Spring Valley, Rockland Co. N. Y.
24th April 1912.My dear Frances:
I have your letter of last Sunday (21st) and am of course very glad to know you are feeling fit and that you made good in the math. and latin quizzes and chemestry [sic] topic, you know that I love good work of any sort, and to know that you keep your end up and stand well in your classes as well as in th[e] field is a source of great pride and pleasure to me, my one regret is that I can't be of more service to you in the way I would like to be, but the grass is very short in my pasture just now, I am trying to make it grow and hope the summer will bring a change in which you no doubt join issue with your Daddy.
We are all well here, I believe the family wrote you some sort of a combination screed last night so you will have all the home gossip from them, Uncle Charley S. has been on the mend for the past week but strength comes back to him very slowly, Love says he will have him in condition to go down to the Highlands about the usual time, May 1st to 10th, his nurse and all at 131 think the improvement very marked, whether he will ever be able to go back to business is a question non'e [sic] can answer.
Uncle Bob is very weak and is I believe in bed most of the time, he has several good days and then a bad one with severe coughing spells which set him back again, we don't know much about it and I don't believe any one does we can only wait and hope he will recover, Ormond, for the past few days has been gaining and all now think he will get well, but he has had a close call.
There is no prospect in sight for me, either in the way of a trade for the 12th street house or in finding a place suitable for the chickens that I can rent, they are doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances, I hope I may be able to go on with the business, I am trying all I can to make things move but molasses in winter time flows a rapid stream compared to the tide of my affairs just now, the hodoo [sic] still holds spite of all I can do but I'll break the spell one day or die trying.
You are anxious no doubt to come to my views on the canoeing proposition, and I want you to understand that I will not interfere with the college rules or place myself in conflict with the attitude of the Dean any more than I will deny you any reasonable pleasure or sport just because there happens to be some danger connected with it, I can't keep you always under my wing or be on hand to lend you a helping one or a bit of counsell [sic], there is danger in the use of any piece of mechanism and on every side of us in our complex modern life and unfortunately canoes are not fool proof any more than are mowing machines, basket ball games or steam ships and the world has recently had a terrible example of what neglect of proper precaution and carelessness costs, I have neither inclination, time or money to have you planted in Green Wood just now, and there is danger in a canoe just as there is on a train or in a sail-boat, you have got to have always the sub-conscious
[Unfortunately the rest of the letter is missing. The author is probably Frances' father, as the tone of the letter is much like his other letters to her. The disaster hinted at in the last paragraph is probably the sinking of the Titanic nine days earlier.]