3

I need not say that to hear from you will give me pleasure,
let my so soon comply with your request since that, and likewise let the
slovenly appearance of this midnight scrawl say, Maria Nicholson wishes to
appear like an old Friend without disguise, and without parade -

But I must not conclude my letter without informing you
of another, among various sources of amusement desired, from my situation
here, which a City residence deprives me - that is Botanical researches -
Maria and I have become great participants, and had not the Country
been harvested and ransacked before, we might hope to gain Immortality
by discovering some non-descript plant - but Alas! the woods and the
wilds having afforded pleasure to other than uncultivated savage may
long, long, before Templstonia or Nicholsonia thickened the shade of
their shadows -

May the blessings of Peace accompany thee [unreadable]
in all thy [illegible] through this tumultuous sense of things, and
may thy affectionate heart we must with attachment, reciprocal and
sincere as that which flows for thee in the bosom of ---------

Maria Nicholson

Maria T. writes by this Post I believe to you --