TO MRS. HAWTHORNE

 TO MRS. HAWTHORNE

 

Salem, December 20th (Friday morning), 1844

 

Sweetest Phoebe,

 

It will be a week tomorrow since I left thee; and in all that time, I have heard nothing of thee, nor thou of me. Nevertheless, I am not anxious, because I know thou wouldst write to me at once, were anything amiss. But truly my heart is not a little hungry and thirsty for thee; so, of my own accord, or rather of my own necessity, I sit down to write thee a word or two. First of all, I love thee. Also, I love our little Una—and, I think, with a much more adequate comprehension of her loveliness, than before we left Concord¹. She is partly worthy² of being thy daughter;—if not wholly to, it must be her father's fault.

 

Mine own, I know not what to say to thee. I feel now as when we clasp one another in our arms, and are silent.

 

Our mother and sisters were rejoiced to see me, and not altogether surprised; for they seem to 121 have had a kind of presentiment³ of my return. Mother had wished Louisa to write for us both to come back; but I think it would not be wise to bring Una here again, till warm weather. I am not without apprehensions⁴ that she will have grown too tender to bear the atmosphere of our cold and windy old Abbey in Concord, after becoming acclimated⁵ to the milder temperature of thy father's house. However, we will trust to Providence⁶, and likewise to a good fire in our guest-chamber. Thou wilt⁷ write to me when all things are propitious⁸ for our return. They wish me to stay here till after Christmas;—which I think is next Wednesday—but I care little about festivals. My only festival is when I have thee. But I suppose we shall not get home before the last of next week;—it will not do to delay our return much longer than that, else we shall be said to have run away from our creditors⁹.

 

If I had not known it before, I should have been taught by this long separation, that the only real life is to be with thee—to be thy husband—thy intimatest, thy lovingest, thy belovedest—and to share all things, good or evil, with thee. The days and weeks that I have spent away from thee are unsubstantial—there is nothing in them—and yet they have done me good, in making me more 122 conscious of this truth. Now that I stand a little apart from our Concord life, the troubles and incommodities look slighter—our happiness more vast and inestimable. I trust Heaven will not permit us to be greatly pinched by poverty, during the remainder of our stay there. It would be a pity to have our recollection of this first home darkened by such associations,—the home where our love first assumed human life in the form of our darling child.

 

I hear nothing yet from O'Sullivan—nor from Bridge. I am afraid the latter gentleman must be ill; else, methinks, he would certainly have written; for he has always been a punctual correspondent, when there was anything to write about.

 

Ownest Dove, I think I shall not go back to Hillard's. I shall be ready to go back to Concord whenever thou art; but, not having the opportunity to consult thee, I now propose that we settle our return for Saturday, a week from tomorrow. Should anything prevent thee from going then (for instance, the want of a girl) I may go and pay our debts, as far as in my power, and then return. But this need not be anticipated. There is no absolute necessity—(except in our hearts, which cannot endure to be away from one another much longer)—for our being at home before the 123 first of January; but if all things are convenient, we will not delay longer than Saturday. Oh, what sweet, sweet times we will have.

 

Give Una a kiss, and her father's blessing¹⁰. She is very famous here in Salem.

 

Thy Husband.

 

Mrs. Sophia A. Hawthorne,

Care of Dr. N. Peabody,

Boston, Mass.

1 concord   

n.和谐；协调

参考例句：

• These states had lived in concord for centuries.这些国家几个世纪以来一直和睦相处。
• His speech did nothing for racial concord.他的讲话对种族和谐没有作用。

2 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

3 presentiment   

n.预感，预觉

参考例句：

• He had a presentiment of disaster.他预感会有灾难降临。
• I have a presentiment that something bad will happen.我有某种不祥事要发生的预感。

4 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

5 acclimated   

v.使适应新环境，使服水土服水土，适应( acclimate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The rice has been acclimated in this area. 水稻已能适应这一地区的环境。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Have you become acclimated to Taiwan yet? 你已适应台湾的环境了吗？ 来自辞典例句

6 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

7 wilt   

v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱

参考例句：

• Golden roses do not wilt and will never need to be watered.金色的玫瑰不枯萎绝也不需要浇水。
• Several sleepless nights made him wilt.数个不眠之夜使他憔悴。

8 propitious   

adj.吉利的；顺利的

参考例句：

• The circumstances were not propitious for further expansion of the company.这些情况不利于公司的进一步发展。
• The cool days during this week are propitious for out trip.这种凉爽的天气对我们的行程很有好处。

9 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。