
          Middleburg 31 Dec 1857


 Dear Dr Torrey


 I do not know when
 the dying year can leave me more
 saddened than I am here alone in
 Middleburg.


 My chief business [crossed out: ha]
 since I saw you last has been waiting.
 And what I am waiting for
 comes not unless that be an adjournment
 of all the hopes of usefulness
 that I and my friends have ever
 formed from my long & varied education.
 The prospect now is that on or
 before 18 Jan I shall leave here for
 Hillsgrove Ill. there to cultivate my
 own land till I can sit under my
 own vine & enjoy an unqualified ease.
 I have not sought this result, but I
 see no leadings of Providence to any other.
        