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Adjutant's Office: 88th Ill. Loudon, April 9th /64, On Tuesday your letter came: your blessed letter, so overflowing with the spirit of human helpingness. But I have been sick, and unable to write until now; at which time also, being faint and weak I must be brief beyond any personal device; altho indeed, sitting here thinking and dreaming, with your tender and reverent words lying before me on my desk, and crowning in my heart a softer lullaby than any Mother ever sang, I do not know what to say, save only these words - God bless you forever and forever. But I shall say that you do "comfort me." I do not mean by your wise inculcations, nor yet by the [illegible] paths with which you so gently beckon my life - but by something which, having no name, is yet above and beyond all things nameable - the living touch, as it were, of your own soul upon mine, giving to me a subtle restful sense of companionship - as if you were with me, you know - such as I have not felt these many solemn years. And so, dear friend, I shall not let you go -