To Mrs. J.G. Holland
From ED

early June 1884

Sweet friend.

I hope you brought your open Fire with you, else your confiding Nose has ere this been nipped -

Three dazzling Winter Nights have wrecked the budding Gardens, and the Bobolinks stand as still in the Meadow as if they had never danced -

I hope your Heart has kept you warm - Should I say your Hearts, for you are yet a Banker -

Death cannot plunder half so fast as Fervor can re-earn -

We had one more, "Memorial Day," to whom to carry Blossoms -

Gilbert had Lilies of the Valley, and Father and Mother, Damson-Hawthorn -

When it shall come my turn, I want a Buttercup - Doubtless the Grass will give me one, for does she not revere the Whims of her flitting Children?

I was with you in all the loneliness, when you took your flight, for every jostling of the Spirit barbs the Loss afresh - even the coming out of the Sun after an Hour's Rain, intensifies their Absence -

Ask some kind Voice to read to you Mark Antony's Oration over his Playmate Caesar -

I never knew a broken Heart to break itself so sweet -

I am glad if Theodore balked the Professors - Most such are Mankins, and a warm blow from a brave Anatomy, hurls them into Wherefores -