[The address where the letter was sent is consistent with 1918, but the postmark's year is not visible. (The other possibility was 1912, but her attendant was Miss Dean back then, not Miss Safford.) The day in the postmark is a single digit in Sept, and the letter indicates it was written on a Sunday, so my guess is that it was written on Sep 8, 1918.]Sunday night
Dear Mamma:-
I'm writing in the parlor, and people are trying to sing hymns, but there's no one who sings soprano, and so it doesn't go very well.
I'm sorry you've had a sick time. I was glad to have Miss Safford's message today that you are getting on well. I presume it's like that little spell you had last year just before Miss Safford came. I remember you had been feeling so poorly the
sameday Walter and his family came that I was afraid you'd be all tired out. I hope you are going to get on as well as you did then, for as I remember you were nearly well in a few days. If you want me to come, be sure to have Miss Safford telegraph me and I'll start right along. I should have started tomorrow morning but for her telegram today that it was not necessary. I shall be back before many days anyway, and by then you'll be about as usual we'll hope.
I haven't gotten on writing very well because it seemed best to talk and sing with the folks. The people here are very pleasant - but they can't sing very well! There is one fine musician who plays beautifully. She has a room over in the cottage and was not over tonight, which was a pity for we needed some real music. I have heard her play twice and enjoyed it very much indeed.
And I've been up Mount Washington again! There were three people besides me. No one of us had ever seen the others before. Two men, one a boy from Salem, one a Providence librarian; two women, one an English woman who has been waiting on table and me. We walked up through the ravine I have wanted to go up for years and had about two hours on top. The ravine was steep but the trail is much used and was perfectly clear all the way. The view was fine - and so different from any I have ever had - with clouds in a great sea below the top all over west of the mountain, and the rest of the view was perfectly clear, row after row - as far as Katahdin in Maine, down to Winnepesaukee [sic], and way beyond. I was so glad to see that sea of clouds, with sunlight gleaming on top of it. We walked down the carriage road and could see Shelburne very plainly. An auto took us to the place where we left the road in the morning and met us at night. We walked about 12 or 13 miles and weren't tired, any of us. On the way home we found a deer right out in the road. But I was glad to get up on the mountain again. It seemed as if I couldn't be so near and miss it - and yet I didn't seem to find anyone to do things with. A good many people are just coming up, for the tramping. There are far more men than women here now!
But it's quite late now and I'll be going to bed.
Love to Miss Safford, and much to you - I hope you'll get stronger every day -