The morning opened cloudy but mild and portending a fair day. I went to the Office for a short time and to the Insurance Office to read the news. The returns of the election in Pennsylvania appear to indicate a reaction in public opinion since October and a more favorable state of things for the opposition.1

I called at the house for my little boy John and took him with me down to the Railway where I found my father and all the family had arrived. They appeared in tolerably good spirits and soon moved off in the rear of the puffing engine.2 I returned home unaccountably depressed in my spirits. I have enjoyed the company of the family more this year than I ever did before and have had a kind of occupation in my doings at Quincy which have kept me much amused and happy. Now to come back to this blank, desolate place is altogether cheerless. I have no friends at all here in whom I put any confidence.

Home where I saw Mrs. Angier, then to the Office, where I did very little. Livy as usual, and in the afternoon, occupied with Grahame. Evening at home.