My dear friend Deane : — 



February 12. 1903. 



The Botanical Gazette 



The arrival of your kind note of acknowledgement and inquiry 

 this morning reminds me of a duty 'that should have "been attended to some 

 days ago, when I first emerged from the helplessness of my 7 weeks in 



tion reached me wMle I was still in durance and cheered me mightily. 

 Will you think this "mechanical" letter a poor recompense for your con- 

 cern ? Now that I am up again, it seems that there are more things to do 

 than there are hours to do them in, and I can make a little time by us- 

 ing both hands instead of one to write to you. 



I had my clothes on for the first time on February 2, and was allow- 

 ed to walk around the second floor for a week before the doctor would 

 let me go down stairs. Last Sunday he allowed me to go to church, which 

 is just across the street, and Monday I had my advanced class (10 gradu- 

 ate students) come to the house for their first lecture. Yesterday I 

 walked about six blocks and I think that by the end of the, week I shall 

 get over to the University, which is five blocks away. So you see tha^ I 

 am improving steadily and rapidly. The fact that it seems so to me is 

 perhaps the strongest evidence of it. You've no idea how weak I was 

 when I first put foot to the floor. There had been absolutely nothing, 

 as I thought, and as the doctor assured me, in the illness itself to sap 

 my strength, yet I could not stand up I Even when I was first raised to 

 a sitting posture, my head swam. I would not have believed that simply 

 the disuse of muscles for six weeks would have made them so useless, at 

 least for a few days. Now, however , they are recovering tone so that I 

 shall soon be as active as ever. I am warned, though, that I must be 

 cautious about sudden strains on the heart for a yaar,by which time, the 



bed. Your letter and Mrs. Deane' s, so^ full of sympathy and real affec- 



