My dear Brother

Till Wednesday morning I kept hoping we would see your philosophical face at the wedding but I was doomed to disappointment. Your clothes were all ready if you had not arrived till the 9 a.m. train Wednesday. However you doubtless had some good reason or you would have come. Letters must have been going astray.² Only one of the three you said you wrote ever reached me. As we would have seen little of you if you had come, I am almost as glad now that there will be that pleasure sooner in the future. It is singular that Dr. [Ormiston] neither appeared, nor answered Mary's invitation, or my notes. It is so unlike him that I fear some of his letters shared the same fate as yours. We are only staying here today, & intend going on to Cape Cottage--a quiet place near Portland. As neither of us has any desire to stop at these swell places, we thought one quieter would be nicer. Such a hole as this I was never in. I've a good deal to do, & quite a number of letters to write, so excuse this scrawl. Will write in a couple of days. With love from my pet, yours as ever

I.B. McQ.

¹ Isaac and Mary had been married on June 18th, 1873, so this letter was likely written while they were on their honeymoon.

² Since we have this letter, and many others from Isaac to his brother, it is very likely that Calvin Brooks did indeed receive these letters and, as did his father and mother, kept them. They may have been retrieved by the family after his death February 19, 1912 at which time Isaac's wife, Mary Baker McQuesten, was named executor of the will. Furthermore, it is certain that Calvin Brooks knew when and where his brother would be getting married but was nonetheless reluctant to come up from New York for the ceremony as Isaac writes to him six days before the wedding to say that he is upset about Calvin Brooks' excuses for not wanting to come (W2405). Isaac wrote several letters imploring his brother to attend (W2328, W2398, W2401) and Mary, who was apparently quite fond of Calvin Brooks, also wrote to him, expecting his presence at the wedding (W1380).