Memoir of Frances Cabot Putnam ; a Family Chronicle

CHAUNCEY WETMORE WELLS 1872-1933

This book belonged to Chauncey Wetmore Wells. He taught in Yale College, of which he was a graduate, from 1897 to 1901, and from 1901 to 1933 at this University.

Chauncey Wells was, essentially, a scholar. The range of his read ing was wide, the breadth of his literary sympathy as uncommon as the breadth of his human sympathy. He was less concerned with the collection of facts than with meditation upon their sig nificance. His distinctive power lay in his ability to give to his students a subtle perception of the inner implications of form, of manners, of taste, of the really disciplined and discriminating mind. And this perception appeared not only in his thinking and teaching but also in all his relations with books and with men. / Sl&fiiscz^c^

FRANCES CABOT PUTNAM

Portrait of Frances by A. W. Cabot 1902

. MEMOIR

OF FRANCES CABOT PUTNAM

A Family Chronicle

CAMBRIDGE

Printed at The ^Riverside Tress 1916 c

IN MEKORIAM TO

ELIZABETH, JAMIE, MOLLY AND LOUISA FROM THEIR MOTHER

863781

FRANCES CABOT PUTNAM

THE STARS SHINED IN THEIR WATCHES AND REJOICED; WHEN HE CALLETH THEM, THEY SAY, HERE WE BE; AND SO WITH CHEER FULNESS THEY SHEWED LIGHT UNTO HIM THAT MADE THEM.

FRANCES was born in Boston on October 20, 1897, a month after we came back from our first summer at Cotuit. As it was autumn, and she was a very tiny baby, weighing only six pounds, we decided to keep her in her sunny south room (which we borrowed, for the winter, of Lizzie and Elizabeth) instead of sending her outdoors. The windows were never shut, day or night, and a bright open fire burned all the time. Her crib was pushed up to the window, which was opened wide, and there in the sun she took her naps. It was a very successful plan. I think she did not go out until the end of February, but she gained weight rapidly, and was as rosy and serene as any baby could be. There, by the fire, the children gathered in the short after noons to play with the baby and see her put to bed, and I have many happy memories of that winter. On Christmas the children got up a little tree for her, as she was not allowed to go to the family tree. She cried very little, and was so out of the way that Dr. Joslin, who was assisting Jim that year, and whom I had seen daily before she was born, would hardly believe that we had a baby when Jim invited him to come upstairs to look at her. He sent her a

[ i ] silver "lucky piece" on a blue ribbon, and if it did not bring her long Jife it certainly brought her good luck all her days. He sent it with this note, which I kept.

For the littlest Miss Putnam

MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL, You have been such a mysterious little body too seldom even a "Choir Invisible" that really I hardly knew what color ribbon to choose to match your eyes but I guess they are blue like your mam ma s.

" " I must tell you what Waller bade his lovely Rose say to a retiring maiden. "Tell her that s young, And shuns to have her graces spied, That hadst thou sprung In deserts where no men abide, Thou must have un- commended died." Please don t play angel all the time way up there. Your would-be admirer, ELLIOTT P. JOSLIN.

When Molly was born, and Jamie heard her cry, he was distressed but important, and said "My ittle sitter is calling for me, I must go to her." When Louisa cried, as a little baby, Molly was dissolved in tears and wailed, "Why does my baby sister cry, oh heard Frances why does she cry?" But when Louisa cry, she clapped her hands and danced round the

" cradle on the tips of her toes, saying, Dat little baby in can c y!" great delight. For some weeks after Baby was born, Louisa called her "little Louisa," evidently thinking Louisa a generic name for babies. Her name, however, was Baby to all who knew her, for many years, and we called her Baby at home thro