A 880: etext transcription

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.