44. To Marie Engels, about the beginning of May
I started a letter to you last night but got no further than three lines when Anna(1) came and cut it off to use the rest of the paper herself. I got both your letters, including the one sent to Bremen, which made quite a journey before it reached me. Well, it's pretty dry in these parts except for an occasional dinner with some May wine or a student drinking bout, or carousal or rainy weather. The best thing about the whole business is that I smoke the whole day long and this is undoubtedly a great and priceless pleasure. I received some very nice things in my trunk which arrived here from Bremen — a little cigar basket, ash-tray, tassel for my pipe, etc. Father has gone to Engelskirchen and I am sitting in his dressing-gown on his stool with his long pipe, puffing out smoke like anything. We'll be off to Milan[242] in eight or ten days and all we wish for is good weather. It's raining cats and dogs here today. I am curious to know how you have developed in Mannheim — whether you are still the same silly, skinny chick you used to be, or whether you have picked up any new crazy ideas. Anna also gets up to daft tricks now and again and indulges in all kinds of silliness — with every third word she exclaims "Og, Drikes!"(2) Her-mann(3) is developing a real talent as a hypochondriac and can often sit all day with a face utterly indifferent to the world, his
Endnotes
[242] Engels wrote to his sister Marie from Bremen on March 8, 1841, about his intention to make a journey to Italy (see this volume, p. 529), but he did not go there until the middle of May. On the way he visited Basle and Zurich and then crossed the Alps at Sphlgen. His travel impressions are described in the unfinished essay "Wanderings in Lombardy" (see this volume, pp. 170-80).