Affectionate Parents I set down
to write A few lines to you
hoping that they will find you
as well as we are & this worlds
enjoyments with you to we ment to 
rote before but the time has 
passed away swift rools the whels
of time which will soon bring
us to our ends I have ben
waiting for Jonas⁵ to write for me 
as I have A few moments
to spare & I thought that id
just scratch A few lines to you
I suppose that you have heard
what I am A doing now
if you have seen William, Chris
he can tell you all about it
he staid here to long time
write as soon as you get this
& how all the folks get a long
& if Ezra is taf & whare he
is etc etc so on

  ^{1This letter is part of the Abbott Brothers Collection at Philadelphia 
     College in Pennsylvania.  Transcribed by the University of Massachusetts 
      Lowell, Center for Lowell History.
  2Varnum Abbott b: 1834, VT; parents: Margaret H. King and Jonas Varnum 
     Abbott; stepfather: Cephas Clark; employed 1852-1854: Lowell, Massachusetts.
  3Parents – Margaret and Cephas Clark, Glover, VT.
  4Lowell, Massachusetts.
  5Brother – Jonas Abbott b: 1848, Glover, VT; parents: Margaret H. King and 
    Jonas Varnum Abbott; stepfather: Cephas Clark; employed 1852-1854: 
    Lowell, Massachusetts.}
 
 
  
I don’t hardly think that
Dolly⁶ can read this I might
make A thousand excuses but I
aint fond of excuses
Dolly I want that you should
Write some & if you want
to go to school I will
Send you some money
to by you some books
& truition if you want
to go to school next spring
write  & let me
know the rest next time
it is most 2, O Clock
& I must close writen with A stick 
            yours respectfully
            Varnum Abbott
Cephas & Margret Clark

Enjoy life when you
can as oer lifes
trouble sea we pass
waves swell before
us but we rise
above them all

[Sideways on the right side]

We haint got any snow to 
speak of here yet

  ^{6Sister – Dorothy “Dolly” M. Abbott b: 1841, Glover, VT; parents: 
     Margaret H. King and Jonas Varnum Abbott; stepfather: Cephas Clark.}