102 Waverley Place,
New York, May 1st, 1878.
My Dear Father and Mother:
I am just in receipt of the papers which place me in possession of the Old Homestead. This, I am sure, will be very pleasing news to you, since it is my intention to make it the home of your declining years: poor old grandmother, too, shall find it a welcome refuge while she lives. I have never felt that I could see the home of my birth pass to other hands; my heart still clings to it, and its hallowed associations, with all the tenacity of former days. The first of May will, in future, have special charms for me, for from this day, 1878, dates my claim to that spot of earth which to me is dearer than all others.
Imagination often takes me back to the Old House on the Hill, where your children spent many of the happiest hours of their childhood and youth. In fancy I again visit the scenes of my boyhood—again chase the butterfly, and pick the dandelion with Elvira and Marjorie in the shade of the wide-spreading elms.
I have been working for you, dear parents, in the face of great obstacles since the close of the war. If you think I have neglected you—have not been home in ten long years, then I reply, I did not wish to see you again until I could place you beyond the reach of want. One of the objects of my life is to-day accomplished: and now, with love to all, and the fervent hope that prosperity and happiness may wait upon you for many, many years to come,
I remain, always,
Your most affectionate son,
Willard.