Letter from John Muir to William Trout, 1904 Aug 10.

Martinez, CaliforniaAug. 10, 1904.William Trout.Dear old friend:Your kind letter of Aug. 2d came yesterday laden with Meaford memories & auld lang syne in general, and with it came the draft that has given you so much trouble. This closing a transaction 40 years old, illustrating moral integrity & patience of a kind far from common in financial annals.The news of your coming to visit me is delightful. I have many visitors & thousands of friends, but those of the old days have for me an immortal charm wanting in others however high & honorable & flattering.Often & often I look 2longingly back into that blessed old Hollow among the hemlocks hoping to revisit it, & I believe I shall yet. Indeed I feel quite sentimental about it, it was so full of trees & mosses & liverworts & wild life of so many kinds, & its far reaching associations I could almost sing with Johnnie Boyce O! how I love the sawmill ! I remember nearly all of that immortal poem. In the last verse mechanics & religion were curiously mixed, & both sense & rhyme went a trifle wrong, faith not uncommon in older poets. Here it is It was God who made the sawmillThat stands beside the streamI hope to go to Him when I dieAnd in his kingdom reign But if I allow myself to wander 3into these old days this letter will spread far & wide like a Wisconsin prairie.When you come to California come direct to my house & bring Charlie Jay with you. Muir station on the Santa Fe railroad is on the side of our ranch & within an hour & a half of San Francisco. There are 2 morning & 2 evening trains to & from the city, so you can go & come to & from the meetings in the city, you refer to in your letter, every day. The first train from our station reaches San Francisco about 8. 30, A.M. - time enough for any sort of meeting - Let me know as soon as you decide the time of your visit so that I will be sure to be at home.With kindest regards to Charlie & all your family I am ever faithfully yours John Muir[in margin: I send herewith some old clippings I discovered lately which may amuse you or the children