My dear Nell,Saturday I went up to Chautauqua to say goodbye to the Ransoms. I've had such good times with Caroline ever since the first of May that I hated most dreadfully to have her go. Miss R was sweeter than peaches to me but it didn't go down as it once would have.
IN the afternoon Sue, Lena & I crossed the Lake, got a horse & carriage and had a beauteous drive. The day was simply perfect. We drove to the hill from which both Lake Erie & Lake Chautauqua are visible then back by another road which was new to us and so seemed very delightful. Then we crossed back to Chautauqua and had supper. That made us miss all but the last boat, so it was 10.30 before I reached home nearly stiff from the cold Lake wind. Ever since I've sneezed and snuffled and wept with a wretched cold in my head.
Nevertheless I went up the Lake again yesterday to show some distant cousins from Minnesota the sights. The Lake is always at its prettiest when summer begins to turn into fall and besides I feel that I must make the most of this last week of freedom.
This really is a prompter reply than you deserve and than you would get, were it not for the fact that school does begin next week and I always like to get as many letters as possible answered before school begins. Then besides I want to thank you for the topics. I'll be very choice, of them. I shouldn't have used them, if I had had them before because until recently I've had too much housework to do to allow time or energy for studying. Perhaps it is because I enjoy books more than brooms that I feel ready for school again. At any rate I'm not dreading it at all. And then we are all curious about the new principal. I am glad you are to have a longer vacation than you expected and hope you are not as thin as you were in June. Have you a boarding place yet?
Thank you for telling me about your visit to Lexington. Reddy herself wrote me a few visit [sic] and quite owned up to my charge that it was only being engaged that ailed her. She spoke favorably of the Maine plan and yet I don't believe we can count on her for that or any thing else.
To have actually seen Genevieve! How is Mollie? I should so like to see her.
Have you heard that the Family Robin has come to life? Mollie kept it through May and Jessie through June & July but it went flying from the Shearers via Packard and L. F. B. to "the Stevenses". Then I've had a note from Mary saying she had sent it on to Margaret and Margaret is to send it back to Abbie for revision of addresses so you ought to get it before many moons.
The '96 bird seems hopelessly lost or else somebody killed it & doesn't dare own up to it. At any rate Abbie is going to start a new one right away.
Oh, Caroline frequently spoke about Miss R's utter fatigue & her need of absolute quiet & rest & her dislike of helter skelter things. Besides there were mere hints of things that lose their meaning in the repeating all of which made me wonder again why she ever went into the thing. Miss Smith & Miss Purington (the dears!) came to Chantauqua for one Sunday & I went up to play "chaperone" & of course had a dead elegant time - every thing my own way & not a soul to cut me out! Though to tell the truth I did wish for you to share the fun with because then Abbie & Elizabeth's yarn about the pictures would fade into insignificance. Well, as I started to remark they're on to Miss R's ways and were very outspoken in their sympathy for us. I can't get over their being so good as to come. I hope they felt paid.
I am glad your father is better and your mother too. It will be so much cozier for you to go back.
Abbie wrote me about the day you were at Wood's Hole. She enjoyed seeing you so much. And she had a most gay & festive time in Fall River & Norwich. I am worried over the prominent part men play in Abbie's letters this summer.
I had a postal from Mattie written from Switzerland not long ago. Only fancy she's been taking ten mile tramps!
I went down to Buffalo last week to the G.A.R. encampment and while there went on to the Falls. Oh, Nell come and see me and we'll go to the Falls and when we take that wonderful ride down the Gorge and for eight miles are fairly in the midst of the terrific struggle between the river and rocks, you will no longer wonder that I was disappointed in Plymouth Bay. We crossed the river at Lewiston and came back on the Canadian side. The electric road on that side skirts the top of the bluffs and so gives a very different view. It is all very wonderful & awe-inspiring.
And that G.A.R. parade was another wonderful sight. To the end of my days I shall carry the vivid remembrance of a perfect day and throngs of on-lookers and two thousand children dressed in red, white, & blue singing patriotic songs and a seemingly endless procession of crack bands, gay banners, bullet-riddled flags and gray-haired men of all sorts & conditions straightening their bent backs and stepping off with their former briskness. It was grand.
All good luck to you my dear.
Your loving Lucy.
August 31, 1897