colby_fam_b2_f33_d06_08

I shall not feel thus, and then bare thought that you have
"imperfections", lots of them as she insinuates, gives
one a sort of "fuller feeling" for you, as some body has
said; (don't know to whom I am indebted for that
classical quotations unless it was good old Dame Tartington
, but it "spresses" the idea very elegantly, and I'm
always -indebted - crossed out] grateful to an author who throws the
drapery of appropriate words, around my own thoughts
and "feelinks". But this is a "expression" - I'm "getting
off the track" - a common fault in these fast days
but Ill try and "switch" back now.

Well I've been rumaging the the store house memory
and must enrich this dull page with [this - crossed out] one tiny
sparkling gem which I've stolen from Wordsworth's
tempting casket; it came bubbling up to my tongues
end whenI read cousin[s-crossed out] Lauries introduction, and
I'll say it over once more,

"A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles."

Such impulsive, human beings I can love,
and love truly; but the "angels" the "sylphs" and "fairies"
of which romance and poetry are full are "too
bright and good" to dwell with plebean clay; and
indeed they are a race unknown in the backwoods
where I've pitched my tent in this "wilderness of sin"
where I've "wandered" lo these 80 years

Yet I do like a spice of poetry in a friend, a
liberal spice too, and a blending of the angel - or