Letter 399 (autumn 1873) Mrs. J. G. Holland Emily Dickinson

Little Sister.

I miss your childlike Voice -

I miss your Heroism.

I feel that I lose combinedly a Soldier and a Bird.

I trust that you experience a trifling destitution.

Thank you for having been.

These timid Elixirs are obtained too seldom.

Thank you for every Patience. You won the love of all, even a sweet remark from Austin, in itself an achievement.

I am glad "the Jessamine lived."

To live is Endowment. It puts me in mind of that singular Verse in the Revelations - "Every several Gate was of one Pearl."

Little Sister - Good Night - I am sure you went.

Parting is one of the exactions of a Mortal Life. It is bleak - like Dying, but occurs more times.

To escape the former, some invite the last. The Giant in the Human Heart was never met outside.