To Mrs. J.G. Holland
From ED

late November 1866?

Sister,

A mutual plum is not a plum. I was too respectful to take the pulp and do not like the stone.

Send no union letters. The soul must go by Death alone, so, it must by life, if it is a soul.

If a committee - no matter.

I saw the sunrise on the Alps since I saw you. Travel why to Nature, when she dwells with us? Those who lift their hats shall see her, as devout do God.

I trust you are merry and sound. The chances are all against the dear, when we are not with them, though paws of principalities cannot affont if we are by.

Dr. Vaill called here Monday on his way to your house to get the Doctor to preach for him. Shall search The Republican for a brief of the sermon. Today is very homely and awkward as the homely are who have not mental beauty.

The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.

A narrow wind complains all day
How someone treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.