She said you were twice the man Herbert Kennedy was, and as soon as I found I could talk to her about you, I began going there and staying as long as I could, just to talk and to play with her baby.
"Her husband was a splendid young fellow, and I grew very fond of him.
I knew she had told him, because he suddenly began talking to me in the kindest way, and everything he said seemed to be what I most wanted to hear.

I got along fairly well until hints of spring began to come, and then I would wonder about my hedge, and my gold garden, and if the ice was off the lake, and about my boat and horse, and I wanted my room, and oh, David, most of all I wanted you! Just you! Not because you could give me anything to compare in richness with what they could, not because this home was the best I'd ever known except theirs, not for any reason at all only just that I wanted to see your face, hear your voice, and have you pick me up and take me in your arms when I was tired.

That was when I almost quit writing.

I couldn't say what I wanted to, and I wouldn't write trivial things, so I went on day after day just groping." "And you killed me alive," said the Harvester.
"I was afraid of that, but I couldn't write.

I just couldn't! It was ten days ago that I thought of the bluebird's coming this year and what it would mean to you, and THAT killed me, Man! It just hurt my heart until it ached, to know that you were out here alone; and that night I couldn't sleep, because I was thinking of you, and it came to me that if I had your lips then I could give you a much, much better kiss than the last, and when it was light I wrote that line.
"Nearly a week later I got your answer early in the morning, and it almost drove me wild.