Branchville, August 2, 1883

John Ferguson Weir, tending the farm, to his brother, Julian Alden Weir, abroad on his honeymoon:

I tinker about the premises and hold the reins over the work which is needful.  Your crops are doing finely. The barn is full of hay, and the potatoes and corn are in fine shape.  My dear fellow, may your “corn and wine and oil increase”… We often speak of you as we sit on the pleasant porch in the evening twilight.  I imagine you and Anna, seated in your two armchairs, sitting in these twilights in future summers.  I advise you to hang on to this place, old boy; a “lonesome lodge” which is a pleasant place of retreat in storm and drought—is no bad thing to have—for an artist—keep it trim and untrammeled and you will find it a haven of refuge.