Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Friday. Mrs Baker’s to meet Miss Cummins.

Saturday 10.

Sunday 11. Louisa’s at tea.

Monday 12. Club-party at home.

Tuesday 13. At home.

Wednesday 14. Visit from Mr Bartol in the Eve. Jamie at Dante Club.

Thursday 15. Lucy Larcom here for a day or two.

Friday 16. Calls, etc.—Mrs Hawthorne.

Sat. 17. Mr Carroll read here to a party at 1 pm. and I kept 5 ladies to dine—Mrs Whitney & daughter, Mrs Baker, Miss Cummins, Lucy Larcom, Miss Folsom.

Sunday 18. Strolled down on the wharves with Jamie to drink in the fresh air and the quiet and Sunday solitude. How we enjoyed it.

Monday 19. First morning of quiet at home for a long time. Have written today & yesterday 4 letters and am endeavoring to orient my spirit again. A white fog wraps me and the world is peaceful and at times the rain, the forerunner of spring comes down in floods.

Saturday Feb. 24. Another month almost gone. I have had hardly an hour for study or reading except when too tired to give my best devotion to my work and I feel much a[s] Gibbon did during the first 7 or 8 months of his service in the Hampshire militia, only alas! this is not the first time in...

Sunday afternoon Feb. 25. Mr James called—when Jamie asked him why he left the Club dinner so early yesterday, he said, because Hedge was so impolite so personal and unkind in his remarks, always bringing up Swedenborg against him; etc, he was sorry however when Jamie told him that H. left...

Sunday March 4. A whole week gone. Jamie went as usual to Mr Longfellow’s Wednesday, also he dined there Tuesday which was L’s birthday—58. I went to a party at Kitty Gannett Wells’ for the Howells. Friday Imogen Willis Eddy dined here, party at Whipples to which Jamie went while I...

Saturday. Bessie J. & Anna Verplanck came to pass.

Sunday. Reading Scott’s Plato, Gibbon’s Memoirs, Joubert’s ditto writing not at all except a few letters.

March 17. 1866. Spring is here. Yesterday I heard the robins, the day was damp and warm with April like showers.

Sunday. Windy & cold. Walked during the morning with Jamie and returned refreshed. The river was stormy-green with frothy waves. Finished Dryden, wrote a little and sat in the sunshine enjoying home. Jamie is always happy to be here. Winter has returned outside but the brilliant Spring sunshine...

March 21st My old school friend Lucy Bradlee passed yesterday here. In the morning attended a meeting of the Freedmen’s society at Mrs Loring’s where a valuable and interesting letter was read from Mrs Hawks giving us a clearer idea of the condition of affairs in South Carolina than I had...

Sunday March 25. Walked to Roxbury meaning to attend church but heard that Mrs Putnam the Dr’s wife had died. It was a surprise and shock to me for she looked stable and suggestive of a home always, our type for something indestructible. We could not go in to the church under the circumstances...

Monday morning. The snow blows fiercely and the cold is severe. Inside it is difficult to prevent being either scorched or frozen without numberless visits to the mouth of the fiery furnace—it is a “fiery furnace” of trial in many houses.

Wednesday. Lillian Aldrich needing a little consolation & petting. Mary Dodge full of life and new book and good work—wishes to put one of her nieces at a private boarding school and pay expenses. As the earth worms after a rain all come up out of the ground so these early spring days bring...

Thursday dined with Lucy Bradlee.

Friday. Mr Howells with his wife & sister, Mr Aldrich & wife, Una & Mrs Hawthorne dined here. The two latter passed the night. Mr Lowell is going to instruct Julian in the modern languages.

Saturday. Mother and Sarah came to pass Sunday. Jamie dined with the Saturday Club. Everybody wants him and I do not wonder at it. I only dread his fatigue and the result.