_13.--A Lover's Good-bye Before Starting on a Journey._
Pearl St., New York, March 11th, 1894.
My Dearest Nellie: I am off to-morrow, and yet not altogether,
for I leave my heart behind in your gentle keeping. You need
not place a guard over it, however, for it is as impossible
that it should stay away, as for a bit of steel to rush from a
magnet. The simile is eminently correct for you, my dear girl,
are a magnet, and my heart is as true to you as steel. I shall
make my absence as brief as possible. Not a day, not an hour,
not a minute, shall I waste either in going or returning. Oh,
this business; but I wont complain, for we must have something
for our hive besides honey--something that rhymes with it--and
that we must have it, I must bestir myself. You will find me
a faithful correspondent. Like the spider, I shall drop a line
by (almost) every post; and mind, you must give me letter for
letter. I can't give you credit. Your returns must be prompt
and punctual.
Passionately yours,
LEWIS SHUMAN.
To Miss Nellie Carter,
No. -- Fifth Avenue, New York.
_14.--From an Absent Lover._