count it a choice memory and a real honor to have been so long with an
ideal New England woman, who under the stress of heavy burdens, wrote a
book which tells its story in twenty different languages.

Cousin Maria, Lucy Gillette, and scores more, of elect women and
men, pass before me as dear strong factors in all our lives. But
this little journal has been written simply to remind you of what I feared
you might have been too young to remember distinctly. To day we hear that
Curtis is dying - I do not wish to oppress you with sad thoughts, but I
see plainly how my ranks are thining [sic], and if I am not left solitary, I must
turn back and outward, as the dependant vine, ²for new points of contact,
¹to the fresher life of yourselves, and your friends. Your own natures
promise you as high comrades as your parents have enjoyed in our home - May
you ever find them, ^and as Shakspere [sic] says " May your worth prove your welcome.

S.H. Dickinson
"The Evergreens"
July 20 /92
Copied by dear Ned.

*Mrs. Gillette