Page: [1] Sparta, April 30, 1856 Your letter was very welcome dearest Callie. I felt as if I heard your voice, in reading those lines, they sounded like you. It seems that we are very [added text: far] apart, measuring distance by miles - yet it need not be so by thoughts - for I often think of you & hold many an hour's converse with Edge, about our dear Alabama friends. I have so many to love, & visit in your adopted state, that if I ever do come, I want to take the rounds -- To you of course - to Judge Bowie's & my cousins Mr & Mrs [unclear text: John] Curry Page: [2] in Talladega - to Mr [unclear text: Yancey] of Montgomery and Mrs Witherspoon of Mobile. This last is indeed a lovely character. She is my husband's double first cousin - & when returning from a visit to her children at school [unclear text: North], she made us a visit, in which I learned to love her very dearly. Did I write you that [unclear text: Sallie] Elmore was to be married on the 9th of April? Well - it "came off" & she is now Mrs Taylor. Such a letter! so startling - so brilliant, yet so tenderly written, as I received from her since her marriage! Words cannot express my admiration. That woman is a pure genius Cal - she bewilders me - yet I do love her letters - tho' [although] far above my imitation, Page: [3] they are fortunately not above my comprehension & I enjoy them keenly. She says she is coming - to bring her husband to see me, very soon. I suppose you have heard that Lucie Tull is to be married soon, to Edgar Dawson! I think he is the luckiest man I know. Her wealth is her slightest attraction to my eye. She is indeed lovely, in every sense of the word. I have known all her plans &c [et cetera] , always - but it is so generally believed now, that I do not need to keep silence any longer. I need not tell you, how I shall miss her - for she has been to me for many years, a peculiar pet. Edge wants to know if Cousin Porter's Page: [4] cotton is drying up? It is so distressingly dry here, that the seed will not come up -- To answer one of your queries I do not think there is anything at all between Anne [unclear text: Camak] & Harvey Hull. I think he has been [unclear text: rejected]; from what I was told, there can be no doubt of it. I was so sorry to learn of your sister [unclear text: Mag] 's recent hemorrhage. She is a lovely woman I think & I trust the evil may pass away, without any serious injury. Father accompanied Mrs Witherspoon as far as Montgomery - when she left, & says a friend pointed out Gen'l [General] King & his son to him - in the cars. Father had been Page: [5] asking some questions about my friend Mr Porter King, when the gentleman said "There is his Father" - & afterwards "his brother" -- We hear that your Mother-in-Law's health is very much broken. Her friends here are sorry to hear it. Won't [unclear text: Hennie] Hill & Emma Teabrook, be charmed with their sister, Lucie? And well they may be. Ada Seymour Carmichael has a son - about a week old. Called for her brother, recently deceased "Albert Seymour." Dr Preston of Savannah, (you may know him) died recently, very suddenly. His daughter, Mrs Tom Beman of our county, is a bride of Page: [6] only three weeks. Isn't a sad change from bridal honors, to the grief she now feels? Such is life -- What is the news of your sister Lucy? I hope she is getting well, dear Callie - it is hard to suffer so much & so long; yet Marion thought, while I was in Athens, that she had never seen her so submissive. How is your dear boy? I often think of what a comfort he must be to you, as months go by, developing new charms. My trio - keep well & bright & my baby is really lovely. She loses none of her infantile beauty, yet grows rapidly. Father Page: [7] & Edge send their love to you & Cousin Porter -- I hope we shall meet 'ere [before] very long dear Callie. I have written two long letters tonight. One to Sister, which was a newspaper for length - so will you pardon dearest friend, this shabby attempt? I would not inflict it - save the eagerness I always feel to elicit a reply. Kiss your boy - & accept the unwavering love of yours -- tenderly & truthfully- [Signed] Sallie C.J. Bird