MANUSCRIPT: missing. The text is reproduced from a photosat (AC), formerly in the possession of Mrs. Todd. The letter is dated: Sabbath eve, 1847. A notation on the photostat, in Mrs. Todd's writing, records the address on the envelope: Miss Abiah P. Root/care of Miss Mary Campbell/Springfield/Mass. The address was canceled and the letter forwarded to Feeding Hills. The postmark is given as March 15, 1847.

PUBLISHED: L (1894) 25-26, in part; L (1931) 21-24, entire, together with a facsimile of the last page.

The spring term at Amherst Academy in 1847 began on March 5. The new preceptress, Rebecca M. Woodbridge, daughter of the Hadley minister, was a girl of twenty. The widow brought home from the West was Helen Humphrey Palmer, Jane Humphrey's sister, who had been on of ED's teachers five years before. The other friends here mentioned are probably Sabra Palmer, Harriet Merrill, Sarah Tracy, and Abby Wood.