FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK.
June, 1891.
[DEAR MOTHER:]
Your letters are a great delight to me but I think you
are going entirely too quickly. You do not feel it now but
you are simply hurrying through the courses of your long
dinner so rapidly that when dessert comes you will not be up
to it. A day or two's rest and less greed to see many things
would be much more fun I should think, and you will enjoy
those days more to look back to when you wandered around some
little town by yourselves and made discoveries than those you
spent doing what you feel you ought to do. Excuse this
lecture but I know that when I got to Paris I wanted to do
nothing but sit still and read and let "sights" go — You will
soon learn not to duplicate and that one cathedral will answer
for a dozen. And I am disappointed in your mad desire to get
to Edinboro to get letters from home, as though you couldn't
get letters from me every day of your life and as if there
were not enough of you together to keep from getting homesick.
I am ashamed of you. But that is all the scolding I have to
do for I do not know what has given me more pleasure than your
letters and Nora's especially. They tell me the best news in
the world and that is, that you are all getting as much
happiness out of it as I have prayed you would. I may go over
in September myself. But I would only go to London. Now,
then for Home news. I have sold the "Reporter Who Made
Himself King" to
McClure's for $300. to be published in
the
syndicate in August. I have finished "Her First Appearance"
and Gibson is doing the illustrations, three. I got $175. for
it.
I am now at work on a story about Arthur Cumnock,
Harvard's football captain who was the hero of Class Day. It
will come out this week and will match Lieut. Grant's chance.
In July I begin a story called the "Traveller's Tale" which
will be used in the November Harper. That is all I
am
doing.
So far the notices of "Gallegher" have been very good, I
mean the English ones.
I went up to Class Day on Friday and spent the day with
Miss Fairchild and Miss Howells and with Mr. H. for chaperone.
He is getting old and says he never deserved the fuss they
made over him. We had a pretty perfect day although it
threatened rain most of the time. We wandered around from one
spread to another meeting beautifully dressed girls everywhere
and "lions" and celebrities. Then the fight for the roses
around the tree was very interesting and picturesque and arena
like and the best of all was sitting in the broad window seats
of the dormitories with a Girl or two, generally "a" girl and
listening to the glee club sing and watching the lanterns and
the crowds of people as beautiful as Redfern could make them.
Half of Seabright was burnt down last week but not my
half, although the fire destroyed all the stores and
fishermen's houses and stopped only one house away
from Pannachi's, where I will put up. I am very well and
content and look forward to much pleasure this summer at
Seabright and much work. I find I have seldom been so happy
as when working hard and fast as I have been forced to do
these last two weeks and so I will keep it up. Not in such a
way as to hurt me but just enough to keep me happy.
DICK.
