on of self
scarcely, I think, to be paralleled in the annals of the "coarser
sex." They passed their subsequent lives together--models of
fraternal affection, and would have been very happy but for the dread
visitation to which Mary Lamb continued liable all her life. I
thought it both a sad and edifying history. Your account of your
little niece's naive delight in beholding the morning sea for the
first time amused and pleased me; it proves she has some
sensations--a refreshing circumstance in a day and generation when
the natural phenomenon of children wholly destitute of all pretension
to the same is by no means an unusual occurrence.

'I have written a long letter as you requested me, but I fear you
will not find it very amusing. With love to your little
companion,--Believe me, my dear Miss Wooler, yours affectionately and
respectfully,

'C. BRONTE.

'Papa, I am most thankful to say, continues in very good health,
considering his age. My sisters likewise are pretty well.'

TO MISS WOOLER

'HAWORTH, _March_ 31_st_, 1848.

'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER,--I had been wishing to hear from you for some
time before I received your last. There has been so much sickness
during the last winter, and the influenza especially has been so
severe and so generally prevalent, that the sight of suffering around
us has frequently suggested fears for absent friends. Ellen Nussey
told me, indeed, that neither you nor Miss C. Wooler had escaped the
influenza, but, since your letter contains no allusion to your own
health or hers, I trust you are completely recovered. I am most
thankful to say that papa has hitherto been exempted from any attack.
My sister and myself have each had a visit from it, but Anne is the
only one with whom it stayed long or did much mischief; in her case
it was attended with distressing cough and fever; but she is now
better, though it has left her chest weak.

'I remember well wishing my lot had been cast in the troubled times
of the late war, and seeing in its exciting incidents a kind of
stimulating charm which it made my pulse beat fast only to think
of--I remember even, I think, being a little impatient that you would
not fully sympa