Transcription:
18 yrs old: Letter to a friend, Hickory Hill Wis, 1856. Dear Bradley, I wrote you a long letter a day or two ago, with
a supplement; but it was till too short; I shall endeavor to finish it now You remember I mentioned your belief in Jesus Christ
as our Saviour. Now what should follow from so great a belief, and what does it signify? Just suppose Bradley, that you are
a traveler; You have long been wandering here and there in rough thorny places homeless and friendless; your father is dead,
and your mother is dead; you have not one friend to help you or take pity on you; you are an outcast, poor, hopeless, forsaken.
It has been a bitter stormy day; since morning you have been urging your toilsome way against the sleety beast. Now the darkness
thickens. It is night, and such a night. Hark how the storm shrieks and wails through the gloomy wood as the illegible wind
blows through the bending branches, its voice rising falling in long-drawn dismal cadence 00082