p.

Stowe. April 21st 1864.

My Dear Friend:

Your last was duly and thank-
fully rec'd. I am sorry I was unable to accept
your kind invitation to eat a few oysters but
you must not feel slighted. The only reason was
you were not readily accessible.

You will be pleased to learn that I have
gained quite rapidly since I last wrote and am
now round considerably for me. I gain strength
with exercise. Indeed sometime I am really in
hopes I shall recover and be able to wear an
artificial limb.

My leg has been a long time in healing and
has caused me much suffering. The amputa-
tion was proper enough and it seemed to do
well till I got the gangrene in it. The chief
dfficulty I think was the condition of my system.
The old scrofulous humor would not permit it
to heal and the impurity of my blood seemed
to take up its head quarters in my stump. I am
now taking Dr. Foote's medicines and we all think
that I owe my life to them. I commencd with
him about the middle of Jan. and since then I
have constantly improved, tho' at first it was
very slow. You would be astonished at the amount
of corruption my abscesses have discharged this Winter.
The first one was lanced the first of Jan. and
was the most corrupt sore I ever saw. It
scented so badly that many people could not
stay in the room with me and a portion of the
time I had to have a smelling bottle at my nose.
This continued to discharge for a month when I had
another lanced larger than the first but more

[in left margin:]

Give my love to Spofford. Would send some to Hastings if I had any for him.