I send you a little note paper and a few wafers. You have so much to do lately that I cannot expect you to write often to me, but you must not forget that this is a little duty of yours that gives me a great deal of happiness. This last word reminds me of one of father’s beautiful selections to-day.
“Happiness is like the bird
That broods above its nest
And feels beneath its folded wings
Life’s dearest and its best.”
I am sure I feel as if I could fold my arms around you all, and say from my heart, “Here is my world within my embrace.” Let us try, dear Anna, to make it a good and beautiful world,—that when we are called to leave it we may be fit to join the good and beautiful of another sphere.
All things proclaim
In the valley and plain
That God is near.
Hills, vales and brooks,