of it, I am sure, better than most of us.

"To think of that child, who used to play about Brook Farm, and go through
finger drudgery under my piano-professorship (Heaven save the mark!), the
child of our young friends, Mr. and Mrs. F.S. (how can you think of them
as parents?) being the future Mrs. Howadji! or I a dull drudge of an
editor! I do wish indeed to see and know her, and doubt not I shall find
your glowing statements all confirmed, and that in your height of joy you
need not be ashamed to 'blush it east and blush it west.' There is a
certain 'Maud'-like ecstasy in your note that makes me think of that.

"A small bird had already sung the news in my ear. But it was doubly
pleasant to have it straight from you. It was good in you to remember me
so.... Would that I might see you in New York! but I must content myself
with the not very remote prospect of having you by the hand here. Till
then, believe me happy in your happiness, and faithfully as ever your
friend."

Francis George Shaw, and his wife Sarah B. Shaw, were not members of the
Brook Farm community; but they lived in the immediate vicinity, often
visited the farm, joined in its entertainments, and were intimate friends
of the leaders of the association. He was a contributor to the Harbinger,
for which he wrote a number of articles in favor of the associationist
social movement. He made an admirable translation of George Sand's
"Consuelo" for the paper, in which that novel was for the first time
printed in this country. Their children were frequently at the farm, and
grew up in the midst of such ideas and influences as it fostered. One of
them was that Colonel Robert G. Shaw who was "buried with his niggers" at
Fort Wagner, after having led one of the most gallant military movements
of modern times. Three of the daughters married, Curtis, General Barlow,