There is a little note belonging to this period full of poetic feeling
and giving more than a hint at the wearifulness of interrupting
visitors:--

"I send you the pleasant volume I promised you yesterday. It is a book
for summer moods by the seaside, but will not be out of place on a
winter night by the fireside.... You will find an allusion to the
'blue borage flowers' that flavor the claret-cup. I know where grows
another kind of bore-age that embitters the goblet of life. I can
spare you some of this herb, if you have room for it in your garden or
your garret. It is warranted to destroy all peace of mind, and finally
to produce softening of the brain and insanity.

"'Better juice of vine
Than berry wine!
Fire! fire! steel, oh, steel!
Fire! fire! steel and fire!'"

The following, written in the spring of the same year, gives a hint of
what a festival season it was to him while the lilacs which surround
his house were in bloom:--

"Here is the poem, copied for you by your humble scribe. I found it
impossible to crowd it into a page of note paper. Come any pleasant
morning, as soon after breakfast or before as you like, and we will go
on with the 'Michael Angelical' manuscript. I shall not be likely to
go to town while the lilacs are in bloom."

The rambling diary continues: "To-day Longfellow sent us half a dozen