[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading]Saturday morning
Dear Mamma:-
We are on the train going from Peterboro to Concord and it isn't eight o'clock yet. We had to get up at 5:30 and I'm not yet awake. There are many leisurely stops so I may be able to write a little before getting to Concord where I shall mail this. We go on to Warren this afternoon and shall probably stay on the top of Mount Moosilauke two or three days. I bought a grey flannel shirt yesterday in Peterboro so as to be warm enough.
We certainly have had a fine trip so far. Marion Howe we left this morning as she goes home today so as to go to Woods Hole on Tuesday. I am so glad she came for I think she had a good time and she has been a good companion.
I have sent you postcards all along so you know where we have been. We have had splendid weather all except Sunday and then as I wrote you we had a bungalow to stay in. In the afternoon it cleared so we went up Mt. Grace. There was one little shower which gave me a chance to try my poncho. That is a fine garment - I don't see how I have lived so long without one! We have eaten on it and slept on it and used it to keep warm with and all sorts of things. On Mount Grace we saw a rainbow which lay wholly against the opposite hill - not up in the sky at all. It was a whole arch too.
On Monday we went on to Richmond, which is a very small town with a lovely outlook. The little Inn was full of "bug-men," for the gypsy moth has gotten in there. The storekeeper was very friendly and told us where to look so we soon found rooms with one woman and meals with another. The house where we roomed was clean and very pretty outside but the beds were about the worst I ever struck! The meals were very good, even to pie for breakfast.
The next day we walked on to Fitzwilliam with some lovely views of Monadnock along the way and lots of mosquitoes, the only time we have been troubled. We didn't have either screens or mosquitoes at Warwick. At Fitzwilliam we stayed at quite a grand Inn, but a nice comfortable one. There are lots of elegant summer homes and many stylish inns in the region around Monadnock anyway. We got our parcel post packages from Mrs. Paige with some clean clothes and got some of
outour others washed. We got our shoes polished too, by a crazy old man who took about an hour at the job.In the afternoon of Wednesday we walked on to the Mountain House where we had a grand time. There were two Bryn Mawr women there who were also tramping around and who have been on Moosilauke several times. They told us a lot about it. There were two elderly men who have been up there at Monadnock all summer for years and they told us about the trails and the mountain. The sunset was a beautiful one, too, and the mountains very clear.
Thursday morning it was pretty cloudy and while we waited to see what the weather was going to do we went over a few of the shorter trails to viewpoints near the house. The wooded paths were beautiful and the big ledges gave views of different sides of the mountain than we saw at the House. We looked right down on Gilmore Pond for one - altogether we saw 22 ponds from the mountain I believe. The weather improved so we started up at 10:30 and had one of the best tramps I've had. The trail up was the same short one we took before, but we went down the other side to Dublin over the fine trail Dr. Parker recommended to me. It was on the top of the open for two or three miles I should judge and the views were fine. We found several flowers too which don't grow down below. The mountain cranberry blossoms swell like arbutus and are pretty and pink. The women we met at the Mountain House had told us of a nice little place to stay in Dublin so we were very comfortable there and at little cost.
Friday, yesterday, we walked around Dublin Lake in the forenoon and went wading in it. There are such charming sandy shores for bathing and I never saw clearer water. The houses are magnificent and the roads are like those in city parks. In the afternoon we got our landlady's brother to take us to Peterboro in his auto as the road is a constant procession of autos and therefore no good for walking. In Peterboro our lodging place wasn't much good and I guess it cost about as much as the good hotel would have, but on the whole we have been very fortunate.
We are just about to Concord now, so I'll stop. I wrote Miss Smith the address through
SuTuesday as Warren, N.H. I'll write again from there. Hope you are all right and have had no hotter weather than we have.Love to you & Miss Smith
Abby