A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, April 10, 1805.
I rejoice that your nerves are in better tone, for truly, in some of your letters, I could scarcely recognise my daughter. As to the boy, I beseech you not to undertake to teach him the various sounds of the letters abstractedly from the words in which those sounds are found. This must be learned arbitrarily. Go on with his a, b, &c.; and when he shall have learned the language, and not till then, can you teach him (or ought it to be attempted) the principles of the construction of that language.
My ostracism is enlivened by a constant succession of visitors from New-York and New-Jersey. Swartwout and Bunner have just now come in, and I have not been a day without some one, two, or more. They stay generally two or three days with me, and I am privileged to take them with me wherever I dine. Major Powell, the friend of Miss Keene, and the lover of her mother, returned lately from Europe and died here last week. He has left an estate of ten or twelve thousand guineas per annum.
I met Miss Sumter (overtook meaning) at Wilmington last winter, and thence to Baltimore we rode together in the stage. She is a frank, sensible, amiable girl. May make a very interesting companion. I was so much pleased with her, that I went several times to see her (two miles), though I visited no lady. I took her to General Van Ness's, where I made her at home. She plays on the piano in a style which may be called superior, and has a most uncommon fine voice, which has been neglected.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Pittsburg, April 30, 1805.
Arrived in good order yesterday. Find my boat and hands ready. The water high and weather fine. Shall set off in two hours. Have therefore no time to give any account of my journey hither. My boat is, properly speaking, a floating house, sixty feet by fourteen, containing dining-room, kitchen with fireplace, and two bedrooms; roofed from stem to stern; steps to go up, and a walk on the top the whole length; glass windows, &c. This edifice costs one hundred and thirty-three dollars, and how it can be made for that sum passes my comprehension.