MANUSCRIPT: missing.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 166-168; LL 198, in part; L (1931) 162- 164; LH 46-47, dated (presumably by ED): Sabbath Day.

Mrs. Dickinson's illness was a condition that lasted several years and caused the family much anxiety. Later in 1856 she spent some time at a water cure establishment in Northampton. Dr. Holland's "exquisite hymn" may have been a poem "Things New and Old," published in the Springfield Republican, 1 January 1856. Mrs. Holland's sister lost her husband Otis Knight, 12 January. The quotation in the third paragraph is from 2 Corinthians 5.1: ". . . we have a building of God, an house not made with hands . . . " (see also letters no. 180, 458, and 866).