In hon­or of the dwin­dling days of the lazy sum­mer, this week we’ve post­ed a let­ter from Lucy to her son-in-law Robert where she chas­tens him to get out of the office and take a vaca­tion with the fam­i­ly.  Lucy also express­es her hopes that Robert and Vir­ginia will take in Vir­gini­a’s sis­ter Eleanor over the win­ter because she’s had a rough go of it late­ly.  Poor thing is mar­ried to Wal­ter Otey, a slave trad­er, and Lucy dis­likes him so much she has in oth­er let­ters called him a “Demon clothed in human flesh.”  Yikes.

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Cov­ing­ton Aug 10th
My ever atten­tive & thought­ful son,
Was it not for you I should not yet know whether Via & the  chil­dren ever arrived in Pha or any­thing about their move­ments since, I am glad to hear they are so pleas­ant­ly  sit­u­at­ed & tru­ly sor­ry to hear you were com­pelled to leave them & return to St. Louis to be still con­fined to busi­ness, as soon as you get the Graders & boats off, can’t you return to them for  sev­er­al weeks & take a lit­tle recre­ation to your­self, I am sure  you have not had much, to have got­ten through your fall pur­chas­es so ear­ly, I judge one year by anoth­er, last year if I remem­ber  right you went on some­where about the first week in August, now  you return about this time hav­ing com­plet­ed your busi­ness there  so by this way of rea­son­ing, I think

[Pg. Break] after you get the Boats off, you might take a lit­tle  time for your­self & all to return togeth­er the 1st of Sept.  I  know you will say Mrs. Kyle is a poor judge about my busi­ness, &  like oth­er ladies think they know a good deal when they know  noth­ing about it.  Well I con­clud­ed before I left Brighton that  you would not return until you brought all back with you, at  least I thought it very doubt­ful, so I con­clud­ed to come right  off to Cov­ing­ton, as I am much hap­pi­er here every way, I am with  those who are very near & dear to me & who take plea­sure in any  way in their pow­er to pro­mote my com­fort & plea­sure, if I could  have board­ed in the same fam­i­ly with broth­er George & where  sis­ter E. board­ed  in the win­ter, I might have remained in  Brighton, but as I knew they did not wish to take board­ers I did  not apply to them.  The house I was at had no blinds too.

[Pg. Break] They had only shades to any part of it, it was so  light is was very severe on my eyes & the room I had was so very  warm at night & a feath­er bed too, the straw bed was too hard, so I thought there was no use in my stay­ing there any longer I  liked the fam­i­ly  very well & they kept a good table & I was as  polite & atten­tive to me as pos­si­ble, if I had been cer­tain of  your return I would have remained & met you in St. Louis & it  would have giv­en me great plea­sure to have it in my pow­er to be  in the degree ser­vice­able to you, I sup­pose now we  shall all meet some­time next month I am tru­ly delight­ed poor Eleanor is with Via & all our oth­er friends, she has had more  tri­als to bear since her mar­riage than any­one I ever knew.  I am  glad she is where she can enjoy some good soci­ety & see some­thing of the world, besides that of see­ing her sis­ter & cousins,

[Pg. Break] I hope you & Vial will invite her to accom­pa­ny you  home & do what you can to make her enjoy her­self this win­ter, I  have thought per­haps she would place Bet­tie at Board­ing school in Pha I think she and Via might write to me. The dear chil­dren how often I think of them par­tic­u­lar­ly sweet lit­tle Hazlett I know  Eleanor is devot­ed to them all she is so fond of chil­dren in fact I sup­pose both he & the baby are so much [?]_______ I don’t see  how they stand it every­body must have a play with them.  I sup­pose Hazlett is the great­est favorite of all the chil­dren with your  Broth­er and all, Please give my love to cousin David I sup­pose  you find him good com­pa­ny in the evening say to him that broth­er  Thomas received the Box of things & says they were all  sat­is­fac­to­ry which I was glad to hear he wrote to me from Nia­gara sis­ter Amelia sends her love to you & cousin David with a great  deal of love I remain now
and ever your affectionate
Moth­er in law
LA Kyle

[Pg. Break, side of 1st page] Remem­ber me kind­ly to the  Mack­en­sies’ Woods’ Allens’ and Mr. Yeat­man if enquired after by them.