LETTER XI

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_50 Marquis Road Camden Sqre. Novr. 12, 1872._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

I must write not because I have anything to tell you--but because I want so, by help of a few loving words, to come into your presence as it were--into your remembrance. Not more do the things that grow want the sun.

I have received all the papers--& each has made a day very bright for me.

I hope the trip to California has not again had to be postponed--I realize well the enjoyment of it, & what it would be to California & the fresh impulses of thought & emotion that would shape themselves, melodiously, out of that for the new volume.

My children are all well. Beatrice is working hard to get through the requisite amount of Latin, &c. that is required in the preliminary examination--before entering on medical studies. Percy, my eldest, whom I have not seen for a year, is coming to spend Xmas with us.

Good-bye, dearest Friend.

ANNIE GILCHRIST.