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[[underline]] To Mother, October 18, 1925:[[/underline]] I have just returned from a perfectly glorious walk, for the weather did pan out beautifully and Jim and I sought the woods on the hills. We went across the new bridge, which certainly is most impressive, stretching away and disappearing in the distance since it is built on a long arching effect, being higher in the center than on the ends. We looked away at our hills while we walked across the bridge, and they looked very inviting indeed. We crossed Scotia and came out at Lock 8, where you and I rowed that glorious August day. We crossed the bridge and tarried at the lock a few minutes to watch them put through a fleet of barges. That was picturesque. Then we started up the hill past the substation and into the woods. We finally reached the very top of the ridge and found an open space where we could look out across the valley and far away into the distant Adirondacks and Berkshires. We didn't go any farther; we were perfectly satisfied to stay where we were and enjoy the glorious scenery. You can gain some idea of the coloring of the leaves from those I enclose. I don't think I have ever seen the woods so perfectly beautiful. Here and there among the blazing trees, were the tranquil pines, almost blue- green in contrast to the others. And mixed in among the dark trunks here and there, were tall white birches. It was gorgeous. In the valley below, the river was winding along and was like glass, blue as the sky. What a day! We built a fire and cooked dogs and Heinz beans and ate a dinner fit for kings. About five o'clock, the sun began to get toward the horizon, and we started down through the woods toward the road. The sunset made a blazing sky in the west. We stopped at the electric substation and turned to watch the sunset. It was such a striking picture. Behind and to the right of the steel framework, huge transformers and transmission towers, were woods and the sky above the woods was aflame. The great towers and long looping wires were silhouetted against this glowing sky and to the right were silhouetted the tall pines of the forest. It seemed such a striking contrast to me, typifying the past and the present so wonderfully well. When the glow had subsided, we turned down the hill and went toward town.

[[underline]]To Willie, October 18, 1925[[/underline]]: Behold the emblems of a northern autumn! I gathered these for you this afternoon while out in
the woods with Jim Hollyer. Such beauty, such utter gorgeousness,
I have never seen before! The woods were aflame. We climbed
the ridge on the south side of the lovely Mohawk valley and
found an open spot where we could look across at the distant
hills and still farther into the distant Adirondacks and Berkshires.
The peaks were purple in the hazy distance and finally
toward the dusk, they melted away utterly into the lavender
clouds of the horizon. In the West, the sky turned crimson and
everything was on fire with yellow and gold. I say everything;
everything but the tranquil pines among the other trees of the