I recdreceived a magazine (the Galaxy)1 from you yesterday, which I have been peeping in a little to day, but the day has been so beautiful & the charm of the open air so great that I could not long keep my eyes on the printed page. The season is at last fairly in for it, and the fruit trees are all getting in bloom. My bees are working like beavers & there is a stream of golden thighs pouring into the hive all the time. I can do almost anything with them & they wont sting me. Yesterday I turned a hive up & pruned it, that is cut out a lot of old dirty comb; the little fellows were badly frightened & came pouring out, in great consternation, but did not offer to sting me. I am loc.01124.002_large.jpg This page only going to transfer a swarm in a day or two to a new style of hive. I spend all my time at work about the place & like it much. I run over to W. to look after bank matters for a day or two then back here. The house is being plastered & will be finished during the summer. The wrens & robins & phoebe birds have already taken possession of various nooks of it, & if they are allowed to go on with their building I must stop mine. During that snow storm the last of april the Hermit thrush took refuge in it. We are surrounded with birds here & they are a great comfort & delight to me.
Your room is ready for you & your breakfast plate warmed. When will you come? I know the change would do you good & your presence would certainly do us good. We are counting on your coming & do not disappoint us. I will meet you in N.Y. if you will tell me when. Let us hear from you soon. Ursula2 sends love.
As Ever John BurroughsCorrespondent:
The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).