Scope and Contents

Wrote a letter to James to tell him recent news; spoke with Mr. :abau about the property he had purchased from Mr. Leech; Mr. Labau does not want to pay the money he owes because the property is low quality; thinks they may end up taking less money than Mr. Labau owes; Walker and Sarah returned from Dunnington tonight; Walker looks very well; they had a fire in the fireplace in thr front parlor; gave money to the collector of donations for the Ragged Schools; (27 [Sept.]) Wakler said his wound aches less and less often' William will leave on Tuesday for St. Louis; Mr. Van Ness came to dinner tonight; Sophy [Ludlow] played the piano and sang after dinner; walked almost sixteen miles today; (28 September) since it is her [AM] birthday today, they drank a toast to her after dinner; hopes her day was happy; William will leave the house by 6 A.M. to go to St. Louis; Sarah was up late packing up William's belongings, which he [RM] thought was silly, since William was capable of doing it himself; Sarah said that Dr. Wilkes had told her that Mrs. King has been ill; encloses a letter from Harriet [not present]; encloses a note from Aunt Elizabeth [not present]; Walker went downtown today and helped William with preparations for his trip; they sold all their cotton at a good price; they have managed their money poorlybecause Matthew ignores his advice or does not ask for it at all; Matthew is operating under the Republican partisan idea that the South will surrender soon; since they have sold all their cotton, it is likely that there will be nothing to do soon; sompleted one page of the entries in the Day Book; will try to give Walker work that can be completed outside instead of keeping him at the desk; the vault-bulder called and brought keys for the vault; (29 [Sept.]) William left at  6 this morningl receuved letters from James and Rutson; Louisa is getting better, though she is still weak. 15pp. ALS