Bethel Me. ,duly 29/98, 
My dear Mr.Brewster: 
It is,lo,these many days that I have had anv news 
from you and your recent letter was as welcome as a fresh breeze would 
be these sultry dog-days. I knew you were somewhere and that we should 
surely know of your whereabouts in good time,and now we know that you 
are over in N.H,somewhere ,for just where Petersboro is I dont know, 
I am exceedingly sorry that you are in the clutches of the enemy agai 
who,like Satan,always seems to be lurking near. But we have a sort of 
a cinch on the old fellow ,anyway,and you know I shall always be happy 
in lending a hand at a rout. I felt homesick at what you wrote about 
the abundance of the tulip trees in the region you have been visitings 
that is one of my oldest friends of the Ohio woods,where it grows to 
great perfection,and is one of the first trees I learned to know when 
taking some early lessons in botany, I often Sigh for some of the fine 
nut trees of my old home,-the hickory,chestnut walnut & buckeye,-but 
for that matter I have good reason to believe that they would grow 
here-were it not for the life-time it would require to get them, 
I have been and am very busy with sick people, two of whom,ladies,I 
have in the house now, They have been here since the middle of May 
and will stay until about the first of October. One is from Cleveland 
and the other from Belfast ,Me..Then I have at present some interesting 
cases in the village-and one of them a very sick man at the hotel,- 
suffering with a localized peritonitis, A shall be so glad to see you 
again when you come through this way to go to the camp,as you are of 
course going to do via Bethel,and we are all looking forward to your 
visit en passant(thats "Frineh" I suppose)with the most pleasant anti- 
