
I am still here in the little Camden shanty not much different from when you were here but more disabled perhaps in locomotion power & in more liability to head & stomach troubles & easiness of "catching cold" (from my compulsory staying in I suppose)—Mrs Davis is still housekeeping & cooking for me—It is just past noon & I am told I am to have a good rice pudding made in a big earthenware baking dish for my dinner—wh' suits me well—(I wish you were here to help eat it)—
—I see the Staffords occasionally—Mrs S[tafford] was here ab't a week ago, is well as usual—nothing very new or different with them. They are still on the old farm & store & expect to continue— I see Ed and Harry & Joe Browning occasionally—Mrs. Rogers, (Mrs S[tafford]'s sister) is dead & buried, ab't two weeks ago.
Thos: Eakins, portrait painter, has painted a picture of me—very different from yours—realistic—("a poor old blind despised & dying King")—When you write tell me ab't your pict: whether it has been on exhibition &c: also ab't the bust Mary Costelloe has— whether any thing has been done with it—Morse is out in Indiana yet—Rhys was in Boston at last acc'ts —I am writing little poetical bits for the N Y Herald— Pearsall Smith and Mrs. S. & Alice are going to London to live— a big bunch of white lilies scents the room & my little canary is singing gaily as I finish—
Walt WhitmanIf you have a chance you may show this to Mary Costelloe & Wm Rossetti—to both of whom I send my love
