p.

My dream of happiness for the
future is centered in a little
quiet home of our own freed
from the contentious and annoy-
-ances that usually embitter life
and that have in a measure sound
our own past life and some
legitimate means of earning a
livelihood other than by hard
manual labor and my own
cherished Lydia to love + protect
Unambitious is it not yet will
it be consummated I am pledged
to a warfare with my kindness
my trade is to kill - my duty to
stand up bravely and offer
my own life - it is no better than
others - on every side they fall brave
+ good men - fond + loving hearts
are torn + lie bleeding in agony
- and possibly the loved one for
whose eyes these lines are penned
may next learn that the writer