Another "scrap."Dear Sister Jane, -
It is with new thoughts and fond hopes that I take up my pen to write to you this time. Of course, I speak only of myself, and my health; The rest must speak for themsels. [sic] - But you say, explain yourself - I have been reading for a few days past Dr Fitch's lectures to Ladies, and they, dear Jane, have inspired my poor heart with the hope that I too may get well and that perhaps soon then I shall walk around, and sit up all day; and then I shall see the presious [sic] little "nèphue." - But, Oh, I fear lest this sweet hope must be crushed, like the many others that we now laid in the past. Be that as it may, I thank Heaven that I am in the hands of a kind Providence whose will I would not rais[e] a finger to alter.
[Assuming this is written by Jane's sister Sarah, about 17 years old when this letter was written. Dr. Samuel Sheldon Fitch was a well-known consumption specialist operating in the New England area. His "Six Lectures on the Uses of the Lungs" was published in 1847 and the fourth one was titled "Lecture to Ladies." Sarah has consumption, and does indeed survive it. She passed away in 1882 just a few months shy of her 50th birthday.]