Viewing page 27 of 96

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

- 27 -

doilies that I made.

In the back yard, Mother lies in a hammock, the topes stretching between two fruit trees.  The photograph must have been taken on a Sunday or a holiday.  Mother is wearing a dark silk skirt and a White shirtwaist with tucks and a high collar, the "choker" that was fashionable then.  Father's coat is long and formal-looking and his expression suggests that this may have been one of the occasions when Mother had bullied him into going to church.  Standing between them and taller than her brothers is "Long Doe," smiling toward the camera.

Nearby is the big tent my father set up for us.  We slept in it on summer nights, pretending to be camping in the mountain or beside the Russian River.  Billy has his arm around our dog, Bird, a huge red-coated Irish setter who retrieved ducks on the hunting expeditions.  Bird was a lordly dog, proud and possessive, and you can see that he considers everything around him -- the house, the big white barn, the trees and flowers, and especially the family -- as his