Friday, Dec 31, 1886 Still snowing and cold and has snowed a good part of the day. This evening the weather has moderated and a fine mist is falling and freezing. I received a letter from Alice when I drove down to the mail. She had got the box with the pears frozen, the syrup all off the cherries and the honey beginning to ooze out. So much for paying extra for packages by Express. The last night of the year was come and happily finds me full of hopefulness for the future. Indeed I am more content than I ever hoped to be again, all owing to the improved prospects for our worldly affairs. I think the coming year will bring a demand for some of our property and I am hoping much from my venture in the little pictures. I may be disappointed in both but the fact remains that I feel hopeful and happier, it seems to me than at any time since dear Gertrude died. I think of her as the years of her absence go by with an ever increasing love and tenderness. She lives in my memory as the dearest blessing of my blessed life, the loveliest woman I ever saw or ever expect to see and I never lose the hope that we shall meet again. I have painted most of the day over at my studio and sitting there in that silent place once blessed with her presence I have thought of our early married life and pictured her as she seemed in her sunny and happy youth, the embodiment of love and tenderness and womanly sweetness.
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