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Friend

Your kind letter of Dec. 23, with the £81 over, has safely reached me. I thank you, dear Pall Mall Gazette, & deeply thank the donors of the gift—It is accepted, I am sure, in the same spirit in which it is conveyed—And I must add that (while I am not at all in actual want, and have generous and attentive friends here) a money aid like this comes most opportunely to me under the circumstances, and helps "keep the wolf from the door" indeed.

I am almost entirely physically disabled, but remain in good spirits and fairish health. Almost every week I write a little for pay and publication. Winter is at its height and bitter cold here now, the earth hard and covered with ice and snow, as I sit by my window well blanketed, writing this offhand letter of acknowledgement.

God bless my British friends assisters—(from the first they have come in when most wanted)—

Walt Whitman