Atlanta, Sept 19th 1859

My Ever Dear Auntie,

You have no doubt thought very strangely of my protracted silence. I received a letter from you before cousins death. I intended to write to you immediately, but I had such a quantity of sewing that I was compelled to do that, really I have no time for anything else. I received your letter written since I left home. Mother sent it to me. I was very glad to hear from you that you were all in your usual health - I was very unwell when I received your letter, I had taken cold & it settled on my lungs & I was coughing a good deal & I felt very feeble every way, but I am very thankful to say that my health has improved very much since I came here & became acclimated. The atmosphere is so much colder here than at home that at first I was shivering and forced to wrap up to keep warm, but I have commenced cold baths & am taking cod liver oil & I feel like a new person. Tell auntie Margerite to get some and try it. The object of the oil is to build up & strengthen the body & lungs by increasing the flesh. I know by actual experience and observation that it will do good. Foe? is very well she is growing very fast and has taken a notion to learn her letters.

I am so glad that auntie was prevailed upon at last to return to Carolina. I know it was a sorrow as well as a great pleasure to meet again with her friends, but I think it will be a benefit to you all to take over your sad affliction & receive from each other sympathy & love. Cousin was as good a girl as I ever knew & I loved her tenderly, & I know she was very much attached to me. It was a great privation that I could not have been with her more than I was, but she is now another link added to the many which connect us to that home above, where no bereavements enter, no sorrow, no death, and we must feel comforted when we are taught by God that our loss is her eternal gain. I have not a doubt of her safety, she was good & pure & in her last hours felt that her Savior was near. Aunty when I witness the peaceful, happy, death of a friend I feel so humbled and have my trust and faith so brightened & strengthened that I have often thought that it would be a good time to die while these good influences were filling my soul. But I go out into the world, neglect this self examination & soon become cold & almost indifferent how true is it that narrow is the way & few that find it or after they find it care to walk in it. Each day I live I come nearer the conviction that it is next to impossible to live in connection with the world & be a christian - To keep our garments pure & unsoiled, to have our hearts filled with love to God & charity towards man, in a word to love our neighbors as ourselves. I know when I examine my heart I fall very far short of what a bible Christian should be. I want you to remember me dear auntie when you kneel, pray that I may be an humble Christian. It seems to me auntie that if any ones prayers are heard it will be yours.

I had letters from home last thursday all were well. Mrs. Gunters family also. Uncle & Charles had left to find them a new home. I do hope they will not be far from us. It is such a pleasure to have them near us, though we met but seldom. Ma's health is very good. We were so anxious for her & Annie to go to Carolina this summer, but she could not be persuaded to go. She says she has been a stranger to a home of her own so long that she must feel secure in the possession before she leaves it again. She partly promised to go next year but the future is not ours. I have never answered dear cousin Mary's letter yet. Tell her that it is not because my love & esteem for her have diminished, no I feel just as warm affections for her as though we had but parted yesterday. I will write soon. This day a year ago I was among you. How I wish I was there today. To talk & enjoy your talking - to ride & walk & above all to be weighed by my sober bachelor uncle. I dare say he has forgotten all about weighing hooped girls. For none of you care to let people know how much you do weigh. I was going to say that to know how much I weigh was my weak points; but I have so many that I guess I had better leave my friends the pleasure of noting my weakest. Dear Grandma. You have not forgotten me. I think often of the times she has laid her withered hands on me & blessed me. Give her my very best love. I will try to write oftener to her. Give my love to Uncle Duncan, aunt Margerite, Mrs Gunter & Mrs. Malloy & her family. All the Middletons, Cousin Jennet, Cousin Sarah & Margerite. Cousin Daniels family. Cousin Ann Eliza Stewart & family. I would be glad to see them all.

Now auntie forgive me for neglecting you so long & please write soon & accept for your self & Cousin Mary unchanging affection from niece & friend.

W.P.C. ?
or H.P.C.
Surname is probably Colquhoun