January 18th, 1815 P.A.
My dear girl
I suffer’d the last mail to pass by without giving you a line, out of pure spite; but as feelings of that kind find at best, but a cold reception in my heart, they seldom remain long, and quitting the place, make room for guests of a warmer and kinder sort, who are receiv’d and cherish'd with double tenderness, for their short, but painful absence. Here comes some body riding up in a sleigh. Wait a few moments, and if they have any conscience they will not detain me long.
Well, where do you think I've been? Now, only guess. Why it was the dear little Major, and B. Dennis coming to take me to cousin Nelly’s this good Sunday morning. So I really did go, though I can scarcely believe it, even now. Gracious knows I shou’d as soon have calculated on an air balloon visit to the moon, as to have gone out this morning in a sleigh. We have the snow at least 6 inches on a level, and the riding was fine; in so much that I almost forgot to be afraid of the Major’s grays. Although I begin to have a certain veneration for everything gray, even gray hairs, since mine began to evince a symptom of that complexion, not to speak