A Spray of Kentucky Pine

This is a poetry book. According to a long established Custom, the Man, in some way, in private print for the Relative, for the Friend, for the Stranger quietly Celebrates the various Red-Letter Days, of the Dear Lady Here, On the Banks of Wolf Run his Mother! Her full Restoration, to her usual Good Health, is a Source of much Joy, and the cause of much Gratitude. The many Prayers made for her Recovery must have been of much avail before the Great White Throne, of Infinite Mercy! He is also deeply grateful, that the nearness of her Eighty-Fifth Birthday, makes it possible for him, to make an Inscription Two-fold, for the Dead, for the Living for the Dear Poet, for the Beloved Mother! The linking of their names together, under this Spray of Kentucky Pine culled by a hand most loving—is like unto finding the other half of a broken Chord, in some Prelude Elusive: for James Whitcomb Riley, deeply endeared himself, to the Dear Lady Here, and her son were a long while away, on their Reading Tour.