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15

things. And so I hope to know him better. Of course, he brings the broadening influence to me that any educated foreigner would bring. 

[[underlined]] Erickson [[/underlined]] is the head of the motor test, a young man about 30 I should say, with a long jaw and a kind way. He doesn't say much but he's nice, I should say.

[[underlined]] Herrick [[/underlined]] is the head of the special motor test. I have only seen him so I can't tell much about him. He makes me think of Madame Nikiforoff for his upper front teeth are a trifle prominent like hers, making the upper lip stand open a trifle revealing a tiny glimpse of whiteness beneath. 

Of course, I am frighfully ignorant regarding motors, stands, hookups, etc. but I shall not be long in learning all about them. I found out what it means to sand brushes, and was pleasantly disappointed; it wasn't half as bad as I'd imagined. I found out how a pump-back is connected up. Oh, I learned a bit and I know that before I'm through, I shall have acquired a lot of valuable knowledge and experience. Oh, yes, I learned the gentle and excessively filthy job of stuffing bearing boxes. The real dirt at last! This morning, as I realized that I actually was [[underlined]] here [[/underlined]] in Erie in the place I'd dreamed of coming to, starting the work I have dreamed of doing, and meeting more interesting people from everywhere, I was so thrilled that I just overflowed with exuberence, and I knew that to those that try to play the game, life is good. I still can scarcely believe that I actially am here; it really seems that it can't be so; it must be a dream. And so I know that Life is good if one really wants to make it so. Oh, it [[underlined]] is [[/underlined]] good! We read books for romance, we long for it, we envy those who afar off somewhere we imagine have it, that strange intangible, unattainable (so we think) something, romance, the uncommonplace, that which appeals to our imaginations. And if we only knew it is [[underlined]] here [[/underlined]], it is [[underlined]] now [[/underlined]], we are living it every day. Isn't all this experience, physical, mental, spiritual, of mine as great as any romance ever written? Why, by Jove, I think I could write a book, a dozen books, about the things that have happened to me and there would be romance aplenty in them. Romance is mine, now, always!

Erie, Pa.,
Wednesday, January 13, 1926.

Before I left Schenectady, Roberts told me to look up an English friend of his out here named Walsh. This morning I saw this very Walsh walk onto the test floor. I knew he was Walsh the moment I saw him for he was most typically English-looking. I'd seen him in Schenectady occasionally and had noticed him because of his English look and his handsomeness. For he is handsome if ever man was: dark, wavy hair, dark eyebrows and lashes, gray