It were, however, ingratitude and vanity in me to set up exclusive ownership of these.

They are the joint products and property of my dear wife and myself.
I do not know just what had befallen if love had failed me, for as far back as I can remember love has been to me the bedrock of all that is worth living for, striving for or possessing in this cross-patch of a world of ours.
I had realized the meaning of it in the beautiful concert of affection between my father and mother, who lived to celebrate their golden wedding.

My wife and I have enjoyed now the like conjugal felicity fifty-four--counted to include two years of betrothal, fifty-six years.
Never was a young fellow more in love than I--never has love been more richly rewarded--yet not without some heartbreaking bereavements.
I met the woman who was to become my wife during the War of Sections--amid its turmoil and peril--and when at its close we were married, at Nashville, Tennessee, all about us was in mourning, the future an adventure.

It was at Chattanooga, the winter of 1862-63, that fate brought us together and riveted our destinies.

She had a fine contralto voice and led the church choir.