Lowell² April 12th 1846
 
Dear Father
 
           I received your letter with much pleasure but was sorry to hear that you had been 
lame. I had waited for a long time to hear from you but no letter came so last Sunday I 
thought I would write again which I did and was going to send it to the [post] office 
Monday but at noon I received a letter from William and so I did not send it at all. Last 
Friday I received a letter from you. You wanted to know what I am doing. I am at work 
in a spinning room and tending four sides of warp which is one girls work. The overseer 
tells me that he never had a girl get along better than I do and that he will do the best he 
can by me. I stand it well, though they tell me that I am growing very poor. I was paid 
nine shillings a week last payment and am to have more this one though we have been 
out considerable for backwater which will take off a good deal. The Agent promises to 
pay us nearly as much as we should have made but I do not think that he will. The 
payment was up last night and we are to be paid this week. I have a very good boarding 
place have enough to eat and that which is good enough. The girls are all kind and 
obliging. The girls that I room with are all from Vermont and good girls too. Now I will 
tell you about our rules at the boarding house. We have none in particular except that we 
have to go to bed about 10. o'clock. At half past 4 in the morning the bell rings for us to 
get up and at five for us to go into the mill. At seven we are called out to breakfast are 
allowed half an hour between bells and the same at noon till the first of May when we 
have three quarters [of an hour] till the first of September. We have dinner at half past 12 
and supper at seven. If Julius should go to Boston tell him to come this way and see me. 
He must come to the Lawrence Counting room and call for me. He can ask some one to 
show him where the Lawrence is. I hope he will not fail to go. I forgot to tell you that I 
have not seen a particle of snow for six weeks and it is settled going we have had a very 
mild winter and but little snow. I saw Ann Hersey last Sunday. I did not know her till she 

^{1Mary Stiles Paul b: 26 Jan 1830, Hanover, NH d: 12 Dec 1899, 
    Cambridge, MA; parents: Bela Paul b: Taunton, MA and Mary 
    Briggs b: Keene, NH; married in Lowell 1857: Isaac Guild b: 
    19 Jun 1831, NH; Isaac Guild 1860: marble works, Lynn, MA; 
    children: Irving Tracy Guild and Sidney Paul Guild.
    Twenty-five of her letters, covering the years 1845-1862 have 
    survived. She began working as a domestic in Bridgewater, Vermont. 
    1845-1848 worked in Lowell textile mills. 1848 joined her father in 
    Claremont, New Hampshire. 1850 returned to Vermont for a short spell. 
    Then she joined Lowell companions at an agricultural utopian community 
    in Redbank, New Jersey for a year. Following her brief tenure at the 
    collective, she once again returned to New Hampshire.
 2Lowell, Massachusetts}
 
 
told me who she was. I see the Griffith girls often. I received a letter from a girl in 
Bridgewater in which she told me that Mrs Angell had heard some way that I could not 
get work and that she was much pleased and said that I was so bad that no one would 
have me. I believe I have written all so I will close for I have a letter to write to William 
this afternoon.
 
Yours affectionately
Mary S Paul
 
P.S. Give my love to all that enquire for me and tell them to write me a long long letter. Tell Harriet I shall send her a paper.