Ys containing ck rec’d—all right.1explanatory note Tell Ed the poem is the finest thing I ever read—& I would not lie about a small matter.2explanatory note We got home day before yesterday, at last, & I am the gladdest man. Livy would be another, if the house were finished, but it isn’t—full of carpenters yet, on the lower floor. We have thrown down an old carpet or two & are living on the second floor. We sleep in Ma’s bedroom;3explanatory note eat in the nursery, & use my study for a parlor. Rosa4explanatory note & Susie sleep in Livy’s private sitting room which opens out of the nursery on the east front. We have gas, now, in these apartments, & water in Ma’s & little Susie’s bath-rooms Ⓐemendation—so we are pretty comfortable, & Margaret’s5explanatory note cookery goes ahead of anything we have had at the best table in New York (that is, the Hoffman House, where we tarried ten days buying carpets & furniture, & drilling actors for the play.) I staid on the stage 2 to 4 hours several days in succession showing them how I thought the speeches ought to be uttered. The consequence was, the play went right through without a hitch on the very first night. They are better actors than I am, but of course I wanted the play played my way unless my way was radically wrong.

Livy is pretty well fagged out, but I am hoping she will begin to pick up, now, in spite of the ceaseless banging & hammering down stairs. The stable is all done, & is exceedingly handsome. The house & grounds are not to be described, they are so beautiful. Patrick & family occupy large handsome rooms in the stable.6explanatory note I don’t think I ever saw such a bewitching place as ours is.

Gen. Ⓐemendation Belknap is helping me splendidly to get Sammy appointed to the Naval Academy.