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Thinking he was joking, Tid told him to go ahead. Whereupon, he vaulted over the rail. He immediately grabbed the wisteria vine on the wall. It must have held for an instant, breaking his fall, but then it tore away and he dropped into the rose bushes. He was not injured, fortunately. Far from sympathizing with the poor fellow, Tid could scarcely control her laughter. "He looked so funny, dangling in the Wisteria," she said.

I appropriated the topmost room for a studio. It was little more than an attic, although the walls were beautifully panelled. I hid the trunks and boxes behind a screen and painted the floor lilac and the window frames turquoise blue. How to find a loom. I heard that a woman in Berkeley had one for sale and I bought it for $50. With her help, it was assembled in the attic. (I still have that loom in my studio in New York.) Now I could go to work in earnest.

These were among the happiest years of my life.