_Letter to Mrs. Alcott._ Wolcott Aug. 12th, 1836. _Friday Morning._ My dear Mother, I have to go away by myself and cry because I want to see you so much, and little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller is coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You have a splendid husband Anna V years of age-- (On this she had drawn her hand.) She was six years old when she wrote this: Dear Mother, I have not had a note from you for a great while. You wanted some wafers yesterday will you accept of them from me There is not many but it is all that I have got. I am very glad my birthday is so near for as I grow older, I hope I shall grow better and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall be settled down in some comfortable little home of our own and then shall be contented and happy I hope. I must go to my sums now, so goodbye dearest mother Your loving Anna A letter eloquent of the tender relation between mother and child is this written during the Fruitlands period: For Dearest mother fruitlands. Dear mother. I wish that you would come to the table again. I enjoy my meals much better when you are at the table. Was not "Heraclitus" that father read about to-day, a dear good man, it seems as though I wanted to hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had understood his thoughts better than they did he would have been happier I think. I have enjoyed this morning readings and conversations better than I have before for a good while, I suppose, because I talked and I understood it so well. I do not write to you very often dear mother but I love to dearly when I feel like it, and I love to have letters from you. I have not been as good as I wish I had this week. I send a little bunch of flowers to you they are not very pretty but they are beautifully made and I thought you would like them. I had a beautiful time walking this morning with Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from your loving Anna. Many copies of her mother's letters are found in Louisa's journals, showing the daughter's intense, almost idolatrous affection. Louisa admired, respected, and loved her father, but to her mother her tenderest thought was given. Marmee understood the wayward, tempestuous, lovable child as no one else did, not even loyal Anna, or admiring Elizabeth. On her birthday the mother writes to Louisa: My dear little girl, Will you accept this doll from me on your 7th birthday. She will be a quiet play mate for my active Louisa for seven years more. Be a kind mamma and love her for my sake.