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  f'm my friend Mrs: Johnston | NY Our dear Uncle Walt.

If all the talks of you which are heard in our family were telephoned to your ear, you would have daily communications from the house of Johnston.

"Uncle Walt would enjoy this;" "I wish Uncle Walt could hear that;" "If Uncle Walt were only here," are frequent exclamations. Indeed  you have had, since the sad event of thirteen years ago, (does it seem so long?) a central place in the heart of the home and it was there I met and welcomed you.

Now another change is about to take place: (and who knows whether life or death is more momentous?) The marriage of Grace.

You know how lovely she is in voice and feature: but you cannot know how  every best quality of her parents is mingled into a perfect whole. To me, her second mother, (by law, her first in devotion) she has always been a daughter indeed! Nothing could surpass the filial love she has given me: the confidence in my judgment: the loving obedience to every requirement. The aid, the encoureagement, the companionship she has given me since reaching the level of womanhood.

It is not easy for me to give this to a man: nor easy  for her to turn her face away from the sweet care-free maidenhood: leave the dear sheltered home—next the companionship of sisters: and take all at once wife-hood mother-hood,—the burden of a wealth-sustaining matron!

For you have doubtless heard that the man she is to marry has both children and money: (burdens or blessings as we make them.) Fortunately—though without these qualities he would not have gained his

  see notes | June 6 | 1889