nearly a month, I believe; and I begin to grow very uneasy. At
first I was tempted to suppose that I had been myself to blame in
some way; but now I have grown to fear lest some sickness or
trouble among those whom you love may not be the impediment. I
believe I shall soon hear; so I wait as best I can. I am, beyond a
doubt, greatly stronger, and yet still useless for any work, and, I
may say, for any pleasure. My affairs and the bad weather still
keep me here unmarried; but not, I earnestly hope, for long.
Whenever I get into the mountain, I trust I shall rapidly pick up.
Until I get away from these sea fogs and my imprisonment in the
house, I do not hope to do much more than keep from active harm.
My doctor took a desponding fit about me, and scared Fanny into
blue fits; but I have talked her over again. It is the change I
want, and the blessed sun, and a gentle air in which I can sit out
and see the trees and running water: these mere defensive
hygienics cannot advance one, though they may prevent evil. I do
nothing now, but try to possess my soul in peace, and continue to
possess my body on any terms.
CALISTOGA, NAPA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
All which is a fortnight old and not much to the point nowadays.
Here we are, Fanny and I, and a certain hound, in a lovely valley
under Mount Saint Helena, looking around, or rather wondering when
we shall begin to look around, for a house of our own. I have
received the first sheets of the AMATEUR EMIGRANT; not yet the
second bunch, as announced. It is a pretty heavy, emphatic piece
of pedantry; but I don't care; the public, I verily believe, will
like it. I have excised all you proposed and more on my own
movement. But I have not yet been able to rewrite the two special
pieces which, as you said, so badly wanted it; it is hard work to
rewrite passages in proof; and the easiest work is still hard to
me. But I am certainly recovering fast; a married and convalescent
being.
Received James's HAWTHORNE, on which I meditate a blast, Miss Bird,
Dixon's PENN, a WRONG CORNHILL (like my luck) and COQUELIN: for
all which, and especially the last, I tender my best thanks. I
have opened only James; it is very clever, very well written, and
out of sight the most inside-out thing in the world; I have dug up
the hatchet; a scalp shall flutter at my belt ere long. I think my
new book should be good; it will contain our adventures for the
summer, so far as these are worth narrating; and I have already a
few pages of diary which should make up bright. I am going to
repeat my old experiment, after buckling-to a while to write more
correctly, lie down and have a wallow. Whether I shall get any of
my novels done this summer I do not know; I wish to finish the
VENDETTA first, for it really could not come after PRINCE OTTO.
Lewis Campbell has made some noble work in that Agamemnon; it
surprised me. We hope to get a house at Silverado, a deserted
mining-camp eight miles up the mountain, now solely inhabited by a
mighty hunter answering to the name of Rufe Hansome, who slew last
year a hundred and fifty deer. This is the motto I propose for the
new volume: 'VIXERUNT NONNULLI IN AGRIS, DELECTATI RE SUA
FAMILIARI. HIS IDEM PROPOSITUM FUIT QUOD REGIBUS, UT NE QUA RE
EGERENT, NE CUI PARERENT, LIBERTATE UTERENTUR; CUJUS PROPRIUM EST
SIC VIVERE UT VELIS.' I always have a terror lest the wish should
have been father to the translation, when I come to quote; but that