MANUSCRIPT: missing.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 187-188; L (1931) 179-180; LH 200.

Mrs. Holland first went to Florida to escape attacks of rheumatism during the winter of 1885- 1886. She may have known more about ED's illness than this letter of thanks would imply. It is the last letter that ED is known to have written her, and probably the final one. George Stearns of Chicopee, a well-known lawyer and humorist, was a contributor to the Springfield Republican. The quotation has not been identified, but may be part of a story told to the Hollands and Dickinsons after Stearms (who described it in the Republican) had returned from an alligator hunt. The second quotations is from Paradise Lost, II, 272-273: "O flowers/That never will in other climate grow . . ."