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Chester Harding St. Louis Dec 6th ^[[Chester Harding - Amer. Portrait Painter]] St Louis Dec 6. Dear Hicks I have a picture that I would like to exhibit at the approaching exhibition of the Academy of Design; and I propose to tax you with the carrying out of the plan I wish in the first place to know the time set down for the Exhibition - then if you will receive the picture - get a frame costing about 25$. - then send the portrait to the gallery - then see that it has as good a light as it deserves, and give it a coat of varnish - then let me know the amount of expenses and I will remit the same at once. I hope you are finishing up the sketches, or rather making compositions from the sketches you made last summer, and that your hands may be as full of [[underlined]] work, [[/underlined]] as your [[underlined]] soul [[/underlined]] is of ^[[90]]