Livy darling, Six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life & won you,1explanatory note & thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by brin sending you into the world. Every day we live together adds to the security of my confidence that we can never any more wish to be separated than we can imagine a regret that we were ever joined. You are dearer to me todayⒶemendation, my child, than your were upon this l the last anniversary of this birth-day; you were dearer then than you were a year before—you have grown more & more dear from the first of those anniversasriesⒶemendation, & I do not doubt, that, if a this precious progression will continue on to the end—that is, if my strong but sluggishly demonstrative love has not already reached its limitⒶemendation & perfection.

Let us look forward to the coming anniversaries, with their age & their gray hairs without fear & without depression, trusting & believing that the love we bear each other will be sufficient to make them blessed.

So, with abounding affection for you & our babies, I hail this day that brings you the matronly grace & dignity of three decades!