p.

looked over them, and he thought better
of them, they certainly are varied and
not in the ordinary [such ?]
You know what Stoddard for some
time has said of your work - that you
write better than ever.
Your "fallow field" returns to me
every now and then, it is charming-
just as clear and warm and dry as
its dear old grasses are. I think in
grace and spirit it may be en-
titled to sit in the seat behind
Tennysons Talking Oak.
What a disaster you have written. I
know what a walk of misery it would
be if Long should be so stricken -
he is not well either just now-
This is a hard dark year, every body
is dying, each has taken it into his