Autograph letter signed : Lamb House, to Emily Higginson, 1908 Jan. 7.

Acknowledging their gifts saying "Everything has come & everything is the admired of every one (who flock in crowds to gape & envy!) -- but the more special & private joy & pride of good George Gammon -- do you remember good George Gammon, most clear-faced & conscientious & eternally whistling (as well as raking) of gardners [sic]?" commenting on the bulbs she sent him that he has planted "in the corners that will be most friendly to them...but a little puzzler, as by the splendour of its green, the great lusty joy of its growth & the shyness as yet of its (few) awfully handsome blooms. Clearly it will bloom more confidently when it gets to know us a bit better, & meanwhile it's terrifically handsome. Otherwise the poor little garden is very much as you saw it;" appearing to reply to her question about his dog saying "The little dog? -- ah, there is no little dog anymore & will be none again! Poor little oblong amber Max...was taken with a bad, incurable most unhappy complaint which cost him his gentle though rather melancholy life...I sit here this evening late -- it's midnight -- the clock just strikes -- without any little oblong comrade [illegible] in my vacated armchair & fixing on me the steady little eye of deprecation in respect to the deadly moment when I shall put him to bed...Never was a mild & faithful old country cousin in a better setting for his placid virtues(?)/ You & George sound to me not so much mild as wild -- I mean gloriously & fruitfully rustic as Vidar faces the forces of nature, tamers & [illegible] of beasts, employers of labour, nourisher of great cities, farmers of great acres & makers, I hope, of great "piles" When the piles have accumulated a little do come out & pick me up...But I can easily see that your existence must be quite in the grand old pastoral Matriarchal style -- than which with Mother's Earth for your great straight backer & benefactor -- none is more sane & noble...What a [illegible] life for the little girls -- I mean the acres & the beasts & the barns & the milk pails & the thrilling things done!...hoping she hasn't "lost sight of those so genial & graceful ladies whose very names I forget....but whom I think of faithfully & gratefully -- especially the dear little one I dined with out of town that night coming back to you at Winnetka by late train! Speak to her of me!" adding, in a postscript, his thanks for the "divine tomato jelly."