“DEAR BYERS:--I feel easier on your account, since you tell me that you find the business in which you were about to embark, overdone. Nearly all the calamities which have overtaken families in America, can be traced to the credit system, which necessarily prevails. I had enough experience in it to put me on my guard, and I am firm in my faith in Shakespeare’s ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be.’ And the consequence is that to-day I owe no man a cent, and have no incidental obligations as indorser or bondsman. All my children know this, and while I give them liberally of what I have, they never dream of asking me to borrow or indorse. “There is a great deal of wisdom in Dickens’ character of Micawber. ‘Income, £100; expenses, £99.19.6--result, happiness. Income, £100; expenses, £101.4.3--result, misery.’ I quote from memory. “If you and Mrs. Byers will be content with what you have, and live within your income, whether $1,800 or $6,000, your days will be long in the land of the living. Now, surely, even in Des Moines, you can supplement your income by the sale of occasional articles from your pen, which will add to your frugal fund most of the luxuries of life. “In any and every event, I beg you will keep me advised of your progress, so long as I travel in this world of woe and mystery. “Mrs. Sherman is now back from her visit to our married children at the East and I think we shall remain unchanged all winter. I have numerous calls, but generally answer that I am entitled to rest and mean to claim it. “My best compliments to your good wife and son. “Your friend, W. T. SHERMAN.” CHAPTER XXVIII 1886 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ENGAGES ME TO EDIT SEVERAL CHAPTERS OF THE SHERMAN CORRESPONDENCE--SHERMAN WRITES AS TO MAGAZINES AND HIS BOOK--THE GENERAL INVITES ME TO COME AND STAY AT HIS HOME IN ST. LOUIS--HE OFFERS ME THE USE OF ALL HIS PAPERS-- I PUBLISH ALSO IN THE REVIEW A PROSE NARRATIVE OF THE MARCH TO THE SEA--MRS. SHERMAN READS IT TO THE GENERAL--BUFFALO BILL--GENERAL GIVES ME HIS ARMY BADGE--NIGHTS IN SHERMAN’S OFFICE--CONVERSATIONS WITH HIM--LIFE IN THE SHERMAN HOME--THE GENERAL’S COMPLETE RECONCILIATION WITH HIS SON “TOM”--INTERESTING LETTERS FROM SHERMAN AS TO MAGAZINES--HIS FORTHCOMING BOOK--FARMS AND TAXES--WAR HISTORIES--GRANT’S BOOK--NEWSPAPERS--CHRISTMAS LETTER. The interval between my resignation at Rome and my reappointment as Consul General for Switzerland was spent in my home in Iowa. Early in 1886, the North American Review asked me to prepare and edit a series of General Sherman’s letters for the magazine. I received an interesting letter from the General about the tempting offers made to him by the magazines. They make offers of that kind to one man in a million, and only one man in a million could decline them. He mentions his forthcoming book. “WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 3, 1886.