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person if he or she knew exactly what those same men said but as I still remain in blissful ignorance of the italian tongue I dont mind. I hardly think it would shock me if I did understand as I have lived in S.B. [[south Boston]] for fifteen or eighteen years and work in a lithograph shop for three. If that is not enough to harden a saint, and I never laid claim to that honored dignity, I dont know what is. Mother wrote that she and the Gov. were over to the Maples Xmas night and about the oyster feast. Oh! had I an oyster, a good american one. I think I would put it in a glass case as a curiosity. I have ever had a glimer of one since landing on these historic shores.

That's pretty good I guess I'll turn wit as that is the only thing I think is more than being and artist. Either that or enter an insane asylum.

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by the way they have a large one here and judging from the sounds, we hear while passing it must be pretty well filled.

I hav'nt seen a drunken man since I have been here; it is quite a relief or otherwise I dont know which. It does seem like home to see a man gloriously drunk once in a while. It seems like old timers in S.B. [[south Boston]].

I feel terribly blue about that blowing up about you finding your old letters. Havnt you noticed it? Of course not as I only got the letter day before yesterday. All the same I will burn all future evidence against you. 

I flatter myself that is a very politic sentence. Remember me when next you go out sleighing and think how I should freeze up stiff as a board if I were there. All the same I should like to drop in and see all my dear friends and especially your dear self. Graves says if the weather dont change he will have to write a poem. That is the way he has of getting even with the world.
As ever Ned.

[[right margin]] Love to your mother and brother and family [[/right margin]]