Transcription:
John Muir Dear Mr Willard I treasure your noble letter as the best of my new year blessings. I have been one of your many
admirers from the first day we met, and admiration has been growing ever greater as I saw how bravely you held on your way
against deadly odds digging hard and deep for bed-rock foundations, making ladders out of disease and pain, climbing higher
higher into the calm heights of life like God's strong aspiring pine-trees going straight to the heavens, nourished by their
own decaying brances and leaves.