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over to Jenny’s ^{[illegible] that used to be} once in a while. She & her husband
& brother come in and spend the evening playing
whist or dancing. Jenny plays the piano well.
We have a good deal of company evenings.
I get very little time for reading. I am now
reading Macauly’s History of England; and like
it very much. He is not confined to the
ordinary limits of a historian; but while telling
of battles & sieges; kings & queens; gives us also an
insight into their government & the motives
which governed their conduct. He gives the condi=
tion of the people as contrasted with their
condition now; their conveniences for traveling
& even how their houses were furnished; without
at the same time being tedus tedius. I am
afraid were I to tell you all I am thinking
you would be sorry you had asked me
the question; I fear too it would be a
queer con mixture of the sublime & ridiculous
the sad & merry. No person ever tells all they
think. Though we perhaps do not like to acknowl=
ede there is we would be ashamed to tell
of what we think. Not but that our thoughts
are pure enough; but there are many things
which we do not like to acknowledge even
to ourselves. Shant get any bugs. The dog destroyed