Transcription

to me you are a part of his own dead

self.  Please do not call your sweet

missives, egotistical any more for I would

not have you write otherwise & could

you be near, where each is received &

watch the happy change of counte-

nance as your familiar handwriting

is recognized, you would never again

think that I ever grow weary of

reading them; never allow such a

thought to enter your mind again

but remember that you have your

Pet's whole heart & that your loving

Sisters are among the brightest rays

of sunshine that ever come to dispel

its gloom : Oh how truly my heart

[?] the wish expressed in your

last letter that I was with you then

& indeed sleep would not have visited

my eyes that night for they would

have been busy gazing joyously & loving-

ly at the face that has been so long

pictured in memory & eyes, cheeks &

[Marginalia – cross hatched on page]

lips would have been kissed over & over again: If the weather

will permit I will have a likeness taken for you tomorrow

& enclose it in this letter : I cannot promise tho' that it

will be a good one, for the artist has only been here a short

time & I know nothing of the merit of his pictures : I will

enclose your own photograph, also, which I promised to

send long ago, but would always forget it when writing :

Will you not make another attempt to have a good one taken

for me please, darling Sister; I think with a dark background

the picture would look more life-like, & Brother has so often

told me that even the picture I have now, tho' better than the

other, is a perfect caricature of you, that I am anxious to have a

good photograph that I can place in my album:  This letter

dear Sister has been written a long time, but I have been weather-

bound & could not have the promised likeness taken & didn't wish to send

the letter off without it : All pronounce the photograph a perfect likeness

of me : A sweet kiss & heart full of love from

Your Pet