autumn 1880

TO: Louise and Frances Norcross
FROM: ED

. . . God is rather stern with his "little ones." "A cup of cold water in my name" is a shivering legacy February mornings.

. . . Maggie's brother is killed in the mine, and Maggie wants to die, but Death goes far around to those that want to see him. If the little cousins would give her a note - she does not know I ask it - I think it would help her begin, that bleeding beginning that every mourner knows.