Sherborn, Mass.
July 7, 1920.Lady dear,
I was just going to write you for an appointment. If convenient for you I shall come up Sat. July 24th & stay until Monday July 26th. I don't know about trains yet, as I haven't been able to get a train table. I used to be able to get a train to Holyoke about noon. I reached here June 28th & have spent my time cleaning up the house, milking 8 cows A.M. & P.M. & becoming acquainted with the Ford. From 12th to 19th I have a dressmaker. Expect Robert any day. Mother & her attendant are coming some time this month. I hope to get down to a bit of writing this summer. There is a heavy year ahead.
I stopped for 24 hrs. with Miss Young in Newark, N.J. She looks well, hasn't a grey hair & is in the best of spirits. She's evidently got a fine thing at Reed College, & she's just the person for the job. Next week she sails for 6 week's pleasure trip abroad. A wealthy friend in Cincinnati is making Miss Young her guest for an auto trip thro' England & Wales. It has been 10 years since she & I have met, in fact not since that awful spring of 1910. She still has the charm & inspiration for me that she did when I was a student in 19th Century Prose.
I have several little gossips for you, among them a correspondence between Amy Hewes & me this spring. I'll show it you. [sic]
Looks as if we'd have a bit of wetness with Cox, if he's elected, as he has a good chance of being. My views on Prohibition I do not air at home or to my brother. That Valstead act, I believe, is too drastic & was too quickly railroaded this on Coco-cola [sic] money to be a permanency. The reaction will come with light wines & beer. If we could have begun with elimination of highly alcoholic drinks, whiskey, champagne, absinthe & cocktail stuffs & gradually worked down we'd have legislated towards a permanent situation. Beer never makes alcoholics, but perhaps you are high & dry on the shore?
My love to your mother.
Your loving,
Esther