MANUSCRIPT: AC. Ink. Dated: Sunday morning. Envelope addressed: Wm Austin Dickinson./Boston./Mass.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 90, one sentence only; L (1931) 89-90, in part; Home 181-183, entire.

The letter, without a stamp or postmark, was delivered by hand, perhaps by Ebenezer Burgess, who is mentioned as the undergraduate who would probably see Austin. This quotation in the second paragraph attempts to recall the opening lines of Longfellow's "The Rainy Day"; "The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;/ It rains, and the wind is never weary." (See letter no. 36.)