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"MY DEAR MOTHER:

I love you very much. I will ride to see you after seventy-four nights. I will he happy glad to see you and father and John and Albert and Henry and Sister. I will ride to see you when warm summer will come. Philip will come ride me after seventy-four days. I am very well. I am fifty seven inches high. I grow fast. I and James Coolidge walk to grow fast much. Dr. Fisher will bring paper picture. I bring paper picture to you. You must put in glass paper picture. Boys and girls will ride go in Boston State House. Six hundred men to see boys. I will stay with you twenty five nights. Good bye."

His teacher adds: "When he had written as far as 'my dear' he asked if he should write 'my mother.' I told him this morning that it would be seventy-five days before he went home. When he wrote seventy-four. I corrected him; he replied 'tomorrow, one day has gone.' He had before asked when the letter would be sent.''

August 21st. Took Oliver to Boston and went to see the pond on the common; with this he was much pleased. We walked round it and he got quite a good idea of its shape.

August 22d. Oliver talked of our walk yesterday, the pond, &c. Taught him oval and talked of round, square, and oblong shapes. He said, "Small boy did make boat; he is sailor?" Again be asked, "Wight and I did go to see boy in boat on river, he is sailor?" Told him about carpenters and masons. Then he desired me to tell him about melons. While Frank and Susan were writing gave him some questions in Addition and Subtraction, which he performed as usual rather lazily. At 12 -- he wished to see "where Osborne did go on map," so I took him to the large map of the United States. He then wished to be shown Billerica, and Jamestown. He found one of the large lakes; called it a very large pond, and wished to know how many miles long and wide it was, and its distance from Boston.

August 23d. Oliver was not very well or very talkative. He complained that he took warm milk and it made his stomach sour. He was more interested in his lesson on the map than any thing else. He found all the towns he knew on the Map of Boston and told their distance and direction from Boston. Of the different directions he judges very accurately. He turned to the map of the city and asked for the frog pond -- found the common and wanted to know the number of posts around it and the number of streets.

July 16. Oliver came in saying, "I see boy on piazza, has very long hair on back, you come see quick." Found a Chinese man -- Oliver was very much interested and talked of little else all day. I told him about the ladies of China having small feet. He asked if they could walk, run, or make dinners; and when told some had large feet and went about to do the work, he wished to know if this man's mother had small feet.

August 1, Found Oliver engaged in glueing some boards. Gave him a lesson about the manufacture of glue. He asked -- "Glue in Elephant's foot?"

At noon we received a visit from a lady who had been in China and seen Mrs. Gutzlaff's blind children. I told Oliver of it and he was much interested. He asked, "People in China have horses and cows and pigs and cats and dogs and hens?" "Lady did see boys have long hair?" Told him about sedan chairs. He asked, "men hands are hard to carry sedan chairs? Ladies have windows in chairs?" "Men in China have many windows in houses?"

He learned about Lexington on the map.

August 14. Oliver brought me a large corn stalk, as a topic for conversation. Finding it contained a sweet juice, he asked, "Men make sugar?" "Men make sugar of canes has corn?" He then told me that he made noise with stalks many nights ago.

August 20. When I went for Oliver at eight he asked "why talk?" and the first part of the hour he was rather lazy; but afterwards he became interested in talking of different trades. At ten o'clock, he tried to make conversation to defer the "adding" as he calls it, but when he found it must come he did pretty well. At twelve we took the map; this is an unfailing source of interest, and he adds to his knowledge mite by mite.

July 2d. Oliver's most interesting subject was the manufacture of Gunpowder, which he asked me about yesterday. I explained as well as I could to him the process and tried to instil in his mind great caution about handling it, but he said "I am not afraid of gunpowder." He inquired about strawberries and said, "I and my sister Mary did walk go up on hill find strawberries. Mary pick small strawberries. "My brother Philip did pick strawberries tin plate full. My mother and father, and John and Sister did eat on meal cake."

September 11. At eleven we had a great deal of company, and that necessarily interrupts the regular lessons. Oliver informed me when I went for him, "Ladies have come." Did you see them? I asked. "No, I smell them." What did you smell? "Cologne."

September 12. Oliver's new knife furnished an ample topic of conversation. After he had shown me each curious part, he told me which part was the back and two sides, and asked in great glee for its head. Asked, "Hook knife in store in Boston?" "Doctor did buy far off how many miles?" "My Philip, and John, and Albert, and Henry, and sister, and father, and mother, will see my uew -sic- knife after twelve days." Of the handle he asked, "Who horn?" and this led to a conversation about deers. Gave him a number of questions in addition at 10, which he performed pretty well. He is now much interested in learning some things on the map of Providence, as he thinks it relates to his own home, and wants a map to carry to his mother.