It read as follows:--
"My dear little Earnest,--Long before your eyes will rest
upon these lines, the hand that traces them will have mouldered
into dust. The contents of this package with my prayerful blessing,
is all I have to leave you. As I write these lines you are playing
about my room a happy, innocent child. Would that my knowledge
could extend into the future, that I might know what manner of
youth you will be, when this letter is placed in your hands. But I
fear that I am wrong in thus wishing to know the future which a
kind Providence has mercifully hidden from us. It is my anxiety for
you alone that prompts the desire. I leave a request that this
letter be not placed in your hands till you shall have attained the
age of fourteen years. For should your life be spared to that
period, you will then be capable of reflection. It is my earnest
prayer, that you should grow up a good and dutiful boy, and by so
doing, reward Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey for the care and instruction,
which, I feel confident they will bestow upon you. But, O! my son,
should it be otherwise, and you have been led astray by evil
companions, I beseech you, my child, to pause and think.
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