Default Metadata, or override by section

  My Dear Friend,

The American mail arrived here an hour ago & brought me your dear, good letter of Aug 23rd & 24th with Sloane Kennedy's letter to you enclosed, for which I return you my most cordial thanks.

I am indeed glad to know that things, on the whole, go on fairly well with you & that you are able to sleep better & to be up, take your food & stand your   "stout massage"—that you must surely keep up at all inconveniences; it is the very life of you—for dear J. W. Wallace is by this time within four days of you & is cleaving his way toward you as fast as iron & steam can take him.

In your letter you say that your "missives are probably monotonous enough, the same old story over & over again."

Ah my dear, good old Friend if you knew how I long for those dear missives, how s[w]eetly   precious & how prized they are you would not speak of monotony. To me they are as welcome as the flowers in spring & I dare not think of the time when I shall cease to receive them.

I am deeply touched by your reference to your "fast dimming" eyesight & by the thought that you should continue to write to me when I know that the effort must be considerable. God bless you continually & preserve you from disaster for many a long day to come!

Since Wallace left us we have been living a life of quiet, hopeful & patient expectancy. At   our meeting on Monday last—wh. was held here—we spent the time in reading over our Whitman Correspondence—including H.L.T's wonderfully sweet & precious letters—in loving talk about you & Wallace & in reading bits from L. of G e.g. "Out of the rolling ocean" &c &c.

By the time you receive this Wallace will have seen & held loving converse with & will probably have gone on to Canada with Dr. Bucke.

Happy fellow! How I "Envigres" him!     But I have had my innings & now he is having his. But all the same I say "Happy fellow!"

I am a little impatient of the long time that must elapse before I can hear from him about his visit to you as I do so long to hear his story. But I must possess my soul in patience & in due time all will come right

I enclose a cutting from "The Queen" of June 13/91 which will certainly amuse you.

Walt Whitman, the American poet, celebrated his seventy-second birthday on May 31 in a quiet but happy way. The weather was delightful, and Mr Whitman sat in a little summer-house receiving callers nearly all day. The arbour was filled with flowers before dusk. The "good grey poet," though not able to get about very briskly, is in good health and spirits. The old gentleman entertained his guests with selections from his own works. From time to time, as groups gathered, he would open a volume, and eyeing his audience critically, select a passage which he believed would please them. Letters of congratulation were received from Lord Tennyson and many others.

It is a good "specimen["] of the "Society" journalist's power of imagination & his faculty of evolving   a par from his inner consciousness. The picture of an "old gentleman" "in good health & spirits["] tho' "not able to get about very briskly" "entertaining his guests" in a flower-filled, summer arbour "with selection from his own works" which his critical eye told him wd be likely to "please them" is distinctly & nobly comic when applied to you & your birthday! And "The Queen" is by no means poses as a comic paper!

With kindest regards to all your household & to HLT & with best love to yourself

I remain Yours affectionately J Johnston

PS Have just read John Burroughs article in Sept Atlantic—"A Study of Analogy"