Father thinks that I spend too much time with my books. He says that too much reading will fill my head with notions that are beyond my poor ability to comprehend. I think he is wrong. I have read the classics, Ovid, Virgil, Dante. I am even fond of some of the new fiction. I found Verne’s 20,000 leagues to be thrilling. But here I am babbling on about books.

I am not one to usually carry on about the cares of the day. But of late I have felt an almost compulsion to write to you. In my dreams it is as though you were here, in this room with me. Reading my note over my shoulder. As though our thought, our words could span the time that separates us.

I close this note, and shall seal it in a safe place, to give to you on our wedding day. I want you to know that I have loved you, and prayed for you, long before we even met. I pray that soon, you will read this, and we may live as husband and wife.

Your one true, and forever love,

Janice Willow