The final sentence of this letter mailed to Ned Dickinson in late 1885 (THJ) has been torn away; it was associated at some point with a letter to Susan Dickinson (HCL B 24) composed in the early 1880s (Smith and Hart), possibly 1883 (THJ). The damage may have occurred during the editing of Face to Face (1932), since that edition reflects this change. Three, possibly four, sets of pin pricks are clustered around Dickinson's signature on this document, suggesting that the lost sentence may have been reattached sometime later, though by whom is not clear. For a related fragment, see A 249 / 250 (about 1883 [RWF], about 1883 or last decade [THJ]). The fragment is inscribed on a scrap of stationery with several others, all of which appear to have been jotted down by Dickinson at the same time, perhaps in an effort to create a more permanent record of random lines. She may have drawn on this record, or on the letter to Susan Dickinson (HCL B 24), when composing the letter to Ned.

An explanatory note, in black ink, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi's hand, appears at the foot of the manuscript: (We all use the word Aunt.).