Sherborn, Mass.
Aug. 28, 1918.Lady dear,
I am glad to know you are getting a bit of a rest. There are worse things than taking it alone too.
Why don't you "come across" with that gossip about Miss Dutcher? I think you might. How was Miss B. K. Young looking? I'd give a great deal to see her again.
Your letter, or card, found me laid up from a horse kick. F. has a pair of young grays so frisky that I hope he'll sell them this fall. I was reading the other day when the man called me to hold one while he fixed his stall. I was holding the beast by his halter when he gave a snort, shook his head & stood first on his front feet then on his hind ones. At the first sign of rocking the boat I dropped the halter, but not before he kicked me in the right arm & sent me spinning along the turf. Why the blow didn't break my arm I don't know. There wasn't even the protection of biceps tissue over the spot he struck. As it is aside from a scraped knee & a nasty bruise on my arm there are no other external signs of the adventure. The swelling reaches from my shoulder almost to the elbow & is so hot & painful I have had to keep the arm supported at right angles for comfort.
I've managed to milk night & morning with it, for if father had thought it hurt me he'd have worried himself to death. This new draft takes Augustus. I hope this won't mean mother's return here.
Have a good rest these few weeks, for you'll have a hard winter.
With much love,
EstherPlease return the enclosed sometime.
[Evidently, she never did, as the enclosure is still with the letter. It is a magazine article dated Aug. 24, 1918 from The Literary Digest, on Literature and Drugs. It quotes Jeannette Marks from her essay on drugs and genius printed in the July issue of The Yale Review.]