MANUSCRIPT: Jones Library. Ink. Dated: Friday night.

PUBLICATION: L (1931) 397-398.

After the Dickinsons moved back to Main Street, the Luke Sweetsers were their closest neighbors. ED here anticipates a visit at the home of the latter of some members of the Joseph Sweetser family. In a letter to Mrs. Joseph Sweetser written many years later (no. 478), ED alludes to her childhood memories of her Aunt Kate, possibly in the period of 1840-1842, when, as Mrs. Bingham suggest (Home 506), the family was probably living in Amherst. The visit of the previous spring, here mentioned, may have been ED's first opportunity as an adult to know her aunt. In "this hand upon our fireside," ED alludes probably to the continued poor health of her mother.

The date is conjectured from the handwriting.