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V

light of one sickly candle and just stared at each other. We could'nt ask anyone anything for we did'nt know how and we could'nt understand when they told us any thing. You may just believe we were a little homesick. I thought I would give about all my old [[shows?]] if I was sitting with you on the piazza at the Maples but that did'nt help the matter. Well the next morning it was the same thing over again; we did'nt know where to go to get anything to eat and did'nt care whether school kept or not. The room we had would give anyone the night mare; there were two beds like this. [[image - sketch of beds]] on one side of the room, a little nasty wash stand on one other, one sickly looking chair an mantle piece with a dizzy looking cracked mirror and two windows whos only office seemed to be to let all the cold in and then [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] hold it there. No fire and two towels that looked as if they had washed the floor with them for the last century. To add to the pleasure of the occasion we both had bad colds that we caught crossing the English Channel in a rain storm and all together we were very happy. Oh we were lively. Oh yes we were very lively. One would say "I wonder where we can get something to eat. The other would say I wish some of the boys were here. Then we would look at each other for a half hour in silence. Finally we would muster up 

VI

courage enough to go out and brave the difficulties of the French language once more.

Finally a young Englishman at the hotel came to our rescue, he spoke french like a native so we relied on him in the morning and at night but in the middle of the day we were as badly off as ever. Well one evening he and a friend were talking about leaving the hotel and spoke about this place and said there were some Americans here, so the very next day we came up to see the place. The funniest part of it was that when we got here we did not know how to ask to see the rooms, in fact we were all at sea, but madame came to our rescue and asked if we desired a pencion, which I suppose is french for boarding house and we said we". Then she said Americaine? we said "we" so she ran of and got Miss Aldrich and she translated for us. So we engaged passage for a month as it were and here we are. It is very pleasant and homelike here, the food is good and plain and plenty of it and that is a great deal here. 

Madame is going to have another fête next Wednesday, she is going to have about thirty people and is going to have a larger [[time?]], including music, supper &c. She is always getting up some racket or other for the amusement of her boarders; she is very kind on that score but I guess she enjoys them herself a little and that may have something to do with it.