Templeton, Oct. 22, 1902.
Dear Lucy,
I will surprise you by writing a few lines, but it will be about your gymnasium suit. The only pattern I find in the Delineator is like the picture I will send you. Is that the way they are made there? I think it is the best way and probably the way they are always made but I did not know so wished your opinion. I wish you would find out all about them and let me know at once. Go to Holyoke if you can or where they furnish them and find how much one will cost ready made - look well to the material and the making.
Carrie went to Boston this morning and if she gets a suit or the material for one I must let her know this week as she has planned to stay only a week. Tell just what you want and we will do the best we can - or perhaps you can get one there just as well and cheap as we can, with the advantage of being able to try it on to see if it is all right.
Will you send the length of your walking suit I am trying to fix that denim skirt and don't want to get it too long, if that is the dress you will wear it with. You had better send your length from your waist to a little below the knee where the trousers of a gym. suit will come.
I have been putting up grape juice today - we have a lot of grapes and seckel pears. I wish you was here to help eat. Do you have all the fruit you want? You can buy baskets of grapes for very little and they would keep for several days (if they had a chance) in your room. Do your blankets keep you warm enough, for if they are not going to be enough we must look out for something more. We are all well. Uncle Isaac has been picking apples I must close or this will not get into the office.
Much love,
Ellen, otherwise Mama -
I forgot it was not Carrie.
[On a separate sheet:]
Born during the equinoctal.
Had bad cold first week and squalled like other babies. First tooth at 11 months.
Walked when a little more than a year - talked more plainly at two than now.
Behaved well when christined. [sic] Was kept shut in sitting, and acted like "Sam Hill" when you were left out. How you saw either a snake or a skunk. How I was called to defend you from a fish worm - how you was going to move your play-house on account of the caterpillar - How you and Alice treated the kittens. How you fell on the pumpkin an[d] cracked your collar bone - how you nearly fell in the well - How you stole H- Saunder's cap at church - how you recited pieces at church, on all occasions. How Fred kissed you at school and made you cry. How Mason came home from the party with you - How you took care of the chickens - How you told Carrie "you did act like the possessed". how you picked berries and dreamed of worms - describe your graduation dress - tell all the new things you had to go to college - tell you had a red-headed Mother and Aunt - Tell about Aunt Augusta - we can
If you fill all those things and put in the rest of the things you can remember I think it will be very entertaining. Please write what success you have with it. We can send more hints if you wish.
How you ran out on the lawn in your night dress and what you did. How you and Jame turned somersets out in front of the house - How the E- T-n steamer scared you. How you and Alice ran from the Indians. How you & Annie fell out - How Fred stopped writing -