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I am almost frightened at the extent of this letter. You must get along with and excuse mistakes as well as you can, for I will not dare to attempt reading it over I think.

  I should have been glad to have staid longer in Boston, but I had no place to stop except with Humphrey. And I thought it only fair to quarter myself upon him so much; it must be inconvenient. Mrs. Albee too with her little children & 3 men folks was trying to get along without a girl. I most wish I had stayed through till Friday. Many of the Meetings through the week would be very interesting, and some other things I wanted to see . Probably too if I had wanted to Friday the Steamboat fare would have been but $.25 perhaps. but they said that the other boat Penobscot carried  1/2 or 1/4 or anything to get passengers.  I preferred to go in the John Marshall & dont regret it. This boat was built & put in the line by the Kennebec folks, on purpose to put the fare down reasonable, because the Proprietors of the Penobscot were unreasonable. I think the new lines, Peoples line, they call it, ought to be sustained. They are both very fast boats & there is competition for a day speed as well as passengers.  Both boats out at the same time and close together. When I went up we were but 10 hours, & coming back I suppose it amounted to Racing. Both boats probably went as fast as their engines could make them.   They started out of the harbot  about 1/4 mile apart, and till near 10 you could hardly see that the distance between them increased a length. In the morning  Penobscot was 2 or  3 miles behind, though her Capt. had sworn "big oaths" the day before that he would pass. The trip to Both was made by J. Marshall in 8 hours 53 minutes!  I went to Brunswick, got there 8 or 9, came back, hungry and sleepy, for the boat was not a very good place to sleep, in her hurrying, so, though it was perfectly calm.
                  I have got a room at Mrs. Graves where our club is. She could not very well board me but offered every convenience for boarding myself. I took the hint, bought a loaf of bread, 4 or 5 pounds of best pilot bread, a pound of cheese. She supplies me with some lapses? and a quart of milk per day, and I have every prospect of living as independent as you please for a week, till I can get into College again. no studies or Bell to ? make afraid, nothing to do but read, write, sleep etc. & grow fat.

[right-hand side] I brought home $27,60 so I shall not want that $5,00 that I begged for so hard in my last letters, you know. I am hoping this will get there before you have many any effort to send it to me. I suppose $11,00 or $18,00 will pay my bill at the beginning of term, except the regular Term bill which can wait at 6 per cent interest. This week I guess will not cost me more than $1,50 if it does that, and I shall have $8,00 or $10,00 to pay the initiation fees to the Societies, buy my books, and so forth. I think I shall get along very comfortably through the term. Then if I can find any thing to do from Sept. to March to earn some money - then - try and find me a school or something to do.

 The season is about two weeks earlier in Mass. than it is here. About Boston the grass looks finely, heating? out some, Lilacs, Apple and Horse Chestnut trees, here just blossoming, blossomed there a fortnight since. At Milo I suppose it has just thawed out and people just begun their spring work. At Boston I once walked down Wheeler's court, same door that I remembered. T. Thaxter on it. On the steps played a pretty little curly-haired girl & boy. Mr. Bush has some pretty children.
 Stone place I seen a new churn. Simple six sided box, Set in a frame, with a crank to turn it, and I should think cheaper and easier better than one like yours. It is really astonishing to see how Boston has grown & is growing, and the cities which have sprung up around it, for Charleston, Cambridge, Roxbury, South & East Boston, might be called cities. It is but a few years comparatively before Boston will be the largest City in America. New York can page torn in the page torn greatness. Any decent man, young man, must be shiftless who cant make page torn now:  I guess you will be glad to see that I am going to close this letter. I hope you will write very particularly. I wish you would send letters as this, and let me know all about you and your affairs at home there, of every kind, you cannot think how much it would interest me. This letter deserves an answer. the time spent in writing, not thinking is something. Do write to I.S. Metcalf

Isaac May 29th /45 Bowd Single 12 1/2

                                              Mrs. Anna M. Metcalf
                                                                 Milo
                                                                    Maine