To Mrs. J.G. Holland
From ED

mid-December 1882

Dear Sister.

I have thought of you with confiding Love, but to speak seemed taken from me - Blow has followed blow, till the wondering terror of the Mind clutches what is left, helpless of an accent -

You have spared so much and so patiently, it seems as if some seraphic Armor must have shielded you -

Mother has now been gone five Weeks. We should hae thought it a long Visit, were she coming back - Now the "Forever" thought almost shortens it, as we are nearer rejoining her than her own return - We were never intimate Mother and Children while she was our Mother - but Mines in the same Ground meet by tunneling and when she became our Child, the Affection came - when we were Children and she journeyed, she always brought us something. Now, would she bring us but herself, what an only Gift - Memory is a strange Bell-Jubilee, and Knell.

I hope your Home with the new Children is a Place of Peace, and believe it to be from Austin's Story - The Port of Peace has many Coves, though the main entrance cease - I hope the large sons are docile to their little Mother, whose commands are Balm - I had written to Kate, but ere mailing the Note that great difference came, and to find it would be to open a Past that is safer closed -

Austin told of his Call with much warmth, and I trust the Sun is still shining there, though it is since Night.

I trust the new Home may remain untouched - Is God Love's Adversary?

          Emily.