Transcription:
1 there have been foreshadwoing symp- toms of heart degeneration, for near- ly six months I have been prepared to see the
disease culminate. She has been mostely confined to her room for 4 months; her case ter- minated by collapse on Thursday morning
last; preceded by pneumonia Within 4 months, my next younger brother Charles ended a suffering ca- reer, the day before Mother?
Kerry? word strucken arrived in N. York, the wife of C.? was buried. My Mary is the fourth of our household who has departed
in the above named? period. She always entertained an affectionate regard for you. Your name has never been mentioned with-
out some kind expression of feeling on her part, she after wished that you would make us a visit. She suffered greatly,
but never a murmur escaped her lips. She 3 knew; more from increasing disability than from ought I ever said, that her
end was drawing nigh. I could not bear to speak to her of the probabilites of of death.- no one was ever better prepared for
the dark journey than herself. To-day I opened her scrap book recently written with a pencil were written above line extracts
from some of her favorite authors. They are on the inside cover of the first page. Here is one of them:- A death is only to
be felt never to be talked upon by those it touches. Horace Walpole. The illegible are her own? or perhaps now? . But I
fear to tire you with remarks which are more absorbing to myself than to any one else. Human troubles are like ripples from
a stone thrown into the water. They are heaviest at the point of con- tact, as they diverge, they become smaller? ultimately
disappear.