Creator
Mary [Muir]
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
[4]
Dear Uncle John
I thank you for the nice letter you sent me, and as Mother and Aunt Mary are writing I will send a few lines along too. The little fern arrived safely without being crushed or broken. I think it is very pretty. We had a nice school this last winter. Duncan Reid was our teacher. I study Reading Spelling Arithmetic Geography and Grammer. I never studied Grammer before but I like to very well. I began to write compositions last winter. I wrote two the subjects were Water and Trees. School will commence two weeks from today and I am glad because I like to go to school. I will gather the flowers that you spoke of and send as soon as I can. I should not like to be in your place because I should be so afraid of the Grizzly Bears. I should like lambs well enough but not sprawling all over the floor. Pa told me to tell you that it would be a great favor if you instead of sending a letter would send some of that nice weather for now there is lots of snow on the ground. I think you must have had a good time wandering among the rocks and mountains of California & wouldn’t care if I had been with you part of the time. Celia is growing a big girl, she is three and a half years old she knows all her letters and can spell some of the little words. I hope you will write me again before a great while.
From your affectionate niece, Anna G. Galloway
[1]
Chound Hill, April 4th, /69
John Muir
My dear brother
It is but a short time since I wrote to you but feel that a letter every week for the next three months would scarely atone for my ong silence. Just think, untill about two months ago, I had not written even one letter, and worse than all I have not received a single letter from you, since you last left home. But trusting it was done, alone, through neglect I will think of it no more, but hope to receive ere long, a good long letter and will promise to send you, more in future.
00469
[2]
As yet I scarcely know what I will do this summer, although I presume I will be more apt to teach school, than anything else, but have no idea where it will be. You know John I would much rather spend my time taking sketches, and giving drawing lessons, than teaching schools and hope, ere long, to be able to do so. What do you think about it? Do you not think I might do some such thing untill I have graduated in music, botany and all other useful and necessary branches? Which I suppose I will not be able to do for several years to come. I am, at present, staying with Sarah, and will likely do so for several weeks, at least untill I conclude what to do.
[3]
Warm spring breezes will soon awake to life and beauty the tender plants even now I hear the blackbirds singing most merrily, although as yet the ground is covered with snow, having had quite a snow storm last week Oh John how much I would enjoy a ramble over the hills and hollows of Cal. But I scarcely think, I would much enjoy following a herd of sheep, and am quite sure, I would not enjoy having about two hundred noisy, little, spralling creatures in every corner and all over the floor of my little room, every cold, rainy, unpleasant day But I must now close, as I told Anna she might write the remaining page of this sheet
Please write very soon
Your sister Mary.
Location
Mound Hill, [Wisc?]
Date Original
1869 Apr 4
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, Mary, "Letter from Mary [Muir] to John Muir, 1869 Apr 4." (1869). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1297.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1297
Resource Identifier
muir02_0065-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0065
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
