Thanks, dear friend—& thanks, friends Bessie & Isabella Ford, R D Roberts of Cambridge, & William, Arthur & Ethel Thompson, for the welcome & noble birthday gift wh' has safely reach'd me (40 pounds) & is hereby receipted.
I still hold the fort, (after a fashion)—send you my latest & doubtless concluding chirps of L of G. by this mail—also sent you lame report of late birth-day spree—I sit up most of the time—but am a fearful wreck f'm grippe, gastric & bladder malady &c &c—my vocalization & right arm power & (sort o') ratiocination left middling fair—Dr Bucke has been here—has gone home to Canada—H Stafford is living down as farmer (address Ashland, Camden County, New Jersey) is well—has been quite ill—has two children—Herbert Gilchrist at Centreport, Suffolk Co: N Y: well—am sitting here comfortable as I write—
Walt Whitman