love letter

From a collection of letters between my g.g.grandfather and g.g.grandmother.

Conway, Ark.
June 19, 1896

My Darling Lottie,

When we came here last September, we counted the long years until you could graduate and go with me. After you went away to teach at Hamlet, we decided that the years were too long and we shortened them into less than one year, fixing our wedding day in September. When you returned to school, we talked of the long time until September, and our marriage was fixed for June. We said three months, two months, one month, four, three, two weeks, and we would be married and separate for our summer's work. Tonight it is one week until our wedding day and you are going with me, to stay, throughout the long, tiresome summer, throughout our lives. And yet with the short time I get impatient. I want you tonight. Every day I need my own darling Lottie. The time seems near at hand when we can have a home of our own. If you do not teach this summer, you can begin to fix for our home in September. I want us to be all by ourselves as soon as possible. It seems to me that as complete happiness as can come to mortals is very near to us now. Only one more Tuesday night is to pass over me in my bachelor state. In contemplation of my wedding day I am as happy as my impatience will let me be. I am sorry that I must pass next Sunday without seeing you, but it will be very busy. There will be two sermons and a YMCA service to attend. Monday and Tuesday will be very busy also. There will be a crowd here from Saturday on to the close. I am glad the time is short. It will soon pass away and I'll claim Lottie for my wife.

I am very well prepared for commencement. I stood my French examination this evening and I am sure that I made a good grade. I have but one more, Latin, and I am reviewing that. I have been reading it tonight. I have plenty of time to review it well, and I have never made much less than ninety on it. I have no fear for it. I know my orations well enough to rehearse them. I practiced both of them this evening without referring to my manuscripts.

Next Tuesday morning I'll need for Lottie to remember me strongly about ten o'clock. My memory is treacherous sometimes. I do not want to forget my speech even if I can not win the medal. I am sorry my course was so heavy that I could not work for the scholarship medal. I wished it because you got one. Everything is alright though. I'll get Lottie and that will be enough for one fellow. As you can see from this writing I am all jerky, and I'll wait awhile.

Goodnight my own precious darling,
Willie

There's so much to love about these letters; the writing, their dedication to each other, and the depth of feeling each one portrays. I also love the fact that her academic success seemed to challenge him, even though he was a high achiever in his own right, and that she was the one to win the scholarship medal.