“Only think! Theodore Winthrop’s brother has sent me a photograph of Major Winthrop, a very pure young spiritual face it is—just such a one as I seemed to see in the moonlight on the banks of the Potomac—for thee knows he said, ‘It is full moon always at Camp Camison.’ I will enclose a notice of thy friend F——’s regiment. I think poor A—— must miss thee. I have seen her once. I love A——, the little I know of her—she is so calm and good....
“The doctor has just taken Greenleaf to ride a little way. The morning is perfect after the storm. I wonder where thee are just now—out in the sunshine, no doubt.... The dear little kitten went in a basket to L—— M—— who wrote a note of thanks and welcome to kitty. Greenleaf joins me in love to thee and thy friends. Aunt Dolly sends her love. We shall expect thee by and by. When shall thee look homewards?”
In another letter from Boston to the same friend, Miss Whittier speaks of Fredrika Bremer, who was at that time in America.
“Miss Bremer doesn’t seem a great light after all,” she says; “she is far more like a good, social hearth-fire making one comfortable. I want you, my dear, good friend, to see her in Amesbury. Tell Annie, Miss Bremer is especially drawn to soft, light curls like hers; they remind her of London. I know she would fall in love with Annie and her blue eyes. A brother of Mr. J——, the wonderful, drank tea with us on seventh day evening. He looked happy, and we thought he was a good, commonplace body.”
Whittier in the note to his poem, “To Fredrika Bremer,” writes: “It is proper to say that these lines are the joint impromptu of my sister and myself. They are inserted here as an expression of our admiration of the gifted stranger whom we have since learned to love as a friend.”
The poem begins:
“Seeress of the misty Norland,
Daughter of the Vikings bold,