290

M. W. Ellsworth.
Frane S. Burton.

Office of
M. W. Ellsworth & Co.
Publishers.
22 Lafayette Avenue.

Elegant Family Bibles
and
Subscription Books.
Correspondents will please give their Address in Each letter,
naming Post Office, County and State.

Detroit, Mich. Apr. 14th 1886

Prof. C. E. Bessey:
Iowa State Agr'l College, Ames, Io.

My dear Friend, I doubt
not for a moment I shall surprise
you by drafting down thus all
suddenly upon you, "Like a thunder-
bolt from a clear sky," but here
I am just the same. For see I have
in a sort kept track of you though
I [do suppose?] you have sometime since
lost sight of me. And I have been pleased
to know of your continued prosperity –
(just what I predicted for you when
we were [?] [?]!).

But I must not be so [?] as to
[??] you this time, dear Professor,