I thank you with all my heart you are so kind I dont know what to say.

I was sitting here all alone last night, when your letter came — I thought it was pretty nice. — went to bed feeling happy as anything feel first rate to day — have had a good deal to make me feel cheery —. your letter & presant and Lou [2]X
Louisa Orr Haslam Whitman (1842-1892), known as "Lou," married George Whitman on April 14, 1871. They moved to Camden in 1872. Walt Whitman lived with them from 1873 to 1884. See Karen Wolfe, "Whitman, Louisa Orr Haslam (Mrs. George) (1842-1892)," in Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland, 1998), 781. sent me just as nice a dress as I want View PageFull size in new windowwith all the trimings. & pair of knit shoes and a nice letter. All as good as good can be.

I hope, know you are having a good Christmas Walt dear for you spoke of going out to dinner, and its a pleasant day, not very cold the weather has been unuasuly mild & pleasant this winter I went down street yesterday just to see the sights, did not go in a single place, it has been an unusual lively Chrs. here, fine sleighing. — one could hardly cross Church St. yesterday for the sleighs Burlington has improved, changed much, since you was here, [3]X
Whitman visited Burlington in June 1872, as an extension of a trip he took to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to deliver the commencement poem. Whitman wrote "As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free" for the occasion. See Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 442. View PageFull size in new window many fine buildings. all the principal St. graded & flagged Pearl (our street) recently.—

Mrs. Rose one of my near neighbors just now, came to the window and wants me to come in, to see her Chrs presents.

Am all alone this afternoon C. [4]X
Hannah's abbreviation for Charles. gone away somewheres . — his lottery [5]X
Heyde followed the example set by the Art Unions in the mid-nineteenth century, of holding a lottery (or raffle) to sell his paintings. The Art Union would charge subscribers to belong to its organization each year, and at the end of the year a drawing would be held. Winners would receive original works of art that the Art Union had purchased. More than likely Heyde charged a nominal fee for the tickets he sold. See William H. Gerdts Jr., Painting and Sculpture in New Jersey (Princeton NJ: D. Van Nostrand, 1964), 84. came off a week ago, I believe he is going to dispose of more pictures same way.

Glad you sent me the Herald. [6]X
The New York Herald, a daily newspaper, was established by James Gordon Bennett on May 16, 1835. The Herald (published from 1835 to 1924) was a "popular, cheap, mass circulation newspaper....the most successful and widely circulated newspaper in mid-nineteenth-century America." See James Crouthamel, Bennett's New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989), ix.

Hope you will have a happy New Year, Walt dear.

If you should see Lou before I write to her, will you tell her, I was wonderfully pleased with her sending me the things. —

I think you are all very good to me.