SERIES III: ARABELLA BRAY DE LONG
Folder 7.  Letters, March-September 1919.  42 items.

The March and April letters are to Ethel; the August and September letters, to Helen.

March 17, 1919. Monday.  “’My dearly beloved and longed for’ my darling child:  Of course you are weary, weary and I am too, for I just can’t bear to have you under such a strain…”  [to Ethel]

March 19, 1919.  “My precious love, dearest daughter Ethel: I find no words in which to express my love and joy and—relief!!”

To think of it, to just hold it and say, ‘Yes, Ethel wrote it with her own dear hand,’ why beloved…”

“Dearest love, my Ethel Child”

April 6 [1919]. Sunday. Two-thirty o’clock.   “April 6th and how I am wondering and wondering if my lovely child and her precious baby are making preperations [sic] for a journey”  [to Ethel]

April 10, 1919.  “My children, most dear:  I am sending you very many loving thoughts for this auspicious day…”

[August 28, 1919].  Thursday evening. 7.30 o’clock (our clock).  “Luigi gone over to see Leon, Ethel reading the School mail, Alberto fast asleep in his little bed, Arabella writing to her darlingest Helen child.”

August 29, 1919.  Friday.  “My precious little Captain: Oh, but it was delightful to hear directly from you thru’ Miss Blackburn…”

[August 31, 1919]  Seven o’clock, Sunday night, just before supper.

September 1, 1919. Seven thirty o’clock. “No mail yet!!!! and I am ‘just crazy’ to see, to hear, my darling Helen’s voice…”

September 2, 1919.  8.35.  “Nearly nine o’clock, My very darlingest child: I shall have to race through a little note and send it on to you…”

September 3 [1919].  5 o’clock.  “Darling: I am holding Berto, who is fast asleep, in my arm, we are sitting in my room…”

[possibly September 4, 1919]  [small slip]  “Did you take any nail scissors, by mistake?”

September 4, 1919.  “Dearest child Helen: It’s just nine o’clock we’ve finished eating the watermelon, Ann stayed and ate some with us…”

“12.15 Friday the 5th of Sept. [1919] My precious “Small Child” little Captain, Howdy:  My bed is still unmade…”

[September 7, 1919] [small piece of paper with ivy leaf mounted on one side and four-leaf clover on the other]  “Picked Sunday September 7th, 1919 on the Zande estate, Pine Mountain Kentucky For my little Captain”

[possibly September 7, 1919].  Sunday. 9.30 clock.  “My beloved Child: As Leon said a minute or two ago, Tell her ‘tomorrow will be Monday’..

September 8 [1919].  Monday night.  “My precious, precious Child: It was is good indeed to have your two precious letters…”

September 9 [1919].  Tuesday.  Darling: Here it is a whole week since you bought Alberto’s ‘pretties’ and they are not here.”

September 9, 1919.  “September 1919.  Tuesday the 9th.  My own beloved child:  It is nearly ten o’clock E. is asleep, but I tho’t since Luigi is not here and is expected about twelve that I would continue to write to you…”

September 10, 1919.  “My beloved Child:  I am wondering ‘where is my little Captain to-night?’”

September 11, 1919.  “My precious Child:  How glad I shall be when you are out of all the hurry and turmoil…”

September 12, 1919.  “My most beloved Child Helen:  Baby is in his carriage, on the terrace…”

September 13, 1919.  “My precious Love:  Sleepiness is over-powering my senses…”

September 14, 1919.  Sunday night.  “My very darling—How shall I convey to you my feelings of congratulation and pleasure, in your great joy and pleasure.”

“What a precious, precious darling you are—I am thinking of you every minute, but I can’t write very much to-night just because of it…”

September 16, 1919.  “My most preciousest: I did wish for a letter tonight though I did not dare to look for one…”

September 17 [1919]. Wednesday.  “My own darling, beloved Child: Howdy? and I wonder what your hours are and are you through for the day?

[September 17, 1919] Thursday night.  “Hurrah, Two letters from my precious ‘small child’ you see, the letter you mailed on your arrival in Asheville came with the next day’s letter.”

September 18, 1919.  “Darling daughter, I think that you will know how much we wanted you this morning when I tell you that our precious baby was baptized (Christened I rather like the word) this morning…”

September 19, 1919.  “Nine thirty o’clock.  Ethel and Luigi about to retire to their room, Arabella thinking that she would like to write but waiting until there is some quiet.”

September 21, 1919.  Eleven thirty, Sunday morning.  “To my Darling: I went down to the P. [?] when I came up the bank, I was arrested, Miss Wright called from her window, asking if she might speak with me…”

September 22, 1919. “My dearest dear Love:  The cuckoo is just striking the hour of twelve…”

September 23, 1919.  9.30 o’clock.  “My darling—Ethel is sitting in front of the fire nursing Berto who frightened us all by a strange little noise…”

“What shall we do about Ethel’s birthday?”  [this may have been part of another letter or a free-standing letter, but it has no salutation]

September 24, 1919.  “My very dearest Child Helen:  It’s just a few words to-night for I’ve finished a long letter to Aunt Mary and the others…”

Wednesday night. 11 o’clock.  “My very precious darling:  Since the house became quiet I’ve been looking over the Literary Digest that Leon bro’t…”

September 25, 1919.  “Six twenty o’clock. Ethel and Kitty in the kitchen preparing supper, Luigi killing sheep, for the fair on Saturday…”

September 26, 1919.  “My darling, darling Child:  Here is the letter that I wrote you on my birthday returned to me because I addressed the envelope to Kentucky…”

September 28, 1919.  Sunday.  “My beloved Child:  I have written every day, ‘cept Saturdays ever since you went away…”

September 29, 1919.  Monday.  “Precious Child:  This has been a long day, I wakened early and somehow the hours have seemed very long…”

September 30, 1919.  “My most precious Child:  No wonder I have had the blues, you’ve been feeling so sick and poorly…”