To Mrs. J.G. Holland
From ED

October 1879

Little Sister,

I was glad you wrote - I was just addressing the Coroner of Alexandria - You spared me the melancholy research -

Are you pretty well - have you been happy -

Are your Eyes safe?

A thousand questions rise to my lips, and as suddenly ebb - for how little I know of you recently - An awkward loneliness smites me - I fear I must ask with Mr Wentworth, "Where are our moral foundations?"

Should you ask what had happened here, I should say nothing perceptible. Sweet latent events - too shy to confide -

It will vivify us to your remembrance to tell yout hat Austin and Sue have just returned from Belchertown Cattle Show -

Austin brough me a Balloon and Vinnie a Watermelon and each of his family a Whip - Wasn't it primitive? Brave Vinnie is well - Mother does not yet stand alone and fears she never shall walk, but I tell her we all shall fly so soon, not to let it grieve her, and what indeed is Earth but a Nest, from whose rim we are falling>

One day last Summer I laughed once like "Little Mrs Holland," Vinnie said I did - how much it pleased us all -

I ask you to ask your Doctor will he be so kind as to write the name of my Philadelphia friend on the Note within, and your little Hand will take it to him -

You were so long so faithful, Earth would not seem homelike without your little sunny Acts -

Love for you each -

          Emily.