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Rossinièvres, Switzerland,
September 16, 1861.

My dear Mother:

This morning the tops of the mountains which border this narrow little valley are all white with snow which fell yesterday; in the valley it rained all day, but higher it snowed. So I suppose the summer is fairly closed now, and the sparrows must fly southward. However, I have seen the hill tops in Switzerland covered with freshly-fallen snow even in August and the latter part of July.

We hope to be able to remain here another week or ten days, to let little Emily finish her course of tonic baths; but if the weather should become very cold, we shall be obliged to decamp sooner. We have had a very fine summer; at least, the months of August and September, thus far, have been remarkably fine; and yet, we are so high here and so well provided with shade, that we have not suffered from heat, although it has been an unusually hot summer. We have all been very well. I have never seen Mary looking so well as she has done this summer; and if Emily were well, I think we might return home; but we must give her the benefit of another winter in Nice. The baby is picture of health and good-looks, and she is as good as she is good-looking: she has neither teeth nor words, as yet. Johnny is well and is as fond as ever of drawing. I send you a drawing of a bunch of "Johnny-Jump-ups" which he took from Nature, the other day. And he is a remarkably well-behaved little boy. Emily looks very well, having improved, I think, considerably this summer. In short, I am sure you would love your three little grandchildren, on this side the water, for their own sakes.

What distressing accounts we see, in the newspapers, from home. I can't help thinking that the South will get the better of the government in this contest. Let it go! Once the war over, and