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shall come East to spend my spring vacation provided urgent business does not call me to Massachusetts, and should it be agreeable on your part. shall feel myself honored in making you a visit, which, if enjoyed, I hope the state of your health will be such as to render more agreeable to you than my former one. It was then such that I felt it injudicious for you to talk much.

 So sudden & extreme have been the changes of the weather here this winter that the inhabitants almost without exception have suffered much from severe colds and in the case of many it will I doubt not terminate in consumption. Within about three weeks God has seen fit in his righteous Providence to visit this town with the scarlet fever by which very many of the youth and children & in some instances adult persons have been swept away. There were nine lay corpses in the place one day last week. Wh? a call to be also ready? How true it is "we know neither the day nor the hour when the son of Man cometh."
 The religious interest here is very low, though I think the prospect of better time is a little more flattering now than it has been, but still the ways of Zion mourn & comparatively few come to her solemn feasts, her priests sigh, she is yet in bitterness. May the Lord come quickly & revive the drooping graces of his children. I hope it is not so in Milo. I hope to hear that Christians there are prating with much fervency & strong faith for the reviving influences of God's Spirit, And witnessing answers to their prayers by seeing many turning from the ways of sin to holiness. Please let me hear from you soon. Yours in sincere friendship                                         James Newton

Miss Lucy H. Metcalf [left-hand side] P.S. Please give my respects to your Mother & all the family and through you hear from them all.