Charles Dudley Warner is charmed with the poem for its own felicitous sake; and so indeed am I, but more because it has drawn the sting of my fiftieth year; taken away the pain of it, the grief of it, the somehow shame of it, and made me glad and proud it happened.

With reverence and affection,
                         Sincerely yours,
                                   S. L. Clemens.

Holmes wrote with his own hand:  “Did Miss Gilder tell you I had twenty-three letters spread out for answer when her suggestion came about your anniversary?  I stopped my correspondence and made my letters wait until the lines were done.”