But your letters how they cheer me!  I have not been so well for a week & you may expect that I would naturally turn my thoughts homeward to my Dear family & kind friends.  Your letters were Nos 18 & 19.  They were full & plump & so full of kindness & true wifelike and womanly love.  I also received the papers two Tribunes & two Registers together with Marions & the stamps also you may if convenient send 1 or 2 in each letter although I will not need any more for 2 months from this time, I was much amused at your graphic account of Henry Herrs encounter with the Ethiopian.  Now with regard to contrabands I would try all kinds of white men first & if I could do no better I might employ a darky  I should consider that I had a perfect right to although it might or would not suit my taste.  You may think me hard on the darkey I think not I am willing to have a few of them in the north & let those whose tastes are congenial to their natures employ them until the proper time when I think they will mostly migrate southward, Let birds of a feather flock together is my doctrine & I think it is sound
