December 17 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam and Livy:

Yours of the 2nd inst. about Ned Bunce came this morning, and found me on the point of mailing you the enclosed. Yes, as you say, the old fellowship is now at the dissolving stage and we are writing one another’s obituaries. How could life ever have seemed anything but the stuff that dreams are made of. Only to hope andto grief it is long.

Harmony saw Libbie H.— only last Saturday. She had not walked a [illegible word] alone since her stroke last summer, and she could not control her speech. Yet wrecked as she was, she was completely herself in countenance and look and was apparenty in a cheerful mind. In the end, the day broke and her shadows fled away very suddenly. All our friends were at the funeral, tender and tearful, but thinking of Libbie, not unhappy. …

Sally Dunham is better than she was, and so is Molly, but still in a feeble state….you’d better come home while some are left and while you are left [MTP].