This fragment is one of a small number of apparently autobiographical texts found
among Dickinson's late papers after her death. It may have been destined for
incorporation into a longer composition, possibly a letter, or an extended
autobiographical meditation either never composed or long since lost. Dickinson
composed a variant for the opening "We" ("he") but did not alter the rest of the
text to be consistent with the proposed change. The adoption of the variant
reading might well remove the fragment from the space of autobiography. Traces of
an unidentified handwriting appear along the top edge of the reverse side of the
first fragment.