a little more keenly, as the bed hour drew on, (and the feast seemed ^seeming a bit
contraband) in the fear of the chilling summons to say good night, inducing
a shrinking into the protecting shadow of a large easy chair, knowing ve-
ry well, the parents, in an abandon of enjoyment, would easily forget for
the time, the home rules. You remember much, of the people who have been
in our home from time, to time, but I am sure your memories can be freshened
by a few details written out in some order.

I rememeber very distinctly the first guest^{, in our newly married home,} who seemed to enrich
and widen all life for us, a creator of endless perspectives. This was
Mr. Bowles, known in after years to you, as "Uncle Sam", and forever more,
our dear and trusted friend. Although for some years ^previously a friend of your
Father and Grandfather, I knew him very slightly, and as I was a young
housekeeper, ^I felt no little agitation upon his arriving ^{for a first visit} with a lady friend
to dine with us, ^{d/bearly[?] in the new life together,} with very little notice. He came to town to report the
result of some agricultural experiments on a farm ^{an estate} near us, for the ^"Springfield Repub-
lican", and was pleased to accept our invitation to dinner. He was most
mellow, and charming, through the dinner, but my most distinct impression of
him^{, at that time} was his kind word at parting, when as he bade me good by, he remarked
"That was very nice lamb and strawberries"! Nothing could have been more
like him, revealing a ^his delicate perception of the embarrassment and anxiety
I must have ^probably betrayed in my manner least my first dinner should not be
a la mode. I could not tell in words how much his friendship was to us,
for he gave to ^{us as} all his friends "from depths that overflowed". Nothing was
too personal, or rare, to share with them, although none drew more sacredly
than he, the finer lines about his elect.

In after years we had ^{with him} "Noctes Ambrosiana," in ^[e?]very truth. Before his