly friend?
I live near the office and shall keep a sharp lookout for one and you know that it is a pleasure to receive letters as well as write them. I think you will say I have written enough for this time and I will close with much love and hoping to hear from you soon I remain very affectionately,
Your Edwin.
Susan is back in Lynn to begin her final week as a school teacher. The term ends with examinations of the scholars before the school board on Saturday, November 17th.
Lynn, Nov. 12th, 1866 Monday eve.
Dearest Edwin,
Only a few words and then I must say good night. You were kind to reward my search for a letter on my way home from school & when so little time elapses between the mailing of your letter & my receiving it, it seems to bring you a little nearer. I started from home in the rain this morning, but felt I had no reason to complain when I had had so many pleasant ones & knowing I had not many more before me. The rain soon ceased to fall & we have had a pleasant afternoon; so much so that Mr. Hills & I took a walk to Gravesend.
We visited my old school, & Miss Hilliker's called at my former boarding-house & some other places. Words, dear Edwin, cannot express the feelings which came over me as many spoke to me of my leaving school & scholars, with Lynn & all its associations; & bad e me good-bye. I never did like partings from friends, do you?
Tuesday P.M.
Quarter of five, time says, & once more I sit by my window at Mrs. Hills, with a beautiful sunset picture before me, do you see that same sun? But I cannot see you. Sometime we will look at these sunsets together, shall we not? Only four more days in school. You will not think strange, will you if some sad thoughts will come over me & if I find it a little hard to break away from my pleasant school life?
Feelings of regret will mingle also that more has not been done for Him who has done so much for me. It seems as if I was leaving a life with which I have grown familiar for that which is all new, strange & untried. Such a change I might have made in days that have gone; but preferred, for reasons satisfactory to myself, my school-life.
But you know, dear Edwin, that trusting you, with you I may enter that untried future, & with the grace which is given us from above will try to be to you (what I trust you will be to me) your faithful & best friend. I think the changes you have made will be improvements & I hope the "last addition" to your home will not be one in which you will take less pleasure. How quickly the weeks will fly after I leave school & will seem very short for the much I have to accomplish in that time.
I attended church three times on the Sabbath; I went to the plains in the afternoon with cousin Lissie, who is visiting at our house, & we took tea with your brother James & went to the evening service. Your friends were well as usual & I had a pleasant time as I always do when I go there.
Charles is quite sick with cold & so bad a throat that for a number of days he has been unable to speak above a whisper, I hope to hear from him tomorrow, either by letter, or by going myself which I never object doing.
I received a letter from cousin Lucretia today in which she expresses her interest in our happiness. I wish we could watch for the meteors together. I was hoping I might see you this week; but perhaps it is best for the reasons you gave, for me to wait a little longer.
No one has been elected to my place yet that I know of. The teachers do not unite on any one that suits. The scholars don't see "what Miss Smith wants to go off for?" We do. I hope once I may call for a letter on my way from school. Shall it be on Thursday or Friday? Will not the Post Master of Lynn miss our mail?
The flowers were sweet & pretty. Will you think of me Saturday during the examination & saying the "good-byes"? I must say good night for I am writing in a cold room & you will not care for me to add to the little cold I have. Hoping to hear from you soon & to see you before many days with much love & a good night. I am yours,
Susie
Edwin's letter crosses in the mail.
Acton Monday Eve Nov. 14th 1866
Dear Susie,
I suppose I am about commencing the last letter I shall direct to Lynn in the "care of Mr. Hills" and I will promise before I go farther that I will not inflict a very lengthy one upon you at this time as it is rather late to commence and I am obliged to take an early start in the morning as I am expecting a wash woman at 6 o'clock to commence house cleaning. I almost knew I should get a letter tonight and I think you would not regret writing if you knew the satisfaction it gives me to receive your letters.
I was very sorry to learn of the sickness of your brother Charles and hope to hear in your next (expect Sat,) that he has entirely recovered and that you are also rid of your "little cold."
I always thought the meeting of friends was much pleasanter than the parting and think I can judge somewhat of your feelings in bidding your friends and former associates good bye for new friends and scenes of a more quiet and retired situation and, dearest Susie, I shall very much regret it if you do not enjoy it as much as your school days and as our happiness will depend in a great measure in seeing each other happy I trust we shall do what we can to make our home a happy and pleasant one and that you will find that you have not misplaced your confidence.
I can but feel that providence has directed me in the choice I have made and I know that you did not decide the important question without looking to Him for direction and I feel that we can also look to Him for a continuance of his blessing upon us in prosperity or whatever may be our lot.
I was more successful Sat. eve in my search for a painter than I supposed I was when I wrote last as two came down Monday morning and I have had the outside of the house and blinds painted and perhaps you will say that I have reversed the directions of the Bible to "clean first the inside" etc. but tomorrow I expect to make a beginning in that direction etc.
Martha comes up to oversee the wash woman and see that she does not take more than belongs to her. I shall not care "how quickly the weeks will fly" before your and my home will be the same.
I think the Post Master at Lynn will be relieved of quite a duty and I hope the P.M. at Danversport will not consider it a burden if mail is thrown upon his shoulders.
I attended the singing school last evening and like the appearance of the teacher very well.
John, Martha and Abbie went to Boston yesterday. I have not watched for the meteors but have tried to wake up in season for them. Monday I was in time but they did not come off and those that know better than I say that last night there was not much of a shower. When it comes off I hope I shall be there to see.
You may rest assured dear Susie that you will not be forgotten on Saturday and I think I can sympathize with the scholars as parting with a good teacher at the close of school was always a trying time with me. The feelings of the teacher I am not so familiar with but I know that every good teacher becomes attached to her scholars.
I have attended the usual Wednesday evening meeting and called at my brother's this evening and now I have broken my promise and must ask your forgiveness. Will you grant it? I do not mean to make a long delay after school's over before making you a visit and if I do not write will endeavor to meet you on Monday P.M. 11.45 cloudy and no meteors in sight. Good night. I shall expect a letter Sat. eve.
Very aff. and truly yours,
Edwin
Susan picks up her pen after her final day of teaching school. All that remains of her duties is the examination of students the next day. It is a very trying time for her.
Lynn, Nov. 16, 1866. Friday eve. My dear Edwin,
I have just come up to my room & find it to be almost 11 o'clock & did I not know that you would be disappointed tomorrow I should not attempt to write tonight; for I am quite tired & examination comes tomorrow & I ought to be resting. So I will fulfil the promise of not saying much; & my thoughts have been such today that tonight I do not feel like saying anything. I know you will excuse me this once will you not?
I have had 112 tintypes taken this afternoon & hope for rest in that direction after this. Did we not have a rainy morning & how pleasant this afternoon. I went for your letter yesterday noon & found none, but it was waiting for me on my return from school today. I need not tell you how much I enjoyed it. I went home on Wednesday & found Charles much better, so much so that he had been out.
Yesterday afternoon I took tea with Miss Breed & enjoyed it very much. It seems a long time since I saw you & I hope I may have that pleasure on Monday & then I will tell you more than I can write tonight. I have been very busy this week; there were so many calls to make & things to be attended to & tomorrow the end comes: & I shall go home not to return when the school assembles for a new term.
I know, dear Edwin, I have not written anything you will wish to read, but I feel that I must bid you good night. Please take much love & these tintypes for a letter. Hoping to see you soon & with time to enjoy your visit, bidding you good night, I am aff. yours.
Susie
So ends Susan Smith's teaching career.