Aren't you heart-broken over the fire? It seems something cruel and wicked to which I can not be reconciled. Monday I was so completely upset after hearing only the meagre newspaper account that I could scarcely control myself enough to go on with my work. I felt as though I had lost a dear friend. Oh, Nellie, think of our Corridor D and the beautiful trees outside our window! And those poor, poor people who lost all their books and clothes! To-day a letter came from Elizabeth containing some of K's details - think of Miss Sihler with only the clothes on her back - and yet I can't help whimsically which fearful and wonderful costume that was! And Miss Stevens with all her books and notebooks gone! And Abbie how can she ever stand it with all her possessions? Katharine is to be at Miss Eliot's - isn't that rich?I don't want to go back to a lot of new-fangled cottages! I am thankful that we could enjoy Mt Holyoke's "family life" and have a share in "the old home" every brick of which, old fashioned as it was, was dear to our eyes.
But I mustn't indulge in such sad reflections - tho' they have been with me all the week - for I meant only to write a little birthday-note since we can not celebrate together, - yet that of itself is mournful!
Do you know the classic ditty -
"Your little Liza loves you,
Your little Liza loves you,
Loves you in the spring
And in the fall, fall, fall!"Please as you fasten this accompanying remembrance to your umbrella remember,
"Your little Lucy loves you,
Your little Lucy loves you,
Loves you in the sun-shine
And the rain, rain, rain!"Your loving Lucy Fish.
20 West Fourth Street
Jamestown, New York
October 1, 1896.You see I have to allow time for this to be forwarded from Middleboro'.