”FROM WILLIAM ROBERT WARE.

New- York, January 4th, 1892.

My dear Mrs. Gibbons,

I went to the Missouri River for my Xmas, and have been so busy since I got back, making up for lost time, and answering the letters that accumulated during my absence, that I haven’t got a chance to bring you this Christmas benefaction, which my sister Harriet entrusted to me for you. She made it with her own hands, and says that though still a little new and raw, she hopes that when mellowed by age,—which never does any harm to anybody,— it may become worthy of your attention. It is not the ‘damnable bounce,’ denounced by Goldsmith, but the Cherry variety, or ‘ Vanity,’ as Mr. Weller would say.

To-day I go to Milton, to see my sister Emma and Jane Winsor who returned from France while I was away.

You see I was afraid to face Harriet,—who is terrible when she is angry,—without having delivered her gift.

Yours, always, to command

William R. Ware.”

Reference Data:

Life of Abby Hooper Gibbons: Told Chiefly Through Her Correspondence, by Abby Hooper Gibbons, 1896, page 299