a year old, his hair is remarkably fine and sufficiently long.... I made
the perpendicular wires of the spider's webs, breaking them and doing
the work over again a great many times.... I at length got all in,
crossing the five perpendicular ones with a horizontal one from C.'s
spinning-wheel.... After twenty-four hours' exposure to the weather, I
looked at them. The spider-webs had not changed, they were plainly used
to a chill and made to endure changes of temperature; but C.'s hair,
which had never felt a cold greater than that of the nursery, nor a
change more decided than from his mother's arms to his father's, had
knotted up into a decided curl!--N.B. C. may expect ringlets.

"January 22. Horace Greeley, in an article in a recent number of the
'Tribune,' says that the fund left by Smithson is spent by the regents
of that institution in publishing books which no publisher would
undertake and which do no good to anybody. Now in our little town of
Nantucket, with our little Atheneum, these volumes are in constant
demand....

"I do not suppose that such works as those issued by the Smithsonian
regents are appreciated by all who turn them over, but the ignorant
learn that such things exist; they perceive that a higher cultivation
than theirs is in the world, and they are stimulated to strive after
greater excellence. So I steadily advocate, in purchasing books for the
Atheneum, the lifting of the people. 'Let us buy, not such books as the
people want, but books just above their wants, and they will reach up to
take what is put out for them.'

"Sept. 10, 1855. To know what one ought to do is certainly the hardest
thing in life. 'Doing' is comparatively easy; but there are no laws for
your individual case--yours is one of a myriad.