May 22

With the spring season in full bloom, as it were, I have found I am deprived of my ideal lengths of time in which nothing is happening in my life. I cannot admit that I am in any way vexed at this change of course, but it most certainly has left something to be desired in my duty to record my days. Some things, however, do not follow the same course as the rest of my life, and remain steadfast and aggravating in their enduring ways. For instance, as an entire family, Abigail, Mr. and Mrs. Hegwood, and of course myself, have been living in one room for the past fortnight and then some due to the constant construction upon our home. I firmly believe on this current course we shall never be permitted to have a suitable home, and shall end our existence living out of a single room whilst the promise of privacy and grandeur dangle so aggravatingly close before us, yet just beyond our desperate grasp.

What is worse, Mr. Hegwood and Mrs. Hegwood have been in a perpetual battle over the front facade of the house for at least this entire week. Each day until this I have left the shared bedroom to come to breakfast to hear "No, Mr. Hegwood, I shall NOT allow it! NO COLUMNS!" Drift down the small corridor, whilst Mr. Hegwood, always the face of calmness and reason, turning an unhealthy shade of red in deepening consternation as he makes attempt after failed attempt to persuade his wife he is correct in this matter.

I have never seen a man so fixed upon the idea of great roman style columns to adorn the front of the Estate in all my days. I have yet to say anything to either of them for fear of invoking any sort of wrath, but I conclude I must agree with Mrs. Hegwood for once, and, as shocking as it is to me to admit, confirm she has the most sense of the two about it. I have told Abigail more than once whilst walking the grounds; "We do not live in a great Grecian temple, we will be living in a moderate brick home in America, and I do not care who else on this great green continent has them, they look ridiculous." Abigail, ever loyal and sensible, agrees with me completely.

I must find a way to broach the topic delicately with Mr. Hegwood, and hope that his fatherly affection for me will not see me cast from the house, and perhaps in the best circumstances will see the house finished without the addition of columns.


I was granted a reprieve from the ridiculous repetitive system our household has fallen into when an invitation was brought to me from the Doctor, who Abigail and I have decided has an inhuman ability to know when the insanity I live in has reached a dangerous climax, and has always on hand some lovely and diverting activity in which to bring me to.

A nature walk was proposed, and of course I readily agreed, knowing nothing bring solace to my mind than the forests and wide open fields, where there is no such thing as ridiculous columns or course work-men calling out oaths every third or fourth word as they climb about my home like filthy monkeys. Mr. Hegwood, when the idea was proposed of my being allowed to travel to the Doctor to accompany him on this excursion, grasped my hands between his own and with a nearly frantic look written on his face quickly whispered to get myself gone as fast as I could lest Mrs. Hegwood make it impossible with one of her overwhelming bouts of depression which almost always require my company for many long hours on end, doing nothing but placating. I stifled a laugh and arranged my features as serious as I could make them, (for how could I not laugh at it all? Our entire lives have become nothing more than a joke, and the whole thing struck me as completely absurd), and made haste to make myself ready.

I regret only the miniscule time-frame in which I had to prepare, and can say that I looked upon the whole as most presentable, and in no way exactly DESIRABLE, which has of late been my keenest goal, and I dare someone to find fault in that. I was received, however, at the Doctor's cottage with hardly a raised eyebrow or notice that I was not my best, and from thence we together traveled to his chosen location.

I cannot commend the location enough! It was possibly the most perfect balm for my frayed mentality, and I could not have been more pleased with the company. I seem to be making regular friends as it were among these completely charming people. Mr. and Mrs. Glidden were present, as well as the General and his dear wife Mrs. Jackson, and a woman who is quickly becoming indispensable to my happiness, Ms. Jordan. We enjoyed a light dinner and chatted among ourselves (the men together and us ladies together) before the Doctor announced we were to pair ourselves up so that we may have teams in which to begin our naturalist scavenger hunt!

Ms. Jordan and myself being the only two single ladies naturally went off together and a grand time was had. We wound through the trails between the trees, picking off leaves of the local greenery we suspected were the proper specimens to win our points, collecting wild flowers, and exploring an old cemetery in which men of my mother's generation were given a grand resting place. We even made the rather treacherous journey down to the ancient spring to cool and refresh ourselves with the crystal clear water.

I admit by this point I had completely thrown propriety to the wind so that I may find solace in the nature surrounding me and pranced down the rocky and uncertain trail surefooted and free like a young deer who had grown among these forests. Thankfully, I came to no harm but I do know more than one whisper was exchanged behind a hand, and I suffered many a reproachful glance and long suffering sigh from the Doctor as I leapt across streams and gamboled over fallen trees like a wood nymph. I wish that I could be so good as to admit that on some level I cared at all what was said or viewed, but truthfully I can conjure up no such feelings, and I will say I enjoyed myself fully. I discovered, however, as we came back up the path from the spring to finish our circuit through the forest, I was quite done up, and had extended myself perhaps further than was necessary or right for my comfort to finish the day.


At one point I was obliged to take the Doctor's offered hand so that I may safely make it up a slight incline without slipping and falling to my doom. When I had quite recovered from my previous behavior, I took the opportunity to check myself and to spend the rest of the walk pursuing more dignified activities, such as wading through the waist high grass to relieve the obliging field of its most lovely wild flowers. I made for myself a small nosegay of white and yellow and purple specimens, and bound it with thread so that I may present it to Mrs. Hegwood upon my return in hopes she would forgive my hasty retreat from the house.

We all arrived back at our point of origin rather exhausted and through with the day, and took it all as a perfectly reasonable sign to depart to our respective homes. I was taken away with the Doctor in his carriage to his home, where I might meet with my own party and be escorted back to my own residence. I was full of the day just behind me, and with the rocking of the coach and the rain that had just begun to fall, that I fell quite asleep and remained so until I was quietly roused by the Doctor to exchange conveyance. I apologized to him profusely and begged his forgiveness in my providing no sort of conversation on the way home. The wonderful and accommodating man that he is he would hear none of it, and only wished me a good night and thanked me for my company that day. He handed me into my own carriage, and Abigail soon followed. I watched him as long as I could as we drove off, then promptly resumed my recovery with yet another nap. It was well past dark and supper-time when I finally arrived at the Plantation, and in such the state I was I happily collapsed into my own bed and stirred not when Mr. and Mrs. Hegwood came into the room to follow my example.

This morning I awoke so well rested and in such high spirits I even greeted the work-men who were slowly beginning to trickle in and resume their work; much to their shock. I joined Mr. and Mrs. Hegwood at the breakfast table, where, as I could have predicted, the same argument had commenced an hour before and had continued until my joining them. I listened to them whilst softly humming a tune, and when a lull had arrived that I felt sufficient, I put down my knife and fork and turned to Mr. Hegwood to say only;

"My dearest Mr. Hegwood, perhaps reconsider, the Columns I feel look very foolish, and will commend ourselves to no-one who happens to visit." I patted is hand, and got up from the breakfast table to retrieve my journal, sketch-journal, and spy-glass, and made immediate haste for the nearest copse of trees in which to lose myself in what I may find until I may deem it safe to return to the house, and two hours from that moment, I am still here, and still writing.

I hope a new invitation from the Doctor arrives soon, or the home is finished.