
          
4th Street, Friday aftn [afternoon]

My dear friend,

Your kind note, & the
spoon! reached me very safely, & I
most heartily thank you for both. "Rude
affair" quotha. I only wish I may produce
botanical spoon-meat, mete for such a 
spoon. That's all. Why, I should be a very
Robert Brown! I shall bethink me well
whether to make that same botanical 
spoon an especial [crossed out: ly] legacy to, the Smithsonian
Institute, or leave it as an
heir-loom of my house. Perhaps the latter.
I have delayed acknowledgment of your
kind present until I could "report progress"
as to myself. The die is now cast.
I remove to No. 81 Jane Street on
Thursday next, 5th proxo [proximo] D.V. [Deo volente] Now,
altho' [although] you have a daughter Jane, it does
not therefore absolutely follow that you
know where Jane Street is; & I beg
you to take note that my future
residence is a few doors West of
Hudson Street, Jane Street being one or
two streets above Abingdon Sq. [Square] which
you may possibly know, at any rate,
        