Sent with a Copy of “Red Letter Days Abroad”

Book of my youth, I send thee to a friend Met, comprehended, loved, alas! too late,— Too near the sad, inevitable end Decreed by life's inexorable fate; Yet though an ocean's billows roll between, And two great continents our paths divide, The unseen subtly triumphs o'er the seen, We walk in spirit, ever side by side; He on the stately Mississippi's shore, I 'mid the snow and roses of Tyrol, But in my heart he dwells forevermore,— Belovèd friend, and double of my soul.