[265] To Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.
SHEFFIELD, Aug. 15, 1863.
MY DEAR BELLOWS,--Such a frolic breeze has not fallen upon these
inland waters this good while. Complain of heat! Why, it is as good as
champagne to you. Well, I shan't hesitate to write to you, for fear
of adding to your overwhelming burdens. A pretty picture your letter
is, of a man overwhelmed by burdens! And weigh a hundred and eighty!
I can't believe it. Why, I never have weighed more than a hundred and
seventy-six. Maybe you are an inch or two taller; and brains, I have
often observed, weigh heavy; but yours at the top must be like a glass
of soda-water! Nature did a great thing for you, when it placed that
buoyant fountain within you. I have often thought so.
But let me tell you, my dear fellow, that with all the stupendous share
you have had in the burdens of this awful time, you have not known, and
without knowing can never conceive, of what has weighed upon me for the
last nine months. . . . I thank you most heartily for your sympathy
with C. After all, my satisfaction in what he has done is not so great
as in what his letters, all along, show him to be. . . .
Always and affectionately your friend,