Your affectionate sister,
SOPHIA.
WEST NEWTON, December 25, 1851.
MY DEAR LOUISA [HAWTHORNE],—This very morning I intended to write to you again, to inquire why you neither came nor responded to my letter, and then I received yours. The children watched for you many days, and finally gave you up. They will be delighted at your coming. Pray come as soon as the second week of January. Grace Greenwood spent two or three days, and was very pleasant. Mr. Fields writes from Paris that Mr. Hawthorne's books are printed there as much as in England; that his fame is great there [in England], and that Browning says he is the finest genius that has appeared in English literature for many years.
Your affectionate sister,
SOPHIA.
P. S. [By Hawthorne.] I have published a new collection of tales; but you shall not have a copy till you come for it. N. H.
P. S. [By Mrs. Hawthorne.] This new volume of "Twice-Told Tales" was published on Thursday; and yesterday Mr. Ticknor told Nathaniel that he had already sold a thousand copies, and had not enough bound to supply the demand.
I give a letter which must have come like the song of a wood-thrush to the author, its diction being as pure as his own, and yet as strong.
BROOKLYN; July 7, 1852.